Total war is a war in which a belligerent engages in the complete mobilization of fully available resources and population.
In the mid-19th century, "total war" was identified by scholars as a separate class of warfare. In a total war, there is less differentiation between combatants and civilians than in other conflicts, and sometimes no such differentiation at all, as nearly every human resource, civilians and soldiers alike, can be considered to be part of the belligerent effort.
Playing a major part in main conflicts from the French Revolutionary Wars to the World War II, the employment of total war was replaced in the modern era for cheaper, quicker and more effective policies including Guerrilla warfare and the adoption of weapons of mass destruction.
Read more about Total War: Etymology
Famous quotes containing the words total and/or war:
“Both the man of science and the man of art live always at the edge of mystery, surrounded by it. Both, as a measure of their creation, have always had to do with the harmonization of what is new with what is familiar, with the balance between novelty and synthesis, with the struggle to make partial order in total chaos.... This cannot be an easy life.”
—J. Robert Oppenheimer (1904–1967)
“The Revolution was effected before the War commenced. The Revolution was in the minds and hearts of the people; a change in their religious sentiments of their duties and obligations.... This radical change in the principles, opinions, sentiments, and affections of the people, was the real American Revolution.”
—John Adams (1735–1826)