Conscription is the state-mandated enlistment of people in a national service, mainly a military service. Conscription dates back to antiquity and it continues in some countries to the present day under various names. The modern system of near-universal national conscription for young men dates to the French Revolution in the 1790s, where it became the basis of a very large and powerful military. Most European nations later copied the system in peacetime, so that men at a certain age would serve 1 to 8 years on active duty and then transfer to the reserve force.
Painting depicting a battle during the Ōnin War
Ottoman janissaries
Painting depicting the Departure of the Conscripts of 1807 by Louis-Léopold Boilly
Conscription of Poles to the Russian Army in 1863 (by Aleksander Sochaczewski)
Military service is service by an individual or group in an army or other militia, air forces, and naval forces, whether as a chosen job (volunteer) or as a result of an involuntary draft (conscription).
Military service in Spain (1945)
Timetable of military duties, Switzerland