In his Decemletter to his Chief of Staff during the American Civil War, Union general William Tecumseh Sherman wrote the Union was 'not only fighting hostile armies, but a hostile people, and must make old and young, rich and poor, feel the hard hand of war, as well as their organized armies,' defending Sherman's March to the Sea, the operation that inflicted widespread destruction of infrastructure in Georgia. Total war also describes the French 'guerre à outrance' during the Franco-Prussian War. Some authors extend the concept back as far as classic work of Carl von Clausewitz, On War, as 'absoluter Krieg' ( absolute war), even-though he did not use the term others interpret Clausewitz differently. The phrase 'total war' can be traced back to the 1935 publication of German general Erich Ludendorff's World War I memoir, Der totale Krieg ('The total war'). take no prisoners), as with Hitler's Commando Order during World War II

The use of civilians and prisoners of war as forced labor for military operations, as with Japan and Germany's massive use of forced laborers of other nations during World War II (see Slavery in Japan and Forced labor under German rule during World War II).

Industrial warfare, as with all belligerents in their respective home fronts during World War I and World War II.

Maillé massacre) and Poland during World War II

Collective punishment, pacification operations, and reprisals against populations deemed hostile, as with the execution and deportation of suspected Communards following the fall of the 1871 Paris Commune or the German reprisal policy targeting resistance movements, insurgents, and Untermenschen such as in France (e.g.

Commerce raiding, tonnage war, and unrestricted submarine warfare, as with privateering, the German U-Boat campaigns of the First and Second World Wars, and the United States submarine campaign against Japan during World War II.

Scorched earth policy, as with the March to the Sea during the American Civil War and the Japanese ' Three Alls Policy' during the Second Sino-Japanese War.

Blockade and sieging of population centers, as with the Allied blockade of Germany and the Siege of Leningrad during the First and Second World Wars.

Strategic bombing, as during World War II, the Korean War, and the Vietnam War (Operations Rolling Thunder and Linebacker II).

( January 2020) ( Learn how and when to remove this template message)Īctions that may characterize the post-19th century concept of total war include: Unsourced material may be challenged and removed. Please help improve this section by adding citations to reliable sources.

Empire total war civil war