total war
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What is total war?
Total war is a military conflict where contenders are willing to sacrifice lives and resources for complete victory, differing from limited war. The modern concept is traced to Carl von Clausewitz, who emphasized crushing the adversary's forces, and Erich Ludendorff, who advocated total mobilization.
In total war, geography and economics gain prominence. World Wars I and II are considered the most total in history. World War II surpassed World War I in its total nature because civilian populations became direct targets. Blitzkrieg was Nazi Germany's theory of total war, mobilizing the economy to avoid attrition.
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How does total war differ from limited war?
Total war is a military conflict where contenders sacrifice lives and resources for complete victory, unlike limited war. Carl von Clausewitz's writings influenced the modern concept, emphasizing crushing the adversary's forces, while Erich Ludendorff advocated for total mobilization in his book on total war.
Limited war, which gained traction in U.S. political and military circles in the late 1950s, meant that the struggle between the United States and the Soviet Union could be perceived as something other than a zero-sum game. The limited nuclear options (LNO) approach allowed a country’s military commanders to shift the targeting of nuclear missiles from enemy cities to enemy army installations, thereby limiting the effects of such a war.
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What are some examples of total war in history?
Total war is a military conflict where contenders sacrifice lives and resources for complete victory, differing from limited war.
Examples of total war include:
* World War I The war involved intense physical, economic, and psychological assaults on European society. Governments and armies discarded standards of decency, using tactics such as naval blockades and bombing open cities.
* World War II surpassed World War I in its totality because civilian populations became direct targets, and the conflict involved the extermination of groups deemed inferior. The distinction between combatants and non-combatants blurred.
* Vietnam War The communist leadership of North Vietnam considered the conflict a total war.
* Iran-Iraq War Though fought with limited resources, it closely resembled a total war for both sides.2 Britannica SourcesCreated from Britannica articles using AI. AI can make mistakes, so verify using Britannica articles. -
How are civilians affected during total war?
During total war, civilians become direct targets, and the distinction between combatants and non-combatants diminishes. World War II exemplified this, as civilian populations were intentionally targeted through aerial attacks. Such attacks, like the Allied strategic bombing, aimed to demoralize the enemy. Beyond direct attacks, civilians often face significant economic hardship as resources are diverted from peaceful uses to sustain the war effort, reducing living standards. Moreover, civilians may suffer abuses of human rights, including torture and discriminatory treatment.
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What strategies are commonly used in total war?
Total war involves mobilizing all available resources and manpower for complete victory, blurring the lines between military and civilian efforts.
Common strategies include:
* Mobilization Total war requires governments to mobilize populations, manage resources, and strategically apply science and technology to improve weapons.
* Attrition A strategy of attrition aims to cause the opponent's collapse through continuous losses.
* Economic Warfare Employing tactics to weaken the enemy's economy by limiting access to resources.
* Blitzkrieg Germany's Blitzkrieg strategy involved swift assaults to expand resources while shrinking the enemy's.
* Targeting civilian populations Attacking cities and economic targets to break a society's will to resist.
* Forming alliances Forming alliances for mutual support in case of war.7 Britannica SourcesCreated from Britannica articles using AI. AI can make mistakes, so verify using Britannica articles. -
How did total war influence the outcome of World Wars I and II?
Total war significantly shaped the outcomes of World Wars I and II by mobilizing entire societies and economies for complete victory. In World War I, the need for resources led to military socialism, with governments controlling production and labor. This total mobilization meant that every citizen contributed, impacting home front morale and making negotiated truces difficult.
In World War II, the most efficient governments, like the U.S. and Britain, mobilized populations, including women, to an extent previously unimaginable. This scientific approach to mobilization, combined with technological advancements, led to the triumph of those who could amass and direct resources effectively. However, the strategy of attrition led to exhaustion and collapse, rather than compromise.
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total war, military conflict in which the contenders are willing to make any sacrifice in lives and other resources to obtain a complete victory, as distinguished from limited war. Throughout history, limitations on the scope of warfare have been more economic and social than political. Simple territorial aggrandizement has not, for the most part, brought about total commitments to war. The most deadly conflicts have been fought on ideological grounds in revolutions and civil and religious wars.
The modern concept of total war can be traced to the writings of the 19th-century Prussian military strategist Carl von Clausewitz, who denied that wars could be fought by laws. In his major work Vom Kriege (On War), he rejected the limited objectives of 18th-century warfare, in which winning local military victories was regarded as the key to advantageous diplomatic bargaining, and described wars as tending constantly to escalate in violence toward a theoretical absolute. Clausewitz also stressed the importance of crushing the adversary’s forces in battle. His 19th-century admirers tended to overlook his insistence that the conduct of war must be strictly controlled by attainable political objectives.
The classic 20th-century work on total war was Erich Ludendorff’s Der totale Krieg (1935; The “Total” War), based on the author’s experience in directing Germany’s war effort in World War I. He envisaged total mobilization of manpower and resources for war. The country at war would be led by a supreme military commander, and strategy would dictate policy. The concept of total war moved geography and economics into prominent positions in Nazi thinking. The two World Wars of the 20th century are usually regarded as total or at least the most total of history’s wars, although they were, of course, limited in numerous ways.
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After World War II, especially during the Cold War, the prospect of all-out nuclear war raised a conceptual problem in that such a war presumably would short-circuit the processes of all-out mobilization of resources and regimentation of national effort—that is, the very mobilization and regimentation that had made the World Wars seem more total than earlier ones. The fear of nuclear war, in any case, severely inhibited the major powers in waging wars themselves and in allowing their client states to do so, thus substituting deliberate restraint for the more impersonal constraints that limited warfare in the past.
Among smaller powers the fear of nuclear war has had little restrictive effect; most wars between small countries since 1945 have been limited. This has not been universally true, however. During the Vietnam War (1954–75), the communist leadership of North Vietnam regarded the conflict as one of total war and acted accordingly. The Iran-Iraq War (1980–88), though fought with limited resources in that neither side had a large industrial base or much airpower, was very close to a total war for both belligerents.