Editing Trench warfare (section)

== Precursors ==
[[File:Mapa linhas de torres vedras cropped.png|thumb|left|[[Lines of Torres Vedras]], in Portugal.]]

Field works have existed for as long as there have been armies.{{citation needed|date=June 2023}} [[Roman legions]], when in the presence of an enemy, [[Castra|entrenched camps]] nightly when on the move.{{sfn|Ripley|Dana|1859|p= 622}} The Roman general [[Belisarius]] had his soldiers dig a trench as part of the [[Battle of Dara]] in 530 AD.

Trench warfare was also documented during the defence of [[Medina]] in a siege known as the [[Battle of the Trench]] (627 AD). The architect of the plan was [[Salman the Persian#Military career|Salman the Persian]] who suggested digging a trench to defend Medina.

There are examples of trench digging as a defensive measure during the [[Middle Ages]] in [[Europe]], such as during the [[Piedmontese Civil War]], where it was documented that on the morning of May 12, 1640, the French soldiers, having already captured the left bank of the [[Po (river)|Po river]] and gaining control of the bridge connecting the two banks of the river, and wanting to advance to the Capuchin Monastery of the Monte, deciding that their position wasn't secure enough for their liking, then choose to advance on a double attack on the trenches, but were twice repelled. Eventually, on the third attempt, the French broke through and the defenders were forced to flee with the civilian population, seeking the sanctuary of the local Catholic church, the [[Santa Maria al Monte dei Cappuccini, Turin|Santa Maria al Monte dei Cappuccini]], in Turin, also known at that time as the [[:it:Santa Maria al Monte dei Cappuccini|Capuchin Monastery of the Monte]].<ref>{{Cite web |author=Istituto San Clemente I Papa e Martire |year=2006 |title=Eucharistic Miracle of TURIN ITALY, 1640 |url=http://www.therealpresence.org/eucharst/mir/english_pdf/Turin3.pdf |access-date=2023-02-10 |website=therealpresence.org}}</ref>

In [[early modern warfare]], troops used field works to block possible lines of advance.{{sfn|Frey|Frey|1995|pp=126–27}} Examples include the [[Lines of Stollhofen]], built at the start of the [[War of the Spanish Succession]] of 1702–1714,<ref>{{ citation|last= Nolan |first= Cathal J. |year= 2008 |title= Wars of the Age of Louis XIV, 1650–1715 |series= Greenwood encyclopedias of modern world wars|publisher= ABC-CLIO |isbn= 9780313359200 |page= [https://books.google.com/books?id=Nn_61ts-hQwC&pg=PA253 253] }}</ref> the [[Lines of Weissenburg]] built under the orders of the [[Claude Louis Hector de Villars|Duke of Villars]] in 1706,{{sfn|Chisholm|1911|pp=499–500}} the [[Lines of Ne Plus Ultra]] during the winter of 1710–1711,{{sfn|Frey|Frey|1995|pp=126–27}} and the [[Lines of Torres Vedras]] in 1809 and 1810.{{sfn|Ripley|Dana|1859|p=622}}

[[file:Siege of Vicksburg 1863 10566.jpg|thumb|Trenches at the [[Siege of Vicksburg]] 1863]]

