In What Ways Was Wwi a Total War?

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In what ways was WWI a total war? The term “total war” mainly refers to three characteristics of a war: the aim of achieving total victory in war, the complete utilization of all resources available, and the involvement of all citizens, both at the war and home fronts, of the warring nations. In this essay, we shall examine and evaluate how a few aspects of WWI, including conscription, rationing, the involvement of women and youths, the attacking of civilians and propaganda reflected the abovementioned characteristics, ultimately showing that WWI was a total war. Conscription, which means the compulsory enlistment of people in military services, was adopted widely during WWI and clearly demonstrated the characteristics of a total war. For example, while the British army traditionally relied on volunteers to maintain the number of soldiers in their army, conscription was finally introduced in 1916, targeting all males aged between 18-41 and mobilized 12.5% of its men for the forces. 15.4% and 16.9% of men respectively for Germany and France were mobilized. We can see that conscription allowed warring nations and countries to utilize most of its manpower to join the war, in order to provide a steady supply of people in the military services. This clearly reflected the characteristic of a total war, in which all manpower, one of the most important resources of a warring country, was completely utilized for war and used in order to achieve victory. However, the effects of conscription and mobilization did not simply end at this point. As mentioned above, all males of military age were enlisted, including those that were previously breadwinners for a family, as well as those that previously had occupations in various industries. This led to a severe shortage of skilled workers in industries and problems caused for employers at the economic level. On the
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