Conscription, or
drafting, is the compulsory enlistment of people in a
national service, most often a
military service. Conscription dates back to antiquity and 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 1–8 years on
active duty and then transfer to the
reserve force.