THE MAGNITUDE OF THE EFFORT REQUIRED IN A MODERN NATIONAL WAR
This point is here illustrated with more detail from Clausewitz than
may seem necessary to some, because it is precisely the point regarding
modern war which is least understood in this country.
"The complete overthrow of the enemy is the natural end of the art of
war." "As this idea must apply to both the belligerent parties, it
must follow, that there can be no suspension in the military act, and
peace cannot take place until one or other of the parties concerned is
completely overthrown." This is what Clausewitz means by Absolute War,
that is war carried to its absolute and logical conclusion with the
utmost force, the utmost effort and the utmost energy. He then proceeds
to show that war, owing "to all the natural inertia and friction of its
parts, the whole of the inconsistency, the vagueness and hesitation (or
timidity) of the human mind," usually takes a weaker or less absolute
form according to circumstances. "All this, theory must admit, but it
is its duty to give the foremost place to the absolute form of war, and
to use that form as a general point of direction." He then proceeds to
show that war finally took its absolute form under Napoleon. To-day we
may say that war takes its absolute form in the modern great national
war, which is waged by each belligerent with the whole concentrated
physical and mental power of the nation-in-arms.
This requires to be gone into a little more in detail, for it is a
most important point.
Clausewitz in Book VIII. approaches this part of his subject by an
historical survey of war from the time of the Roman Empire to that
of Napoleon. He shows how as the feudal system gradually merged into
the later monarchical States of Europe, armies gradually became less
and less national, more and more mercenary. Omitting this, we arrive
at the seventeenth century. He says: "The end of the seventeenth
century, the time of Louis XIV., is to be regarded as the point in
history at which the standing military power, such as it existed in the
eighteenth century, reached its zenith. That military force was based
on enlistment and money. States had organized themselves into complete
unities; and the governments, by commuting the personal services of
their subjects into money payments, had concentrated their whole power
in their treasuries. Through the rapid strides in social improvements,
and a more enlightened system of government, this power had become very
great in comparison with what it had been. France appeared in the field
with a standing army of a couple of hundred thousand men, and the other
Powers in proportion."
Armies were supported out of the Treasury, which the sovereign regarded
partly as his privy purse, at least as a resource belonging to the
Government, and not to the people. Relations with other States, except
with respect to a few commercial subjects, mostly concerned only the
interests of the Treasury or of the Government, not those of the
people; at least ideas tended everywhere in that way. The Cabinets
therefore looked upon themselves as the owners and administrators
of large estates, which they were continually seeking to increase,
without the tenants on those estates being particularly interested in
this improvement.
The people, therefore, who in the Tartar invasions were everything in
war, who in the old republics and in the Middle Ages were of great
consequence, were in the eighteenth century absolutely nothing directly.
In this manner, in proportion as the Government separated itself more
from the people, and regarded itself as the State, war became more and
more exclusively a business of the Government, which it carried on
by means of the money in its coffers and the idle vagabonds it could
pick up in its own and neighbouring countries. The army was a State
property, very expensive, and not to be lightly risked in battle.
"In its signification war was only diplomacy somewhat intensified, a
more vigorous way of negotiating, in which battles and sieges were
substituted for diplomatic notes."
"Plundering and devastating the enemy's country were no longer in
accordance with the spirit of the age." "They were justly looked upon
as unnecessary barbarity." "War, therefore, confined itself more and
more, both as regards means and ends, to the army itself. The army,
with its fortresses and some prepared positions, constituted a State in
a State, within which the element of war slowly consumed itself. All
Europe rejoiced at its taking this direction, and held it to be the
necessary consequence of the spirit of progress."
So think many in this country to-day. They are only a hundred years
behind the times.
"The plan of a war on the part of the State assuming the offensive in
those times consisted generally in the conquest of one or other of the
enemy's provinces; the plan of the defender was to prevent this. The
plan of campaign was to take one or other of the enemy's fortresses, or
to prevent one of our own being taken; it was only when a battle became
unavoidable for this purpose that it was sought for and fought. Whoever
fought a battle without this unavoidable necessity, from mere innate
desire of gaining a victory, was reckoned a general with too much
daring." For armies were too precious to be lightly risked. "Winter
quarters, in which the mutual relations of the two parties almost
entirely ceased, formed a distinct limit to the activity which was
considered to belong to one campaign." "As long as war was universally
conducted in this manner, all was considered to be in the most regular
order." "Thus there was eminence and perfection of every kind, and
even Field-Marshal Daun, to whom it was chiefly owing that Frederick
the Great completely attained his object, and Maria Theresa completely
failed in hers, notwithstanding that could still pass for a great
general."
