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compulsory enrollment of personnel for service in the armed forces. Obligatory service in the armed forces has existed since ancient times in many cultures, including the samuraisamurai
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 in Japan, warriors in the Aztec Empire, citizen militiamen in ancient Greece and Rome, and aristocrats and their peasants or yeomen during the Middle Ages in Europe. In England, compulsory military service was employed on the local level in the Anglo-Saxon fyrd as early as the 9th cent. In the 16th cent. MachiavelliMachiavelli, Niccolò
, 1469–1527, Italian author and statesman, one of the outstanding figures of the Renaissance, b. Florence. Life

A member of the impoverished branch of a distinguished family, he entered (1498) the political service of the
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 argued that every able-bodied man in a nation was a potential soldier and could by means of conscription be required to serve in the armed forces. Conscription in the modern sense of the term dates from 1793, when the Convention of the French Republic raised an army of 300,000 men from the provinces. A few years later, conscription enabled Napoleon INapoleon I

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 to build his tremendous fighting forces. Following Napoleon's example, Muhammad Ali of Egypt raised a powerful army in the 1830s. Compulsory peacetime recruitment was introduced (1811–12) by Prussia. Mass armies, raised at little cost by conscription, completely changed the scale of battle by the time of the Napoleonic Wars. The institution of conscription, which was increasingly justified by statesmen on grounds of national defense and economic stimulation, spread to other European nations and Japan in the 19th cent. At the outbreak of World War I, Great Britain adopted conscription and used it again in World War II; it was abolished in 1962. Though little used in the United States prior to the Civil War, conscription was used by both sides in that war and in most large-scale U.S. wars since, often with great controversy. Most of the important military powers of the 20th cent. have used conscription to raise their armed forces. China, because of its large population, has a policy of selective conscription. Impressmentimpressment,
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 is the forcible mustering of recruits. It lacks the scope and bureaucratic form of conscription. Many countries throughout the world, such as Israel, have mandatory military service; a few allow for alternate civilian service or release for conscientious objectorsconscientious objector,
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. See also selective serviceselective service,
in U.S. history, term for conscription.

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a method of troop recruitment based on universal military service. This system was in force in France in the late 18th century and the 19th.

During the French Revolution the Convention decreed in August 1793 the compulsory mass levy into the army of all Frenchmen between the ages of 18 and 40, the first places to be filled by bachelors and childless men between the ages of 18 and 25. In 1798 a universal six-year military obligation became the law in France under the name of conscription. Originally military service was considered an inescapable personal responsibility, and no one could take anyone else’s place. But by 1800 provisions were made to make the system less strict so that replacements could serve for the conscripts and exemptions could be bought. Military service thus became obligatory but not personal. Conscription was in effect in France until 1872 and in Russia (only for residents of Poland) from 1815 to 1874. In the second half of the 19th century conscription was replaced by universal military service.


References in periodicals archive ?
"Human rights abuses against conscripted policemen should not be overlooked any longer."
The service of all the conscripts joining the ranks of the defense forces in July will last 11 months.
Unknown numbers of the young conscripts have also managed to escape from the convoy.
Al Mazrui added: "I have two brothers who are currently conscripted, they are like those who are doing their national duty.
Addressing women conscripts, she said, "Joining military service is not an easy decision for women generally; it requires sacrifice and you proved that are able to efficiently and effectively handle today's challenges."
Amparo found that 76 percent of conscripts had not received the proper call up papers and that 26 percent had been press-ganged into military service, a process known as "oblava" or "ambush." Shortly after publication of the report, a court order forced the closure of Amparo.
Families of 36 conscripts who died during their military service submitted complaints that the deaths of their relatives were suspicious.
It was not so difficult for observers to read the panic and gloominess on the faces of these conscripts while meeting President Morsi in a formal ceremony a few hours after their retrieval.
The opera-style parody Les Militaribles was made by 80 young conscripts for $900 and has become an internet sensation.
In response to ArmInfo's question about the inquiries into the recent deaths of conscripts and servicemen, the minister said that
THE last conscripts began their National Service 50 years ago.
By 1950, at the outbreak of the Korean War, conscripts were required to serve two years.