MILITARISM: HISTORY AND CHARACTERISTICS - CULTURE VOCABULARY - 2025

The militarism is that ideology which is based on the premise that to preserve the peace and stability of a nation must prepare for combat. It also establishes that you must be prepared to fight against those who threaten the peace of the nation.

Talking about ideology means explaining the ideas and codes that serve as the basis for the behaviors, customs and procedures that make up identity. The military constitute an armed body created by some nations to provide protection and protection to the civil government. Not all countries have armed forces.

This group of people trained in the trade of making war, must act within the framework of norms and values ​​that constitute their ideology.

Military ideology is conservative and preference is given to order, hierarchy, discipline, and the preeminence of traditionalist institutions such as the family, the Church, and private property.

Military ideology

At times, military ideology assumes corporatist tendencies; the ideology is not of individuals but of groups. In the case of the armed forces, militarism arises, which can be imposed on the rest of the inhabitants by force through violent subjection to annex them to their ranks.

A militarized society is one that trusts its stability in its weapons, soldiers, officers and their ways. All of them are considered essential to resolve conflicts and avoid fragmentation of the nation.

In this sense, their presence and active participation in the decisions and actions of the public administration and government institutions in general are approved.

Another form of militarism is that which is exerted by putting military and political pressure on other countries. It is classified according to their level of development, their areas of power and whether or not they belong to power blocks or factions.

How do you know a country is militarized?

Among the symptoms of the militarization of a country, the following stand out:

- Allocate huge portions of the national budget to armament and optimization of military technology.

- Establishment of compulsory military service to guarantee a contingent of people trained to obey.

- The general belief that the most prestigious attributes are masculine and violent.

Although there are those who praise the organization and the military methods, militarism is questioned by a wide sector of humanity, since the result of its actions costs great suffering and innumerable deaths, both of trained troops and innocent civilians.

Military thought considers everything in two closed categories: one is friend or enemy. In civil society, this kind of logic is too rigid and inconvenient.

The leaders of a nation must know how to negotiate and reach agreements. In this area, military officers are completely inexperienced who, on the contrary, are skilled in persuasion techniques through combat.

History

The first scholars to use the term "militarism" were Louis Balnc and Pierre J. Proudhom. The concept is not recent, since in the 19th century it was applied to the kingdom of Prussia (now Germany).

From 1644 Prussia unified into regiments mercenaries experts in the handling of weapons and combat techniques, who until then served private individuals and who were recruited by King Frederick William I (known as the soldier king).

This ruler created guidelines and penalties for transgressive militants and founded an institution for the training of officers and the professionalization of soldiers.

It also multiplied its armed forces, making it the fourth largest and most powerful army in Europe. In addition, he established a code of moral conduct known as the Prussian Virtues.

Frederick II

Later, his son and successor, Frederick II, who was a great enthusiast for the military arts, brought his father's work to completion. He optimized the army in its imperialist work of attack and expansion of its borders.

All the activities of Prussian society revolved around the army. The aristocrats led (officers), the middle class provided the supplies (suppliers, producers, and merchants), and the peasants made up the army corps (troops).

Admired by some, demonized by others, militarism was always between two waters. At the beginning he was harshly criticized as an indicator of backwardness, of barbarism. A militarized country was seen as primitive, violent and destructive.

Today militarization has become the banner proudly carried by the most developed and wealthy powers in the West.

The militaristic system has evolved from the creation of large and efficient attack corps to the creation of true arms industries. These not only feature soldiers and officers as actors on the scene, but also politicians, businessmen and the media.

Some civilians rally and support the militarization of their own society, and are orchestrated in symphony with lethal bombardments of other nations.

characteristics

In normal situations, the armed forces are usually under the command of the head of state and have a constitutional framework that justifies their creation and maintenance.

In a situation of militarization, military intervention exceeds and covers civil institutions, generating the phenomenon of armies with nations instead of nations with armies.

In a militarized society its structure is based on the hierarchy, where there are officers and troops of different ranks. Civilians are left to serve these structures.

The officers have economic and political support from the right. In the case of the imperialist armies, the external adversaries are those countries that have some mineral or natural resource desired by the power in arms. So are neighboring countries whose territory represents the geographic expansion of the empire.

There, the media conditions are created to generate the direct attack and the subsequent invasion and looting. The internal enemies are usually the same residents who, fed up with social injustices, repression, corruption and violence, rebel and organize outbreaks.

These are neutralized by their own compatriots, who have been well equipped with weapons to suffocate their adversaries.

Each country designs its army to measure, according to its needs, its possible intraterritorial and extraterritorial threats, as well as according to its geographical location, its budget and the density of its population.

Militarism in World War I

The colonialist countries of Europe wanted to conserve and further expand their territories to increase their power. This added to the already existing rivalry between the countries and the great industrial boom in arms.

Finally, all of the above became the perfect trigger to start the unbridled competition for the acquisition of more and better weapons.

This competition led to the First World War, also called the Great War. In this huge numbers of soldiers were mobilized.

References

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3. What is militarism? Center for Women's Global Leadership Rutgers, The State University of New Jersey. Recovered from 16dayscwgl.rutgers.edu
4. Karbuz, S. (2007). US military oil pains. Energy Bulletin. Recovered from: energybulletin.net
5. Sunta, A. (2015) Causes of the First World War, militarism. taken from: aprendehistora.blogspot.com