Levée en masse
An example of levée en masse (French pronunciation: [ləve ɑ̃ mɑs] or, in English, "mass levy" was the policy of forced mass military conscription of all able-bodied, unmarried men between the ages of 18 and 25 adopted in the aftermath of the French Revolution of 1789. The term may also be applied to other historical examples of mass conscription.
The concept originated as a French term for mass conscription during the French Revolutionary Wars, particularly for the period following 16 August 1793. It formed an integral part of the creation of national identity, making it unique from forms of conscription which had existed before this date.
The term levée en masse denotes a short-term requisition of all able-bodied men to defend the nation and its rise as a military tactic may be viewed in connection with the political events and developing ideology in revolutionary France, particularly the new concept of the democratic citizen as opposed to a royal subject.
Central to the understanding that developed (and was promoted by the authorities) of the levée is the idea that the new political rights given to the mass of the French people also created new obligations to the state. As the nation now understood itself as a community of all people, its defense also was assumed to become a responsibility of all. Thus, the levée en masse was created and understood as a means to defend the nation by the nation.
Historically, the levée en masse heralded the age of the people's war and displaced restricted forms of warfare, such as the cabinet wars (1715–1792), when armies of professional soldiers fought without the general participation of the population.
The first modern use of levée en masse occurred during the French Revolutionary Wars. Under the Ancien Régime, there had been some conscription (by ballot) to a militia, milice, to supplement the large standing army in times of war. This was unpopular with the peasant communities on which it fell, and was one of their grievances which they expected to be addressed by the French Estates-General when it was convened in 1789, to strengthen the French monarchy. When this instead led to the French Revolution, the milice was duly abolished by the National Assembly.
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