>>17843918
there's a big difference between a Roman trench and an anti-artillery one
don't get me wrong, there were other precedents in the world, but WW1 in a lot of ways was "what if we did colonial warfare but to other Europeans" (especially since most of the powers hadn't actually fought other Europeans in living memory, but had spent the better part of the last few decades conquering other continents) and a colonial war in which the natives had a favorable casualty exchange probably turned some heads