Cannons

Also called artillery, cannons are gun-like weapons larger than small arms, with a bore diameter greater than 0.60 inch (15 millimeters). Although China had developed primitive muzzle-loading cannons by the eleventh century, such technology did not appear in Europe until the 1320’s. Modern artillery, which developed in the second half of the nineteenth century, includes the gun, a long-range piece that fires a projectile along a relatively flat trajectory; the howitzer, a shorter-barreled piece with a slightly arced trajectory; and the mortar, an artillery piece with a very short...

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