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OCR History revision notes: 'The Changing Nature of Warfare' Chapter 1 Unit 6 - Total War
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Key revision notes for unit 1.6, 'the concept of ‘Total War’', from the OCR History course 'The Changing Nature of Warfare '.
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1.6 the development of the idea and practice of Total WarTotal War: ‘warfare that is unrestricted in terms of the weapons used, territory or combatants
involved, or objectives pursued’.
French Revolutionary Wars
Levee en Masse = classic text for development of total war
o Levee en Masse declared by the Convention 23rd August 1793
o ‘Every Frenchman’ given a role to play in the war effort
All unmarried men aged 18-25 requisitioned for military service
Much of civilian population was turned towards supporting the army
through armaments production, war industries, + providing provisions to the
front
o Total war seen in its infancy
o Conscription (which began w/ Levee en Masse) was institutionalised by the Loi
Jourdan in 1798
French Revolutionaries used ideology to impose total war
o Belief that war would be won by the nation with the greatest ‘virtue’ and by the
strength + unity of the people = used to justify the state’s right to…
- Take all resources
- End the distinction between civilian and soldier
- Enforce a military-style discipline on all citizens
- Punish defeatism and political opposition
- Conscript any citizen
o Total resources of the nation would be employed to ‘defend the Revolution’ + win
the war
Involvement of civilians in warfare
Civilians had always suffered from war (forced military service, atrocities etc) but until 1914
there had been a distinction between civilians and the military
o Exceptions were guerrilla warfare such as in Spain during the Peninsular War
WW1: distinctions became blurred as nations pressed their populations and resources into a
total war effort
o Occupied areas like Belgium = treated badly by Germany
o Austrian forces committed atrocities and were repressive to civilian areas under
their control
o Long-range naval bombardments and bombing raids involved deliberate civilian
casualties
German naval bombardments of British towns
Zeppelin raids over Britain kill 557 people
WW2: more occupation of civilians + greater bombing = even less distinction between
civilian + soldier
o Every citizen seen as a legitimate target
o British perfected firebomb technique to inflict maximum damage to homes and
civilian loss of life
Bombing of Dresden 1945 – approx. 25,000 casualties
o German bombing raids on Britain – London Blitz saw approx. 43,000 deaths
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