Total war is a type of warfare that includes any and all civilian-associated resources and infrastructure as legitimate military targets, mobilizes all of the resources of society to fight the war, and gives priority to warfare over non-combatant needs. The term has been defined as "A war that is unrestricted in terms of the weapons used, the territory or combatants involved, or the objectives pursued, especially one in which the laws of war are disregarded." In the mid-19th century, scholars identified total war as a separate class of warfare. In a total war, the differentiation between combatants and non-combatants diminishes due to the capacity of opposing sides to consider nearly every human, including non-combatants, as resources that are used in the war effort. Characteristics According to an analysis by Tiziano Peccia of Stig Förster's works, total war is characterized on four dimensions: Total purposes (aim of continuous growth of the power of the parties involved and hegemonic visions); Total methods (similar and common methodologies among countries that intend to increase their spheres of influence); Total mobilization (inclusion in the conflict of parties not traditionally involved, such as women and children or individuals who are not part of the armed bodies); Total control (multisectoral centralization of the powers and orchestration of the activities of the countries in a small circle of dictators or oligarchs, with crossfunctional control over education and culture, media / propaganda, economic and political activities). Tiziano Peccia adds a fifth dimension to Förster's: "total change". After a total war, the analysis shows that the political, cultural, economic and social assets persist beyond the end of the conflict ("total war is an earthquake that has the world as its epicenter"). Actions that may characterize the post-19th century concept of total war include: Strategic bombing, as during World War II, the Korean War, and the Vietnam War (Operations Rolling Thunder and Linebacker II) Blockade and sieging of population centers, as with the Allied blockade of Germany and the Siege of Leningrad during the First and Second World Wars Scorched earth policy, as with the March to the Sea during the American Civil War and the Japanese "Three Alls Policy" during the Second Sino-Japanese War Commerce raiding, tonnage war, and unrestricted submarine warfare, as with privateering, the German U-Boat campaigns of the First and Second World Wars, and the United States submarine campaign against Japan during World War II Collective punishment,