The principle of rockets is that when the fuel is burned, the force propels the rocket upward (into space).The force that propels a rocket upward is always caused by some sort of chemical reaction. The chemical reaction causes the combustion products to expand and move out of the nozzle to make the rocket move.
The first rockets were invented by the Chinese in 1232. The rockets were made of tubes that held gunpowder. The force of the exhaust (from the gunpowder) propelled them forward. Within 10 years the use of rockets spread to the Middle East and Europe.
In 1883, Konstantin Tsiolkovsky theorized that a rocket could work in the vacuum of space. He hypothesized that rockets could use liquid propellants, and have multiple stages that released from the spaceship when the fuel was exhausted.
Robert Goddard followed in Tsiolkovsky's footsteps, but took the idea one step further. He built the first liquid fuel rocket, which flew to a height of 41 feet, and reached a maximum speed of 60 miles per hour (March 16, 1926). In May of 1935, Goddard launched a liquid fuel rocket that flew to an altitude of 7,500 feet, and reached a maximum speed of 700 miles per hour.
During WWII, Wernher Von Braun invented the V-2, which was the first actual long distance liquid fuel rocket. It was 46 feet tall, and at liftoff it weighed 28,380 pounds including a 2,201 pound warhead. It had a range of about 200 miles, and flew at a speed of 5,200 feet per second. After the war, German scientists were the driving force of the Russian and United States space programs.
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