how do guns/cannons/mortars work? How were they invented?

Question

how do guns/cannons/mortars work? How were they invented?

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Answer 1

Just to add that the introduction of artillery was the end of the medieval castle. At the end of the Hundred Years’ War the French king had a unit touring the castles occupied by the English, reclaiming about two by month.

Afterwards fortifications went flat, Vauban style, or somewhat underground like WWI trenches.

Here is the earliest known depiction of a European cannon (1326): https://i.imgur.com/7LDwMi8.jpeg

And here an image from the Hundred Year’s War: https://i.imgur.com/hsj5MpW.jpeg (from this article: https://military.wikia.org/wiki/Artillery_of_France_in_the_Middle_Ages)