Economy
Although certain societies, especially nomadic raiders and mobile cavalry societies such as the Mongols, specialized in providing war effort-like support for their armies, the idea of a specialized war effort that diverted supplies, means of production, and people to military support came into general use only with the increased specialization of the industrial revolution. Previously, most military supplies were either common elements of the economy (food, clothing, horses) or specialized instruments produced only for war purposes by industries dedicated to the task (mainly weapons and military vehicles).
Moreover, in feudal societies, peasants—who were the great majority of the population—often perceived wars as the business of the aristocrats, and did not feel especially obliged to make an extra effort to help their country's aristocracy win a war with that of another country. The modern concept of a state belonging to its "people" carried the concomitant assumption that war was everybody's business and everyone, soldier or not, was expected to contribute actively to winning it.
Crossover use of peacetime elements of society and economy for wartime uses became important due to scarcity of manpower (due to the large size of armies) and specialized materials used for war production (rubber, aluminum, steel, etc.). The complex decisions involved in conversion to wartime use also necessitated organization and a bureaucracy; the term war effort was coined to describe these collective tasks.
Implicit in the concept of war effort was that the entire society was expected to contribute in some way; this served the double purpose of improving morale as well as resource conservation.
Further information: War economyClosely related is the concept of the Home Front—i.e., that civilians engaged in civilian pursuits (particularly, industrial production) are in effect also fighting the enemy on a "front" of their own, and that the result of their "fighting"—i.e., higher productivity, refraining from labor disputes, strikes, etc.—might determine the difference between victory and defeat.
Read more about this topic: War Effort
Famous quotes containing the word economy:
“It enhances our sense of the grand security and serenity of nature to observe the still undisturbed economy and content of the fishes of this century, their happiness a regular fruit of the summer.”
—Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)
“The aim of the laborer should be, not to get his living, to get “a good job,” but to perform well a certain work; and, even in a pecuniary sense, it would be economy for a town to pay its laborers so well that they would not feel that they were working for low ends, as for a livelihood merely, but for scientific, or even moral ends. Do not hire a man who does your work for money, but him who does it for love of it.”
—Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)
“Quidquid luce fuit tenebris agit: but also the other way around. What we experience in dreams, so long as we experience it frequently, is in the end just as much a part of the total economy of our soul as anything we “really” experience: because of it we are richer or poorer, are sensitive to one need more or less, and are eventually guided a little by our dream-habits in broad daylight and even in the most cheerful moments occupying our waking spirit.”
—Friedrich Nietzsche (1844–1900)