Countries with military service rely on the mobilisation of their reservists when they come under attack. Russia’s invasion of Ukraine in 2022 has made it essential for the latter to mobilise its reserve forces. The former, too, has brought reservists into the conflict. However, there has been a key difference in the way Ukrainian reservists and Russian reservists have responded to the draft. Examples from history can help us understand why this might have been the case.
One of the great crises of the Spanish political system at the beginning of the 20th century was the Moroccan War. This was a colonial adventure aimed at taking new territories in North Africa to compensate for the loss of Cuba, Puerto Rico, the Philippines and Guam to the US in 1898. However, it provoked large popular mobilisations in Spain, beginning in 1909.
