Scale and duration defeated short-war planning

The armed forces had prepared for war, but its unprecedented scale and duration defeated those preparations. Armies budgeted for short wars partly because governments would not finance the manpower and munitions needed for years of combat. The Royal Navy's blockade strategy inherently assumed a long contest in which economic pressure accumulated over time. Naval funding and institutional influence gave it more room to think in those terms than the British Army possessed. The Army's prepared briefings helped it influence early strategy despite the Navy's greater funding and status.