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There's really two sides of that argument.
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That's one, the mobilization of resources.
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The leve en masse, a mass military conscription
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that all male citizens are going to be in the army.
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This starts with the French Revolution.
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After all, Valmy was the battle near the windmill in Chalon,
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near Champagne in the east of France,
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the Sans-Culottes going to war--was the leve en masse
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where ordinary people are full of enthusiasm in
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singing patriotic songs or heading off to fight the enemy.
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But the other side of this total war story is,
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of course, what happens to the civilian population?