Edited sentence: Balance of power between the European alliances, each with large numbers of troops.Each of them wanted a crushing and decisive victory.Simply, none of the European powers were happy to let the war finish in a balanced way.Technological innovations and developments that made defence easier than attack.The diplomatic and political situation in Europe.The effectiveness of potential technologies for attack was often rapidly reduced with defensive innovations - for example gas masks.There are a number of reasons why the war lasted so long.These can be briefly summarized:.This is clearly indicated by the fact that none of them were happy with the Pope's "status quo" proposal i.This resulted in trench warfare, stalemate, war of attrition.to return things to the way that they had been before the conflict, and the Allies' refusal to accept Wilson's fourteen points, that called for a more fair and just peace, rather than the harsher settlement eventually agreed on at Versailles, that arguably sowed the seeds of the Second World War