Why did world war 1 lasted almost five years ?

These are the reasons why they asted so long xx

• Barbed wire - Difficult to cut  

• Machine guns - mowed down men with intersecting crossfire  

• Gas - Slowed down heavily-laden attackers. Not so affective in trenches.  

• Shells - saved soldiers from all but a direct hit. Churned up the ground. Destroyed drainage systems and made attack difficult.  

• Railway - Could rush reinforcements to a threatened spot very quickly .  

• Lack of secrecy - Enemy could easily see when extra supplies were brought up for an attack  

• Attack at walking pace - Men could only advance at walking pace  

• Lack of experience - Generals never fought this way before and couldn't think of ways of breaking through trenches  

• Zigzagging trenches - Used to stop the enemy artillery destroying a whole line of trench and to prevent successful attackers being able to fire along a long length of a trench  

• Communication Trenches - Joined lines of trenches  

• Blind alleys - Lead nowhere, used to confuse an enemy and sow them down in the event of a successful attack.  

• Forward Positions - were built for miners and snipers  

• Underground "saps" - tunnels driven under enemy trenches so that explosives could be placed under them and detonated.  

• No Man's Land - Difficult to cross as belts of barbed wire, shell holes and very swampy conditions when it rained

hope this helped! (:  

Because no one would give up, everyone thought they were winning but all in all everyone was losing

the roman empire began to fall