What is a military innovation and why it matters

Abstract

Levée en mass is standardized and nationalized compulsory military service. While popularly described as "invented" by a 1793 French law, there was a gap between the ideological claims of the 1793 levée en mass and reality. Making conscription work would require the reorientation of French industry, a strategy for dealing with desertion, and the establishment of new promotion patterns. The provision for a system of annual recruitment did not really come until the Jourdan law of 1798, when implementation of levée en mass occurred with a true institutional framework for the yearly replenishment of the ranks of the French Army. While this framework was not without its challenges, its bureaucratization under Napoleon Bonaparte provided the steady flow of manpower needed for his grand empire. 1 No single stage in this innovation process alone sufficiently captures the extent of change required for the ultimate integration and diffusion of compulsory service. Moreover, while the levée framework would serve as a model that would then diffuse across Europe, and the wider world, it would not always produce successful results.

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