World war 1 notes on the reasons for stalemate on the western front

The reasons for stalemate on the Western Front? WW1 started as a war of quick lightning thrusts and high mobility, but degenerated into an astonishingly protracted war of static battle lines. The Western Front was the name given to the line of trenches stretching from the Belgium coast to Verdun. Following the Battle of Marne and Aisne of 1914, both sides dug in believing trenches to be temporary. The Front stretched for hundreds of miles, meshed …

…Battle of Cambrai also illustrates the successful use of the tank to mobilise the war. Entente tanks pushed through the German lines, giving an indication of how future battles would be fought. Total war- the attempt of both sides to sink all efforts to the waging of war, was for the purposes of breaking the stalemate. Troops were conscripted en masse, while an economic war was being fought. The naval blockades helped starve the enemy.