Beyond this stage of military thought, many in this country have not
yet advanced.
* * * * *
"Thus matters stood when the French Revolution broke out; Austria
and Prussia tried their diplomatic art of war; this very soon proved
insufficient. Whilst, according to the usual way of seeing things,
all hopes were placed on a very limited military force in 1793, such
a force as no one had any conception of made its appearance. War had
suddenly become again an affair of the people, and that of a people
numbering thirty millions, every one of whom regarded himself as a
citizen of the State." "_By this participation of the people in the
war_, instead of a cabinet and an army, a whole nation with its natural
weight came into the scale. Henceforth the means available--the efforts
which might be called forth--had no longer any definite limits; the
energy with which the war itself might be conducted had no longer any
counterpoise, and consequently the danger to the adversary had risen to
the extreme."
If only our politicians could learn this old lesson of the French
Revolution! For many, too many, of them appear to derive their ideas of
war to-day from some dim reminiscent recollections of school histories
of the wars in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries.
To continue: "After all this was perfected by the hand of Bonaparte,
this military power based on the strength of the whole nation, marched
over Europe, smashing everything in pieces so surely and certainly,
that where it only encountered the old-fashioned armies the result was
not doubtful for a moment.
"A reaction, however, awoke in due time. In Spain the war became of
itself an affair of the people." In Austria. In Russia. "In Germany
Prussia rose up the first, made the war a national cause, and without
either money or credit, and with a population reduced one-half, took
the field with an army twice as strong as in 1806. The rest of Germany
followed the example of Prussia sooner or later." "Thus it was that
Germany and Russia, in the years 1813 and 1814, appeared against France
with about a million of men."
"Under these circumstances the energy thrown into the conduct of war
was quite different." "In eight months the theatre of war was removed
from the Oder to the Seine. Proud Paris had to bow its head for the
first time; and the redoubtable Bonaparte lay fettered on the ground."
"Therefore, since the time of Bonaparte, war, through being, first on
one side, then again on the other, an affair of the whole nation, has
assumed quite a new nature, or rather it has approached much nearer
to its real nature, to its absolute perfection. The means then called
forth had no visible limit, the limit losing itself in the energy
and enthusiasm of the Government and its subjects. By the extent of
the means, and the wide field of possible results, as well as by
the powerful excitement of feeling which prevailed, energy in the
conduct of war was immensely increased; the object of its action was
the downfall of the foe; and not until the enemy lay powerless on
the ground was it supposed to be possible to stop, or to come to any
understanding with regard to the mutual objects of the contest.
"Thus, therefore the element of war, freed from all conventional
restrictions, broke loose with all its natural force. The cause was the
participation of the people in this great affair of State, and this
participation arose partly from the effects of the French Revolution on
the internal affairs of other countries, partly from the threatening
attitude of the French towards all nations.
"Now, whether this will be the case always in future, whether all wars
hereafter in Europe will be carried on with the whole power of the
States, and, consequently, _will only take place on account of great
interests closely affecting the people_, would be a difficult point to
settle. But every one will agree with us that, at least, _Whenever
great interests are in dispute_, mutual hostility will discharge itself
in the same manner as it has done in our times."
REFLECTIONS
This is so true, that every war since the days of Clausewitz has made
its truth more apparent. Since he wrote, the participation of the
people in war has become, not a revolutionary fact, but an organized
fact, an ordinary fact in the everyday life of nations. To-day every
State except Great Britain, securely based on the system of the
universal training of its sons to arms, stands ready to defend its
interests with the whole concentrated power, physical, intellectual,
and material, of its whole manhood. Consequently, European war,
as Clausewitz foresaw, "will only take place on account of great
interests closely affecting the people." The character of such war
will be absolute, the object of its action will be the downfall of the
foe, and not till the foe (be it Great Britain or not) lies powerless
on the ground will it be supposed possible to stop. In the prosecution
of such a national war the means available, the energy and the effort
called forth, will be without limits. Such must be the conflicts of
nations-in-arms.
Yet, even now, so many years after Clausewitz wrote, in the hope, as he
himself stated, "to iron out many creases in the heads of strategists
and statesmen," the great transformation in the character of modern
war, due to the participation of the people therein, has not yet been
adequately realized by many men in this country _who ought to know_.
It is earnestly to be hoped that they will endeavour to adjust their
minds, as regards war, to the fact that we are living, not in the
eighteenth century, but in the twentieth, and that they will consider
that war has once for all become an affair of the people, that our
opponents will be a people-in-arms, using the uttermost means of their
whole manhood to crush us, and that disaster can only be prevented by a
like utmost effort on our part, by an effort regardless of everything
except self-preservation.