conscription
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Conscription is a system where governments require citizens to serve in the military for a set period of time. It matters because it affects who serves in armed forces, shapes military capacity, and influences how different countries distribute the responsibility and burden of national defense among their populations.
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60 sectionsContents
- History
- In pre-modern times
- Ilkum
- Roman Dilectus
- Medieval period
- Medieval levies
- Military slavery
- In modern times
- World Wars
- Arguments against conscription
- Sexism
- Involuntary servitude
- Economic
- Arguments for conscription
- Political and moral motives
- Economic and resource efficiency
- Types of conscription systems
- Drafting of women
- Conscription of people with disabilities
- Conscription for autistic people
- Conscientious objection
- By country
- Austria
- Belgium
- Bulgaria
- Cambodia
- Canada
- China
- Cuba
- Cyprus
- Denmark
- Eritrea
- Estonia
- Finland
- France
- Germany
- Greece
- Iran
- Israel
- Lithuania
- Luxembourg
- Moldova
- Netherlands
- Norway
- Russia
- Serbia
- Singapore
- South Africa
- South Korea
- Sweden
- Taiwan
- Turkey
- United Kingdom
- United States
- Other countries
- See also
- References
- Sources
- Further reading
- External links
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Conscription, also known as the draft in American English, is the practice in which the compulsory enlistment in a national service, mainly a military service, is enforced by law. Conscription dates back to antiquity and it continues in some countries to the present day under various names. The modern system of near-universal national conscription for young men dates to the French Revolution in the 1790s, where it became the basis of a very large and powerful military. Most European nations later copied the system in peacetime, so that men at a certain age would serve 1 to 8 years on active duty and then transfer to the reserve force. In the early 2000s, Norway and Sweden became the first nations to conscript women on the same legal terms as men. In 2025, Denmark ruled to implement a similar system.