All About The Trabuco, A Prehistoric War Machine

Statistics show that an approximate of three hundred million lost their lives through numerous official wars. The deadliest conflict was the second war II that resulted in the death of over seventy million people. Such deaths led to the development of war machines as a way to retaliate against enemies and take revenge. As great war resources, war machines were made with the sole purpose of destroying the enemy. The war machines are responsible for entirely changing the course of world war.

The Trabuco was one such war machine, a barricade weapon that that many kingdoms during Middle Ages used at war. Also known as the Trebuchet, the brilliant war machine had its origin in China. It was used to abolish fortifications with effortlessly from significantly longer distance in comparison to other devices.


The famous war machine required quite a large number of soldiers to operate. To be precise, a minimum of forty men were needed to pull the rope on the large sling before releasing the string. The units used in the machine were exceedingly tall and utterly problematic to control. There was no way a single soldier would operate the Trabuco. You would find the Trabuco behind war armies who would bring down the giant rocks, pitch and even dead bodies of enemy forces. According to, the war machine was a nightmare for enemy forces but a treasure to the owners as an assurance of destruction.

The Trabuco works by a mechanism that changes potential energy confined in the cord to kinetic energy that in turn produces power. Given that some amount of energy is lost via heat in the system and also through friction, the system was not entirely efficient. The bullet speed is relative to the weight used. The Trabuco has five significant parts specifically the beam, frame, counterweight, guide chute and the sling.

The machine was majorly used by the Spanish and the Portuguese who after going to South Africa discovered gunpowder as well as cannons. As a result, the Trabuco was used on limited occasions and eventually none at all. Also, the native tribes failed to adopt the war machine for their battles according to In modern warfare, a Trabuco is a rare weapon. However, Trabuco mechanics are still used by tutors to describe problems related to the gravitational force, potential difference and kinetic energy.

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