The Blue Board

Haha the old British would think they were cowards hiding like that. You aren't a man unless you stand in a straight line in the middle of a field.

Simply put, it was a product of the weapons of the time, machine guns and massed artillery barrages, without a way to overcome them in a mobile fashion.

After 1000s of men ran head strong into a wall of other men wielding swords and bows/arrows, trench warfare was a God-send.

Just evolution of warfare. At that time mobility was not great but fire power started to get great. With machine guns and repeater rifles armies couldn't line up. How stupid would troupe feel in the 1700s line up against each other a few yards away and shooting muskets?

Residents of Hiroshima and Nagasaki disagree with you.

Confederate General Longstreet pleaded with General Lee to use trench warfare more often rather than the volley lines that had been used for a couple of hundred years due to the inaccuracy of the musket. Weapons became much more accurate with the advent of the rifle coming into play on the battlefield in the Civil War - fatalities were much higher per capita due to that and trench warfare was seen as a way to provide better defense and loss less people....Trenches were used but not to the level as used in the Civil War.

Ok... class over...

Since most people died in a split second rather than dying of scurvy, ganggreen, and rodent diseases....