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History vocabulary · Wars, Treaties and Diplomacy

Total war

Meaning in history, with examples

nounCommon term

In history, total war means: Warfare involving extensive mobilization of a society's resources and a broad erosion of distinctions between military and civilian spheres.

In Turkish: topyekün savaş

How it is used

Historians debate how fully particular wars fit the label; total is not a literal claim about every person.

Example sentences

  1. The factory records show how total war reshaped civilian production.

    Economic mobilization extends warfare beyond the battlefield.

  2. The seminar tested the limits of calling this conflict a total war.

    The category invites comparison rather than automatic classification.

Common collocations

  • total war economy
  • the concept of total war
  • world warA war in which most of the world's major powers take part and fighting spreads across several continents; in practice, the wars of 1914–1918 and 1939–1945.
  • industrializationThe process by which an economy shifts from mainly farming and handicrafts to large-scale manufacturing in factories using machines.

More terms: Wars, Treaties and Diplomacy

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