The history of the trebuchete.
     The first sortment of any cannon was probally a sling shot. The sling shot is made of a peice of clothe that a stone would sit in or a looped peice of rope. The looped strap allowed the stone to go alot further because instead of just slinging the stone out of a peice of cloth you would set a stone in the loop and whirl it around and then sling it.
     Soon after the sling, the catipult was invented(by the greeks.)The catipult could launch anything further then any man or a slingshot.
     The trebuchete is very young compared to the catipult. Other simple machines such as the mangonel and ballistia are much older. For example, the ballista- a type of catipult built like an extreamly large crossbow, was first reported near Syracus, Italy, around 400BC. The mongol was being used by the Romens around the first century, AD. the trebuchete had not been discovered until the second century, AD. It was being used by the chinese(possibly the first time it had ever been used.)
     The trebuchete, mangonel, and ballistia are similar because the are all catipults- machines that through items. They are difrent because of the way the force of the projectible is achieved. The mangonel and the ballista's energy is realised by a twisted cord that is let loose. The trebuchete gets its force frome gravity with a heavy wheghit, which is then realeced. 
     Resurch indicates that the first trebuchet were used in China and places near China around 2000 years ago. These simple machines becam popualr as seig( attacks) and defens wepons. They made there way to through many cultures, moveing frome China to the Avars- a nomidic (moving) Mongolian people to the Byzantine Empire.Though focused around Turkey and the Balkines, the Byzantine Empire had connectionds with Europe, that is probaly how the Trebuchete made its way to Europe. By now every one should know that in 1216, Prince Louis of France used the trebuchete to attack Dover Castle in a fight over the English thrown( if you dont then maybe you should have a talk with Mr. ritter(the world history teacher.)) Indeed it was the french who helped improved the trebucheteto make it the seige machine of choice in the middle ages.It was these improvements that helped to increase projectile range and accuracy in the trebuchet.   It became so reliable that trebuchets were still being used after the introduction of cannons.  
     However, the trebuchets were most well known in medieval times.  These were the times of the castles for fortifications.  These machines were well suited for attacking castles: they could be set up at a safe distance from archers on the castle walls; they could be moved to sections of the walls that had weakened, and they could throw almost anything over the walls and into the areas of the hold.