Candide's forced enlistment and maltreatment by the Bulgarian army underlines the miserable conditions of a war machine.
Military life is servitude, and punishment is inflicted liberally.
Voltaire may be referring to the Seven Years War between Prussia and the alliance between France, Russia, Austria, Saxony, and Sweden. The Bulgarians in Candide are Frederic the Great's Prussian army, and the Abares are the French. Both armies thank God for the carnage with Te Deums. The narrator calls the soldiers, who rape and disembowel young girls, heroes. International law commands the soldiers to burn villages.