266 CHAPTER EigHT ■ War and Strife
and neighboring countries— ranks among the world’s most complicated and deadly
civil wars.
Although some civil wars remain contained within state bound aries, civil wars are
increasingly international—as we can see in Libya, Syria, and the Demo cratic Republic
of Congo. The repercussions of civil wars are felt across borders, as refugees from civil
conflicts flow into neighboring states and funds are transferred out of the country.
States, groups, and individuals from outside the warring country become involved by
funding par tic u lar groups, selling weapons to vari ous factions, and giving diplomatic
support to one group over another. Thus, although the issues over which belligerents
fight are often local, once started, most civil wars quickly become internationalized.
t otal and limited War
Tot a l w a r s tend to be armed conflicts involving massive loss of life and widespread
destruction, usually with many participants, including multiple major powers. These
wars are fought for high stakes: one or more belligerents seek to conquer and occupy
enemy territory or to take over the government of an opponent and/or control an oppo-
nent’s economic resources. Total wars are often fought over conflicts of ideas (commu-
nism versus capitalism; democracy versus authoritarianism) or religion (Catholic versus
Protestant; Shiite versus Sunni Muslim; Hinduism versus Islam). In total war, decision
makers marshal all available national resources— conscripted labor; indiscriminate
weapons of warfare; economic, diplomatic, and natu ral resources—to force the uncon-
ditional surrender of their opponents. Importantly, even when opposing military forces
are the primary target, in total war, opposing civilian casualties are accepted or even
deliberately sought in pursuit of victory. The Thirty Years’ War (1618–48), the longest
total war ever fought, involved numerous great powers ( Eng land, France, Habsburg
Austria, the Netherlands, Spain, and Sweden) and resulted in over 2 million battle-
field deaths. The War of the Spanish Succession (1701–14) pitted most of the same
powers against each other again and ended in over 1 million deaths. At the begin-
ning of the nineteenth century, the Napoleonic Wars (1799–1815) resulted in over
2.5 million deaths in battle. In each war, civilian loss of life either equaled or dra-
matically exceeded battlefield deaths. For much of the seventeenth and eigh teenth
centuries, wars between and among great powers were common.
World War I and World War II were critical watersheds in the history of total war.
The same great powers fought in both: Britain, France, Austria- Hungary, Germany,
Japan, Rus sia/the Soviet Union, and the United States. But just as industrialization
revolutionized agriculture and transport, it also revolutionized the killing power of
states. Industrialization demanded workers, who moved from rural areas to concen-
trate in cities. The scope of the battlefield, once restricted to the physical areas over
which soldiers fought, after World War I, soon expanded to include armaments and