Weapons

A weapon is a tool used to apply or threaten to apply force for the purpose of hunting, attack or defense in combat, subduing enemy personnel, or to destroy enemy weapons, equipment and defensive structures. A weapon is therefore a device that changes the direction or magnitude of a force. In general, they can be defined as the simplest mechanisms that use mechanical advantage (also called leverage) to multiply force.
In attack, weapons may be used to threaten by direct contact or by use of projectiles. Weapons can be as simple as a club, or as complex as an intercontinental ballistic missile. Metaphorically speaking, anything capable of causing damage, even psychologically, can be referred to as a weapon. More recently, non-lethal weapons have been developed for para-military, security and even combat use, designed to incapacitate personnel and reduce collateral damage to property and environment.
Very simple weapon use has been seen in some communities of chimpanzees. Craig Stanford, a primatologist and professor of anthropology at the University of Southern California, has suggested that the discovery of "spear" (essentially sharpened stick) use by chimpanzees probably means that early hominids used wooden spears as well, perhaps five million years ago. Naturally, clubs and staves must have also been used by the hominids, as they were nearly identical to spears, save the length (in clubs) and point (in both clubs and staves).
In fact a tree branch, which could be considered a crude club or staff, must have been used to fashion a spear. Clubs themseves were also probably thrown, making the use of throwing sticks and a number of their various subtypes evident. Rocks were also thrown as early projectile weapons.