Total war is a specific form of a worldwide conflict when all nations’ resources are used to guarantee a country’s victory in this war. Thus, the focus is on the active mobilization of all human and material resources to address the military needs of a nation during wartime. Additionally, the concept is also used to speak about a conflict involving different nations from all over the globe when they concentrate on achieving total or absolute victory over the enemy. This is achieved through the invasion and annihilation of the foreign population. While referring to this explanation of the concept, it is necessary to discuss specific features of WWI that made it be viewed as a total war.
WWI can be discussed as the first total war because of its certain characteristics and aspects. Although WWI had the features of a total war before the United Sates’ joining the conflict, after that, the applied military means became even more inhuman. For instance, in all European countries participating in WWI, much attention was paid to the mobilization of available resources. Most industries became military-oriented, technologies were used for the purposes of the war, people were actively recruited as soldiers, the consumption of civilians was regulated, and borders were closed to prevent invasions. While preserving national borders, enemies tried to occupy new territories and set their power in new lands by demonstrating cruelty and inhumanity in relation to the representatives of other nations. Furthermore, enemies’ success depended on the level of industrial development in their country, as technologies played a key role in this war.
The change of WWI from the war for protecting national interests to total war is significant because the associated modifications transformed societies and economies in Europe. National and military leaders became interested only in achieving the victory by all means, and the state of mobilization in countries extremely changed the life of Europeans. There were alterations in their clothes, nutrition, labor, daily activities, and culture. The development of a total war, which was significantly destructive for nations, also led to certain radical social views, as it was in Russia. As a result, after WWI, all the aspects of Europeans’ life changed dramatically. It was also possible to observe the transformations in governments and regimes that became the outcomes of total war.