We find ourselves face to face with a terrible danger. We are 
threatened by a war in which those who loathe it and have only 
common interests—the French proletariat and the German 
proletariat—will be forced to butcher each other. 

What is the real cause of this state of things? 

It is militarism, it is the introduction of the Prussian military 
system in all the major countries of the Continent. 

This system claims to arm the whole nation for the defence of 
its territory and its rights. That is a lie. 

The Prussian system ousted the system of limited conscription 
and substitution bought by the wealthy, because it placed at the 
disposal of rulers all the resources of their countries, both 
manpower and materials. But it has not been able to create a 
popular army. 

The Prussian system divides the citizens who are called up into 
two categories. The first are drafted into the army of the line, 
while the second are straightway assigned to the reserve or to the 
territorial army. The men in this second category receive no 
military instruction at all, or almost none; but the first serve with 
the colours for two or three years, sufficient time to turn them 
into an obedient army, accustomed to discipline, in other words an 
army ever ready to embark on foreign conquests and to suppress 
by violence any popular movements at home. For let us not forget 
that all the governments which have adopted this system are much 
more frightened of the working people within their frontiers than 
of rival governments beyond them. 

Thanks to its flexibility this system is capable of enormous 
expansion. For as long as there remains a single young man who 
has not been drafted into the army, the available resources have 
not been exhausted. Hence the frantic competition between the 
states as to which of them possesses the largest and strongest 
army. Every addition to the military force of one state prompts the 
other states to do the same, if not more. And all this costs an 
enormous amount of money. The peoples are crushed by the 
burden of military expenditure. Peace becomes almost more 
expensive than war, so that eventually war no longer seems like a 
terrible scourge, but like a salutary crisis which will put an end to 
an impossible situation. 

This is what has allowed intriguers of all countries keen to fish 
in troubled waters to press for war. 

And the remedy? 

Abolish the Prussian system, replace it with a truly popular 
army, an ordinary school into which any citizen capable of bearing 
arms will be drafted for the time strictly necessary in order to 
learn the soldier’s job; group the men graduating from this school 
into a reserve list, firmly organised by districts, so that every town, 
every canton has its own battalion, made up of men who know one 
another, united, armed, equipped, ready to march at twenty-four 
hours’ notice if necessary. This means that every man will keep his 
rifle and equipment at home, as they do in Switzerland. 

The first nation to adopt this system will double its real military 
strength while halving its war budget. It will prove its love of 
peace by the very fact of arming all its citizens. For this army, 
which is the nation itself, is as ill suited to conquest abroad as it is 
invincible in the defence of its own territory. And what government 
would dare lay a finger on civil liberties, if every citizen has at home his 
rifle and fifty rounds of ammunition? 

London, February 13, 1887 
Frederick Engels