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IMO, the whole not attacking civilians idiology came about because of WWII.
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There's variation both through history and from culture to culture. In Europe, the idea that you didn't target civilians (at least not white, European civilians -- mileage may vary out in the colonies . . .) got established, I think, during the 1700s, and got more mileage in the century of relative peace between Napoleon and WW1. Part of the propaganda that justified the UK entering the war was how savage the German military was being to Belgian and Dutch civilians (which was deemed outside the pale of acceptable, civilized behavior, not just an aspect of how the game was played).
Obviously, things got notably nastier in WW2 and generated intensification of that sentiment. The big innovation evolving out of WW2 in this field is probably the idea of a world community that will hold combatants individually criminally accountable for actions that fall outside accepted wartime behavior.