Some nice TLs here.
I disagree. Tracked tractors were the direct forbears of the tank. The cross-country mobility of said tractors is what led to their propulsion system being utilized to make tanks. Further, said tractors had been in production since at least 1901, perhaps earlier (15 years before the first tank) and primitive models of tracked vehicles for many years before that. Look up the Lombard Steam Log Hauler. Holt (later Caterpilar) started making tracked tractors in 1904, and Kegresse (whose system was used in the Citroen half-tracks) started experimenting with half-tracks around 1906.You know, the tank was NOT the slightest bit obvious before it was invented. Many inventions were linear projections of what had gone before, but not the tank.