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Why did military authorities reject early tracked armoured vehicle designs before World War I?

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armoured vehicle A British Warrior mechanized combat vehicle serving in NATO's Stabilization Force in Bosnia and Herzegovina, 1997.

Before the outbreak of World War I, military authorities consistently rejected proposals for tracked armoured vehicles because there was no perceived incentive for them.1

While inventors proposed tracked designs in France as early as 1903 and in England in 1908, these concepts failed to capture the interest of military leaders. Similarly, in 1911, the German and Austro-Hungarian general staffs rejected such designs, and the British War Office turned down another proposal in 1912.1

It was only the onset of World War I and the subsequent development of trench warfare that fundamentally changed the military situation. The stalemate of trench warfare rendered traditional armoured cars ineffective, creating a critical need for vehicles capable of traversing broken ground and crossing wide trenches, which ultimately spurred the development of the first tanks.2