Answer:
a) governments focused on the war rather than the economy.
b) governments equipped, transported, and supported millions of troops.
Explanation:
Total war is a term of the twentieth century that describes a war in which countries or nations mobilize and force to the limit all available resources, whether human, military, industrial, agricultural, natural, technological, scientific, or of any other kind, to totally destroy the ability of another country or nation to engage in a war. The practice of total warfare has been used for centuries, but it was not until the mid-nineteenth century that it was recognized as a different way of waging war.
The concept of total war is usually attributed to Carl von Clausewitz, but in reality Clausewitz was interested in the related philosophical concept of absolute war, a war free of any political restriction, something that Clausewitz considered impossible. The two terms, absolute war and total war, are often confused. Christopher Bassford, professor of strategy at National War College, describes the difference as follows: "It is also important to keep in mind that Clausewitz's concept of absolute war is quite different from the later concept of 'total war'. The total war was a prescription of warfare typified by the ideas of General Erich Ludendorff, who took control of the German war effort during the First World War. In this sense, total warfare meant the complete subordination of politics to war - an idea that Clausewitz flatly rejected - and the assumption that total victory or total defeat were the only options. Total warfare did not imply the suspension of the effects of time and space, as Clausewitz's concept of absolute war did. " Goebbels convinced Hitler to reach those extremes.
