In Britain the response was to import more food, despite the German introduction of unrestricted submarine warfare, and to introduce rationing. It was a recognition that the whole economy would have to be geared for war if the Allies were to prevail on the Western Front.Īs young men left the farms for the front, domestic food production in Britain and Germany fell. He formed a new coalition government dominated by liberals and appointed David Lloyd George as Minister of Munitions. This led to the Shell Crisis of 1915, which brought down both the Liberal government and Premiership of H. Even the Music Hall was used as propaganda, with songs aimed at recruitment.Īfter the failure of the Battle of Neuve Chapelle, the large British offensive in March 1915, the British Commander-in-Chief Field Marshal John French blamed the lack of progress on insufficient and poor-quality artillery shells. They influenced public opinion about what to eat and what occupations to pursue, and changed the attitude toward the war effort to one of support. In Britain, government propaganda posters were used to divert all attention to the war on the home front. Bulgaria went so far as to mobilize a quarter of its population or 800,000 people, a greater share than any other country during the war.
In the United States, conscription began in 1917 and was generally well-received, with a few pockets of opposition in isolated rural areas. Though most deaths were young unmarried men, 160,000 wives lost husbands and 300,000 children lost fathers. Conscription was common in most European countries but controversial in English-speaking countries.
Young men were removed from production jobs to serve in military roles and were replaced by women. World War I as Total WarĪlmost the whole of Europe and its colonial empires mobilized to wage World War I. In a total war, to an extent inapplicable to other conflicts, the differentiation between combatants and non-combatants diminishes and even sometimes vanishes entirely as opposing sides consider nearly every human resource, even that of non-combatants, as part of the war effort.Īctions that characterize the post-19th century concept of total war include: blockade and sieging of population centers, as with the Allied blockade of Germany commerce-raiding tonnage war, and unrestricted submarine warfare, as with privateering and the German U-Boat campaigns.
In the mid-19th century, scholars identified “total war” as a separate class of warfare. The American-English Dictionary defines total war as “war that is unrestricted in terms of the weapons used, the territory or combatants involved, or the objectives pursued, especially one in which the laws of war are disregarded.” Total war includes all civilian-associated resources and infrastructure as legitimate military targets, mobilizes all societal resources to fight the war, and gives priority to warfare over non-combatant needs. conscription The compulsory enlistment of people in a national service, most often military service. Key Terms total war Warfare that includes any and all civilian-associated resources and infrastructure as legitimate military targets, mobilizes all of the resources of society to fight the war, and gives priority to warfare over non-combatant needs.
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