conscription

conscription, compulsory enrollment for service in a country’s armed forces. It has existed at least from the time of the Egyptian Old Kingdom (27th century bce), but there have been few instances—ancient or modern—of universal conscription (calling all those physically capable between certain ages). The usual form—even during total war—has been selective service.

Modified forms of conscription were used by Prussia, Switzerland, Russia, and other European countries during the 17th and 18th centuries. The first comprehensive nationwide system was instituted by the French Republic in the wars following the French Revolution and was institutionalized by Napoleon after he became emperor in 1803. After his defeat in 1815 it was discontinued, then reinstituted a few years later, but with restrictions.

Between 1807 and 1813, Prussia developed a conscript system based on the principle of universal service, which eventually became the model for the rest of Europe. Its major weakness was the state’s inability to afford, and the army’s inability to absorb, all the eligible men. Nevertheless, Prussia continued to employ this system after the Napoleonic era, so by the time of the Franco-German War (1870–71) it had a mass army of conscripts reinforced with large reserve units, in contrast to France’s smaller standing professional army.

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France: Conscription of France

After its defeat in 1871, France returned to conscription. In 1872 universal military service was reintroduced, but the law covering it did not apply equally to all. In general, people of comfortable means could discharge their military obligation in one year of volunteer service, while many professionals—doctors, clergymen, and some government workers—were granted total exemption. As in Germany, the overall effect was to cause the standing forces to be manned by members of the lower classes, while the better placed in society dominated the reserves.

During the 19th century the conscript system of recruiting troops became common throughout Europe, even in Russia, where there was a crude form of conscription bordering on impressment. Men unlucky enough to be seized went off for a lifetime of service. By 1860 the term was reduced to 15 years, but the conscripts often never saw their families again, and the Russian Army under the tsars remained an army of conscripted peasants imperfectly integrated into the system. Initially (1918) the army of the newly formed Soviet Socialist government consisted of volunteers who were required to enlist for three months. Under this system the size of the army dwindled to only 306,000 men. Conscription was reinstituted, and by 1920, during the height of the Civil War, the Soviet armed forces had reached a peak of 5,500,000. In the 1920s all able-bodied male members of the proletariat were required to register, and 30 to 40 percent of them were summoned into military service. The U.S.S.R. thus continued to depend on conscription to fill out its large military forces, and, by the time of the German–Soviet Nonaggression Pact (1939), it had enlarged its reserve capabilities by adopting universal military training.

Germany during the interwar period was forbidden by the Versailles Treaty to keep a military force of more than 100,000 men, but after Adolf Hitler came to power in 1933 he defied this restriction through the Military Service Law of 1935, which introduced universal military service. Under this law, every boy at age 18 joined a labour service corps for six months, and he entered a two-year term in the military at age 19. After the two years he was transferred to the active reserves until he was 35.

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In the United States, conscription had been applied during the Civil War (1861–65) by both North and South. It was, however, primarily effective as a stimulus for volunteering and was abandoned when the war was over, not to be revived until World War I. During the succeeding period Great Britain and the United States were the only major Western powers not to adopt compulsory military service during peacetime. Traditionally, small volunteer armies were maintained in these countries. Moreover, in Britain, which was essentially a sea power, the Navy took priority. Yet in World War I both countries adopted conscription, Great Britain in 1916 and the United States in 1917. Both countries abandoned conscription at the end of the war but reverted to it when World War II threatened; Britain introduced it in May 1939 (the first peacetime conscription in that country’s history) and the United States in 1940.

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In 1873 Japan had abandoned its hereditary militarism for a conscript system. In spite of its elitist samurai tradition, Japan accepted the spirit behind the mass army more fully than the nations of Europe. Conscription was selective rather than universal and produced about 150,000 new men for training each year. Called for a two-year term, the conscripts were made to feel that the army belonged to the nation and that it was an honour to enter it. When a man completed his two years of service, he entered the reserves. By the eve of World War II, most officers came from the middle classes rather than the samurai class and so had an affinity with the enlisted men. All in all, the conscript army during this time was a living symbol of equality to the Japanese, and they served in and supported it with near-fanatical devotion.

The coming of the thermonuclear era after World War II shook, but did not displace, the theory of mass armies, and only a few major powers dispensed with some sort of compulsory service. The most conspicuous example of this was Japan, which was completely demilitarized in the years after World War II and which eventually re-created its armed forces on a small scale and on a volunteer basis. Another special case was Britain, which continued its peacetime conscription until 1960, when it was replaced by voluntary enlistment and the idea of a mass army was virtually abandoned. Canada followed the same pattern.

After 1948 Israel required both men and women to serve the new state’s armed forces, as did the People’s Republic of China after 1949. China initially gave a few months’ basic military training to all young people, but the many millions of persons who became available each year proved too vast a number to train thoroughly. China eventually settled down to conscription on a highly selective basis. West Germany, which was demilitarized after World War II, reestablished conscription in 1956 on a selective basis. The Soviet Union retained an especially rigorous system of universal conscription, with a minimum of two years of service at age 18, preceded by part-time military training in school and periodic refresher training afterward. When active service ended, the conscript was placed in the active reserve until he was 35. Switzerland, with its citizen army, remained a notable example of universal conscription; all able-bodied men aged 20 underwent an initial training of four months, followed by eight periods of three weeks’ training until age 33, when they went into the reserves. In the United States, although peacetime conscription on a selective basis was ended in 1973 as part of a program to establish an all-volunteer military service, registration for a future draft if needed was reinstituted in 1980.

The end of the Cold War and the emergence of high-tech weapons systems combined to encourage the professionalization of Europe’s armies. Even France and Germany moved away from conscription—without, however, repudiating its presumed social benefits.