ABSTRACT
In northern and central Italy, there occurred in the fourteenth century an expansion of city-states into territorial republics or principalities. This chapter argues, with reference to the Tuscan evidence from the first three decades of this period, that this development can be attributed to a combination of military and economic factors associated with changes which took place in the conduct of war, particularly between 1313 and 1328. The ensuing campaign, which culminated in the battle of Altopascio the following September, revealed not only how new tactical devices were changing the nature of war at this period, but how it was coming to be governed as much by financial and political exigencies as military ones. The characteristic features of the Quattrocento political situation can, therefore, be traced back to a process of change which began at the beginning of the previous century and which was due fundamentally to military causes.
