The civil war also had some cannons blasting... but the weapons were VERY different. A well trained soldier was shooting 2-3 bullets per minute in the civil war. WW2 machine guns were 25 rounds per second. There is no comparison of the destruction capabilities...
Sure, but at a limited scale. And the Germans knew that a trench duel was unwinnable going into ww1, hence the Schlieffen-plan. The intention was to take out France in aug 1914 and then swing around before Russia was even fully mobilized.
The major turning points were still more like battles from the Napoleonic Wars than WWI.
It's also much easier with hindsight to view them as precursors to the trench warfare of WWI. But I believe contemporaries viewed it more like classic siege warfare.
WWI occurred in a brief window where defensive technology/strategy was much more effective* than offensive technology/strategy.
*defense almost ways is easier, but it was much more than normal in that period.
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Trench warfare, and really much of the technology used in WWI, was seen first in the American civil war
The civil war also had some cannons blasting... but the weapons were VERY different. A well trained soldier was shooting 2-3 bullets per minute in the civil war. WW2 machine guns were 25 rounds per second. There is no comparison of the destruction capabilities...
They absolutely invented machine guns in the Civil War, as well as metal ships.
"In 1862, Richard Jordan Gatling invented a multi-barreled, rotating gun operated by a hand crank that could fire up to 200 rounds a minute."
https://www.history.com/topics/american-civil-war/gatling-gu...
I'm not sure what war you're thinking of.
How many were in the civil war vs ww2? What was your odds of going against one? Huge huge huge difference
Sure, but at a limited scale. And the Germans knew that a trench duel was unwinnable going into ww1, hence the Schlieffen-plan. The intention was to take out France in aug 1914 and then swing around before Russia was even fully mobilized.
The major turning points were still more like battles from the Napoleonic Wars than WWI.
It's also much easier with hindsight to view them as precursors to the trench warfare of WWI. But I believe contemporaries viewed it more like classic siege warfare.
WWI occurred in a brief window where defensive technology/strategy was much more effective* than offensive technology/strategy.
*defense almost ways is easier, but it was much more than normal in that period.