How did technology prolong the First World War?

Technology prolonged the war because both sides focused heavily on defensive postures, especially on the Western Front.  After the Marne campaign in 1914 when the German Schlieffen Plan was bogged down, both sides dug in and would remain in these trenches for the next three years.  The machine gun also put the defender at an unfair advantage.  Both sides developed tanks, but neither side could press home the advantage, as there was little tank-infantry cooperation....

Technology prolonged the war because both sides focused heavily on defensive postures, especially on the Western Front.  After the Marne campaign in 1914 when the German Schlieffen Plan was bogged down, both sides dug in and would remain in these trenches for the next three years.  The machine gun also put the defender at an unfair advantage.  Both sides developed tanks, but neither side could press home the advantage, as there was little tank-infantry cooperation.  In terms of naval strength, both Germany and Britain developed enormous fleets of battleships that they would not risk in a winner-takes-all battle, though Jutland in 1916 was the closest they came to fighting this battle.  Diplomatically, neither side would budge.  Politicians worried that if they had a settled peace, then civilians back home would wonder what the war was about.  This was especially true after the Russian Revolution in 1917 took Russia out of the Eastern front; part of the reason for the overthrow of the czar was dissatisfaction with how the war was going.  Germany, France, and Britain realized that the people needed to feel that the war was a fight to maintain civilization and their way of life--simply negotiating with the enemy was out of the question in light of the millions of casualties inflicted by the war.