History glossary
levée en masse
the mass mobilisation decree that called French citizens into national service in 1793.
- Category
- Military policy
- Region
- France
- Date range
- 1793
What it means
The levée en masse was the mass mobilisation of August 1793. It called able-bodied men to fight and directed the wider population toward supporting the war effort.
Related terms
Stories using this term
The French Revolution
From royal debt and social inequality to republic, terror, and Napoleon, the French Revolution dismantled the old order and produced the political ideas of citizenship, rights, and nationalism that defined the modern world.
Napoleon and the Napoleonic Wars
Napoleon turned revolutionary opportunity into continental empire, then lost it in total war that still transformed European politics, states, and nationalism.
