Defining 'total war'?

In short, a total war is a war in which the entire nation is involved in.
However, there are many ways in which an entire nation can be involved in
a war. The following social, economical, military and political characteristics
of a society/conflict signify a total war/society that wages a total war.
Social characteristics:
-A total war does not only involve soldiers but civilians as well both in the
areas of fighting and on the home front.
-Recruitment of women into male-dominated work places (such as industry
during the WW1) in order to keep up with the needs of the soldiers.
Economical characteristics:
-The "civilian" economy of the nation is reconstructed to a war economy.
This could involve rationing of various goods for civilians in order to supply
the soldiers fighting the war.
-Focus of industry is shifted from consumer goods to war goods.
Military characteristics:
-Conscription enforced to raise and mobilize a massive army
-Relentless intensity and vast scale of war
-Massive destruction and high casualty rates
-Belligerent use all weapons at their disposal in order to fight the enemy,
biochemical weapons as well as weapons of mass destruction
-Belligerents aim to destroyed other opponents
Political characteristics:
-Power is centralized.
The state becomes more interventionist and passes decrees in order to
control economy/society and gear them for war.
-Use of propaganda to encourage involvement in the war on the home
front and reinforce nationalistic feelings by demonizing the enemy.
Question to consider in a conclusion?
Is a war "total" if only one of the fighting sides are fully involved in it and
the other side's involvement limited?
Why is WW1 considered to be a 'total war'?
Argument 1 that WW1 was a 'total war': AIMS

World War 1 is considered to be the first total war for several reasons:
- Both sides fought the war, not for limited aims but for total victory
- Governments used all weaponry that they had at their disposal in order to
win the war. They also developed new technologies and weaponry as the
war progressed
- It involved all people of the major countries - not only soldiers but also
civilans. Civilians were deliberately targeted during the military conflict and
they suffered from the economic warfare carried out by both sides. Women
also played a major role in the war effort at home
- In order to fight the kind of battles waged in World War 1. and to weld the
state into a united, efficient war-making machine, nations developed new
ways of controlling the economy and their populations.
- The aims of tge powers involved in the fighting were 'total' and made any
negotiated peace very difficult to achieve.
- All the Great powers developed ambitious war aims that they were
reluctant to give up. France was determined to regain Alsace-Lorraine and
both France and Britain had committed themselves to crushing Prussian
militarism.
Argument 2 that WW1 was a 'total war': Role of CIVILIANS

In a total war, the entire society plays a part in mobilizing and getting the
country ready for its war effort as well as keep up the work at home whilst
the soldiers fight the war. Civilians plays an important role in the war in the
following ways:
The First World War saw a rapid growth in industry as the countries tried to
keep up with the demands that a total war put upon the society and its
resources.
In Britain, France and Germany this meant women joining the workforce to
fill the empty space left by the men leaving to fight the war.
By 1917, one of four of the workers were women and Joseph Joffre
claimed that "if the women in the war factories stopped for 20 minutes, we
would lose the war".
The impact of the fighting on civilians:
There were an increasing number of civilian casualties as new technology
became availible on both sides of the fighting.
Paris was shelled from a distance of 126km by the massive German gun
"Long Max" and later planes made raids on Britain.
British planes also inflicted severe damage on German factories and towns
in the last years of the war, moving some of the fighting and casualties
from the battlefield and towards the cities.

On the Eastern front, civilians were caught up in the battles as great

advances and retreats that took place on this front meants that civilians
were involved in the violence, sometimes accidentally and sometimes
deliberately.
For example Jews were actively attacked by advancing Russians and
other minorities such as Germans, Gypsies, Hungarians and Turks also
suffered as they were all deported from Russia's western provinces during
the war.
Ethnic violence also took place in the Balkans as Niall Ferguson writes, in
the East "there were death throes of the Old Central and east European
empires had dissolved the old boundaries between combat and civilian.
This kind of war proved much easier to start than to stop".
Argument 3 that WW1 was a 'total war': increased GOVERNMENT
control
In short, a total war is a war in which the entire nation is involved in.
However, there are many ways in which an entire nation can be involved in
a war. The following political characteristics of a society/conflict signify a
total war/society that wages a total war.
Political characteristics:
-Power is centralized.
The state becomes more interventionist and passes decrees in order to
control economy/society and gear them for war.
So, to what extent was government control increased during WW1?
In Britain in 1914, the DORA (Defence of the Realm Act) decree passed,
which allowed government to interefere in people's everyday lives in order
to satisfy the war demands. For examples, newspapers were censored,
letters home from soldiers were censored to give a "cheerful" impression of
life at the front and the opening hours of pubs were restricted to ensure
that people would go to work the next day.
The British government also centralized the control over the country by
setting up new ministeries that ran the munitions production, coal mines,
railways etc.
British also nationalized key industries such as coal mining to meet the
demands of the war.
In France, 33 new departments were set up to centralize and control the
economy as well as society. In Russia, Nicholas II centralized the control of

the state by reasserting autocratic rule without the involvement of the

Duma.
Conclusions: how far do we think the First World War should be seen
as a 'total war'?

Women:
Even though the female workforce increased, in all countries there was
resistance to employing women and it was not until 1915 that serious
recruitment for women into industries began.
Even then, there was little enthusiasm from employers and trade unions for
women entering the workforce and in Britain there had to be negotations to
reach agreements on women entering "men's jobs" in munitions and
engineering as this would only be temporary and women would not be
trained to "fully skilled tradesmen".
Women were supposed to receive equal wages as men for similar jobs but
this rarely happened as wages remained low.
The impact of the war upon civilians was also limited as on the western
front there was relatively little movement and civilians were able to keep
away from the actual fighting. Casualties here only resulted due to
inaccurate artillery fire.
However, the lives of civilians in all countries were affected by the war in
the sense of the huge losses of soldiers; all families and villages across
Europe faced the consequences of the "lost generation" (this also led to
military conscription in 1915 for France and 1916 for Britain)
Conclusions: how far do we think the First World War should be seen as a
'total war'?
However, the First World War should be seen as a 'total war' for two
reasons. First of all, the major powers involved fought the war not for
limited aims but for total victory. This interrelates with the second reason
which is that the governments used all weaponry at their disposal in order
to win the war. In other words, they went all in to achieve total victory.

2. Define total war and examine to what extent either the

First World War or the Second World War was a total war.
A clear working definition of total war at the outset is necessary
for an effective response. Total war should be understood to
mean more than simply a geographically widespread conflict and
should show awareness of the wider dimensions of such a
conflict. It refers to the mobilization of all aspects of society in
such conflicts and includes the home and military fronts and the

contributions made by both the military and civilian populations

as well as the social, economic and physical impact of such a
conflict upon these groups. Areas to explore in either example
could include not only the technological and military aspects of
these mass struggles (weapons development and
usage/targeting of civilians) but also the impact on the economy
(living standards, rationing, taxation, employment patterns,
industrial and agricultural organization and production), the
changing role of women, advances in medicine, effects on the
arts and literature, etc. There is much to choose from. Do not
expect all, but answers need to go beyond the narration of
battles/campaigns (descriptions of trench warfare in the First
World War for example).