Where modern explanatory notes were required, they have been inserted as italicized text in square brackets. Colonel Bieri called OCMH at , 15 October , stating that General Taylor had asked for data on examples of "total" war, total war being defined as war in which the objective was the extermination of the enemy or rendering the enemy incapable of self-defense, i.
He stated that a starting point might be World War II but General Taylor wants something a little more sophisticate; a current example might be Biafra; Korea was a limited war, and World War I ended in unconditional surrender.
Colonel Bieri stated that we might have to go back as far as Jenghiz Khan. When queried as to deadline and form of reply, Colonel Bieri said that he would like the information not later than Friday, 18 October and that reply could be by phone if it is not too long and complicated, otherwise in writing. The Request: Data on examples of "total war," total war being defined as war in which the objective was extermination of the enemy or rendering the enemy incapable of self-defense, i.
Develop and improve products. List of Partners vendors. Share Flipboard Email. Government U. Foreign Policy U. Liberal Politics U. Brionne Frazier. Politics Expert. Brionne Frazier is a history and politics writer specializing in international security and society. She has covered topics including nuclear policy, organized crime, and climate policy. Updated October 26, Key Takeaways Total war is a war fought without limitations on targets or weapons.
Ideological or religious conflicts are more likely to give rise to total war. Total wars have occurred throughout history and include the third Punic War, the Mongol Invasions, the Crusades and the two World Wars.
Featured Video. Cite this Article Format. Frazier, Brionne. Definitions and Examples. What is Total War? See all related overviews in Oxford Reference ». Total warfare a 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. Military ». Subjects: History — Military History. View all reference entries ». View all related items in Oxford Reference ». Search for: 'total war' in Oxford Reference ».
Only in that way could he take full responsibility for the prosecution of a war that required more of him than ever before:. After the use of the term by Joseph Goebbels in and because Ludendorff had been an important symbolic leader in the ideological reconstruction of the right after the First World War, his book became the focus of many studies on long-term military thought in Germany in the years after the end of the Second World War.
It was absolutely necessary to take the most rigid measures to win the war and to stop the rule of Bolshevism not only in Germany, but in the whole of Europe and the world. Goebbels believed that only Germany would be able to halt the onslaught of the wild hordes from the steppe and therefore called on the German people to make every effort to mobilize all resources for the war.
To him the men of Stalingrad were a symbol of the will to resist the attack from the east to be emulated by the German people not only militarily but also mentally and intellectually. Those historians who looked at the character of warfare or the mobilization of people and resources during the world wars used other terms to talk about what they had found.
In the Anglo-Saxon world there was less regard for the moral implications of the term, some using it early on to describe the death and enormous destruction brought about during the American Civil War. In John B. Wars continued to happen, even if they seemed to be more limited than had been the case in the nineteenth and especially in the first half of the 20 th century. They had also tried to gain control over the war effort of their country but had not succeeded in any case.
Instead, they sparked total chaos. This finding was confirmed by researchers who looked at the two world wars of the 20 th century from a more global perspective. Daniel Marc Segesser was able to prove in his study on Australia and the British Empire in the First World War that, although elements of total war such as the internment of enemy aliens, the centralization of decision-making with regard to the economy or the tightened control of the state over social norms could be identified, other aspects were not present in this war in Australia.
Almost no battles took place in this region of the world and the country suffered no war damage except for the loss of a huge number of men who died on the battlefields far away from their home. Nevertheless there were some concrete examples that clearly point into the direction of total war. For him the issue of radicalization was more important than the experience of total war.
Revolutionary ideology and the rise of nationalism , the two factors normally mentioned in this context were less important according to Bell.
Although McPherson agreed that the American Civil War had not been a total war from the beginning, it had become one along the way and merited to be labelled as such.
Mark E. He traced the term back to Giulio Douhet — and not to the French war effort as explained above — stating that it was a loose term with several meanings. Furthermore, Neely expressed some surprise at the fact that many American historians had become attracted to a term which had originated amongst right-wing fascist and national socialist activists in Italy and Germany.
This, he explained, was due to the respectability the term had won especially in the United States during the Second World War when it was linked to the old idea of the planning and mobilization of the domestic economy for the war effort.
Arthur Marwick used the term in when looking at the organisation and mobilization of society in Britain. Influenced by the conference series Richard Bessel looked at the mobilization of the German economy during the First World War. He concluded:. Niall Ferguson pointed to the fact that the mobilization of the financial resources for the war had remained limited and Hew Strachan stressed the fact that although elements of total war had been present in the First World War, in other aspects it had remained limited.
According to Segesser it was, however, important to realize that the tendencies toward total warfare not only became more pronounced between and but also a more global phenomenon. However, he shows that linked ideas were important for East Asia as well.
Total War always was and is a controversial term in its use by politicians or the military and as a concept for academic research. There are no signs that there will be a change to this in the future.
The term may even offer opportunities for more transnational perspectives in future research on large-scale wars such as the First or the Second World War, the French and Napoleonic Wars or colonial wars. Section Editor: Holger Afflerbach. International Encyclopedia of the First World War, ed. DOI : Version 1.
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