Hi! Welcome to “Dusty Phrases.” You will find below an ancient phrase in one language or another, along with its English translation. You may also find the power to inspire your friends or provoke dread among your enemies.
This phrase is ancient and it relates to the idea that war fighters should survive on the resources of the territories they occupy or conquer. On the one hand, this might seem somewhat bleak and cruel, both to the conquered and to the men who have been sent to fight, because a policy such as this could lead to mass starvation by one side or the other. On the other, this policy provides a limiting principle for the use of the military. Under such a policy, military spending will not often be a valid reason for failure to take care of citizens at home. And if war must feed itself, troops won’t be sent out endlessly, without purpose, and both sides of a dispute will feel a stronger pull toward statesmanship in lieu of battle because the stakes will be higher. In protracted campaigns, this type of policy also incentivizes a military not to totally destroy conquered territory, lest the occupied lands cease being able to provide necessary resources such as food and materials.
Of course, the underlying assumption of this policy is that it represents the military aggressor, and not the defender. More on the phrase – via wiki:
The Latin phrase bellum se ipsum alet (English: The war will feed itself) or bellum se ipsum alit (English: The war feeds itself, French: La guerre doit se nourrir elle-même), and its German rendering Der Krieg ernährt den Krieg describe the military strategy of feeding and funding armies primarily with the resources of occupied territories. It is closely associated with mass starvation in the population of these territories. The phrase, coined by Ancient Roman statesman Cato the Elder, is primarily associated with the Thirty Years’ War (1618–1648).
Prior to the Thirty Years’ War, the laws of the Holy Roman Empire provided for funding armies by raising special war taxes. The funds needed for the large armies raised during the war however exceeded the income of the respective warlords from those taxes, and forced them to resort to additional, unfavourable measures such as borrowing of money and currency depreciation. In the course of the war, the principle of bellum se ipsum alet was applied in two phases: First, the food supplies needed for the army were derived directly from the territory occupied by this army. Later, the pay for the soldiers was derived from the occupied territory as well.
Tilly, the first to implement bellum se ipsum alet on occupied enemy territory in 1623
In 1623, the principle was implemented by the Upper Saxon Circle on its own territory, and by Johann Tserclaes, Count of Tilly, commander of the Catholic League‘s army, on occupied enemy territory. The Upper Saxon Circle had raised an army for its defense, and dispersed it over its territory. The territory was divided into Kontributionsbezirke (“contribution districts”), each of which had to provide certain amounts of food for the soldiers as well as the horses. The soldiers were quartered in the houses of ordinary people, who had to provide shelter, food and Servisgeld, a defined sum to allow the soldier to buy firewood and salt.
These measures were self-imposed by the circle’s nobility, and the local authorities were given the task of their implementation. In contrast, Tilly imposed analogous measures in the same year on a territory he had just conquered, Hersfeld. The contributions he demanded were unreasonably high, and were collected with military means.
In 1625, Albrecht von Wallenstein had promised Holy Roman EmperorFerdinand II to raise an army and fund it himself. Ferdinand II allowed Wallenstein to exploit occupied territory with the caveat that money should not be collected by force without his approval. This caveat was however neglected, and the army was fed and paid entirely by contributions and war loot. Subsequently, all armies participating in the war adapted the bellum se ipsum alet principle.
Contributions from occupied territories, divided into Kontributionsbezirke, were collected by military force and by local authorities forced to cooperate. The affected territories were thereby ruined. The need to borrow money to satisfy the military demands during the Thirty Years’ War resulted in an indebtedness that many German communities bore until the 18th century.
Thank you! I’ve always felt like there are a lot of old words and phrases that one occasionally hears without necessarily knowing what they mean or where they come from. I turned one of my google habits into a recurring series.
Interesting topic and writing style.
Thank you! I’ve always felt like there are a lot of old words and phrases that one occasionally hears without necessarily knowing what they mean or where they come from. I turned one of my google habits into a recurring series.