In the [[New Zealand Wars]] (1845–1872), the [[Māori people|Māori]] developed elaborate trench and [[bunker]] systems as part of fortified areas known as [[pā]], employing them successfully as early as the 1840s to withstand British artillery bombardments.<ref>{{cite book |last=Cowen |first=James |title=The New Zealand Wars: A History of the Maori Campaigns and the Pioneering Period (1845–1864) |publisher=R.E. Owen, Government Printer |year=1955 |volume=I |location=Wellington |chapter=Chapter 7: The Attack on Ohaeawai |chapter-url=https://nzetc.victoria.ac.nz/tm/scholarly/tei-Cow01NewZ-c7.html}}</ref><ref>{{cite web |date=14 February 2008 |title=Early Maori military engineering skills to be honoured by New Zealand Professional Engineers |url=http://www.doc.govt.nz/about-doc/news/media-releases/2008/early-maori-military-engineering-skills-to-be-honoured-by-new-zealand-professional-engineers/ |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130202000402/http://doc.govt.nz/about-doc/news/media-releases/2008/early-maori-military-engineering-skills-to-be-honoured-by-new-zealand-professional-engineers/ |archive-date=2013-02-02 |access-date=2012-09-25 |publisher=New Zealand Department of Conservation}}</ref> According to one British observer, "the fence round the pa is covered between every paling with loose bunches of flax, against which the bullets fall and drop; in the night they repair every hole made by the guns".<ref name="CARv2b2">{{cite book |last1=Carleton |first1=Hugh |url=http://www.enzb.auckland.ac.nz/document?wid=1050&page=1&action=null |title=Vol. II, The Life of Henry Williams – Letter of Mrs. Williams to Mrs. Heathcote, July 5, 1845 |publisher=[[Early New Zealand Books]] (ENZB), University of Auckland Library |year=1874 |page=115}}</ref> These systems included firing trenches, communication trenches, [[Tunnel network|tunnels]], and anti-artillery bunkers. The [[Ngāpuhi]] pā [[Ruapekapeka]] is often considered to be the most sophisticated and technologically impressive by historians.<ref>{{Cite web |date=2017-10-25 |title=NZ WARS - The Stories of Ruapekapeka |url=https://www.rnz.co.nz/programmes/nz-wars/story/2018619186/nz-wars-the-stories-of-ruapekapeka |access-date=2023-04-05 |website=[[RNZ]] |language=en-nz}}</ref> British casualties, such as at [[Gate Pa]] in 1864 and the [[Battle of Ohaeawai]] in 1845, suggested that contemporary weaponry, such as [[musket]]s and cannon, proved insufficient to dislodge defenders from a trench system.<ref>{{cite web |last=Graham |first=James |title=The battle for Kawiti's Ohaeawai Pa |url=http://www.historyorb.com/nz/ohaeawai.shtml |access-date=26 September 2010 |website=HistoryOrb.com}}</ref> There has been an academic debate surrounding this since the 1980s, when in his book ''The New Zealand Wars,'' historian [[James Belich (historian)|James Belich]] claimed that Northern Māori had effectively invented trench warfare during the first stages of the New Zealand Wars. However, this has been criticised by a few academics of the same period, with Gavin McLean noting that while the Māori had certainly adapted pa to suit contemporary weaponry, many historians have dismissed Belich's claim as "baseless... [[Historical revisionism|revisionism]]".<ref>{{cite web |title=Ruapekapeka {{!}} NZHistory, New Zealand history online |url=https://nzhistory.govt.nz/media/photo/ruapekapeka |access-date=2019-08-07 |website=nzhistory.govt.nz}}</ref> Others more recently have said that while it is clear the Māori did not invent trench warfare ''first''—Māori did invent trench-based defences without any offshore aid— some believe they may have influenced 20th-century methods of trench design identified with it.<ref>{{Cite web |date=2017-12-01 |title=Podcast: The Battle of Ruapekapeka |url=https://www.rnz.co.nz/programmes/nz-wars/story/2018623840/podcast-the-battle-of-ruapekapeka |access-date=2023-04-05 |website=[[RNZ]] |language=en-nz}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web |last=Browne |first=Alister |date=2019-10-30 |title=New Zealand Wars sow the seed of racial division we experience today |url=https://www.stuff.co.nz/entertainment/books/116984332/new-zealand-wars-sow-the-seed-of-racial-division-we-experience-today |access-date=2023-04-05 |website=Stuff |language=en}}</ref>

The [[Crimean War]] (1853–1856) saw "massive trench works and trench warfare",<ref>{{ cite book |editor1=Finnish Oriental Society |editor2=Suomen Itämainen Seura | title =Studia Orientalia | url =https://books.google.com/books?id=aEbtAAAAMAAJ | volume =95 | publisher =Finnish Oriental Society, Suomen Itämainen Seura | date =2003 | access-date =2017-10-29 | quote =The Crimean War did have its own innovations: massive trench works and trench warfare [...]. | isbn =9789519380544 }}</ref> even though "the modernity of the trench war was not immediately apparent to the contemporaries".<ref>{{ cite book | last1 = Keller | first1 = Ulrich | year = 2001 | title = The Ultimate Spectacle: A Visual History of the Crimean War | url = https://books.google.com/books?id=-eWOAQAAQBAJ | location = New York | publisher = Routledge | publication-date = 2013 | isbn = 9781134392094 | access-date = 2017-10-30 }}</ref>

Union and Confederate armies employed field works and extensive trench systems in the [[American Civil War]] (1861–1865) — most notably in the [[Siege of Vicksburg|sieges of Vicksburg]] (1863) [[Siege of Petersburg|and Petersburg]] (1864–1865), the latter of which saw the first use by the [[Union Army]] of the rapid-fire [[Gatling gun#American Civil War and the Americas|Gatling gun]],<ref>{{ cite book|title=Civil War Weapons And Equipment|author= Pritchard Jr., Russ A.- }}</ref> the important precursor to modern-day [[machine gun]]s. Trenches were also utilized in the [[Paraguayan War]] (which started in 1864), the [[Second Anglo-Boer War]] (1899–1902), and the [[Russo-Japanese War]] (1904–1905).