War: The Total Concept
The concept for Total War
- Concept usually attributed to Carl von Clausewitz ("Total War", 2015).
- First example of total war believed to be the Peloponnesian War.
- Total War is the notion of winning at all costs.
- May 25, 1917, German war planes bomb Folkestone, England, bringing the concept of total war into reality.
- Different from absolute war, in that the notion of absolute war is war in which there are no restraints, whether politically or lawfully ("Total War", 2015).
The idea or concept for Total War was the notion of winning at all costs, no matter the sacrifices made, destruction caused or the cost, whether monetarily or with human lives. Total war meant not just winning small victories against your opponent, rather to utterly and destroy your enemy and crush them in battle. It involved using every resource available, including military and civilian usage. This notion however, typically led to huge losses of life, resources, and had negative psychological effects on the war wounded. The notion of total war was harder to achieve for countries whose economies weren’t as developed as others, e.g., Russia, Italy and Austria-Hungary (Lyons, Chapter 14 page 208.)
References
- Total war. (2015). Retrieved from https://www.britannica.com/topic/total-war
- Total war. (2015). Retrieved from http://www.newworldencyclopedia.org/entry/Total_war
- World War I Ended With the Treaty of Versailles June 28, 1919. (n.d.). Retrieved from http://www.americaslibrary.gov/jb/jazz/jb_jazz_ww1_1.html
Credit: Krystal