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A world war is an international War that involves most or all of the world's major powers. Conventionally, the term is reserved for two major international conflicts that occurred during the first half of the 20th century, World War I (1914–1918) and World War II (1939–1945), although some historians have also characterized other global conflicts as world wars, such as the Nine Years' War, the War of the Spanish Succession, the Seven Years' War, the French Revolutionary and Napoleonic Wars, the Cold War, and the War on terror.
The term "first world war" was first used in September 1914 by German biologist and philosopher Ernst Haeckel, who claimed that "there is no doubt that the course and character of the feared 'European War' ... will become the first world war in the full sense of the word", citing a wire service report in the Indianapolis Star on 20 September 1914. In English, the term "First World War" had been used by Lieutenant Colonel Charles à Court Repington, as a title for his memoirs (published in 1920); he had noted his discussion on the matter with a Major Johnstone of Harvard University in his diary entry of September 10, 1918. Also aired on QI Series I Episode 2, 16 September 2011, BBC Two.
The term "World War I" was coined by Time magazine on page 28 of its June 12, 1939, issue. In the same article, on page 32, the term "World WarII" was first used speculatively to describe the upcoming war. The first use for the actual war came in its issue of September 11, 1939. One week earlier, on September 4, the day after France and the United Kingdom declared war on Germany, the Danish newspaper Kristeligt Dagblad used the term on its front page, saying "The Second World War broke out yesterday at 11 a.m.""Den anden Verdenskrig udbrød i Gaar Middags Kl. 11", Kristeligt Dagblad, September 4, 1939, Extra edition.
Speculative fiction authors had been noting the concept of a Second World War in 1919 and 1920, when Milo Hastings wrote his dystopian novel, City of Endless Night.
Other languages have also adopted the "world war" terminology; for example, in French language, "world war" is translated as italic=yes; in German language, italic=yes (which, prior to the war, had been used in the more abstract meaning of a global conflict); in Italian language, italic=yes; in Spanish language and Portuguese, italic=yes; in Danish language and Norwegian, italic=yes; in Polish language italic=yes; in Russian language, italic=yes (italic=yes); and in Finnish language, italic=yes.
War crimes were perpetrated in World War I. Chemical weapons were used in the war despite the Hague Conventions of 1899 and 1907 having outlawed the use of such weapons in warfare. The Ottoman Empire was responsible for the Armenian genocide, during the First World War, as well as other war crimes.
The outcome of the war had a profound effect on the course of Human history. The old European empires collapsed or they were dismantled as a direct result of the crushing costs of the war and in some cases, their fall was caused by the defeat of imperial powers. The United States became firmly established as the dominant global superpower, along with its close competitor and ideological foe, the Soviet Union. The two superpowers exerted political influence over most of the world's Nation state for decades after the end of the Second World War. The modern international security, economic, and diplomatic system was created in the aftermath of the war.
Institutions such as the United Nations were established to collectivize international affairs, with the explicit goal of preventing another outbreak of general war. The wars had also greatly changed the course of daily life. Technologies developed during wartime had a profound effect on peacetime life as well, such as through advances in jet aircraft, penicillin, nuclear power, and electronic computers.
Various former government officials, politicians, authors, and military leaders (including James Woolsey, Alexandre de Marenches, (1992). 9780688092184, Morrow. ISBN 9780688092184Book regarding alleged WWIV Eliot Cohen,Why war on terrorism should be called WWIV and Subcomandante Marcos) have attempted to apply the labels of the "Third World War" and the "Fourth World War" to various past and present global wars since the end of the Second World War, such as the Cold War and the War on terror respectively.
During the early 21st century, the ongoing armed conflicts that are taking place around the world, and their worldwide spillovers are sometimes described as waged by the United States and Russia, which led some commentators to characterize the situation as a "proto-world war", with many countries embroiled in overlapping conflicts.
Historians like Richard F. Hamilton and Holger H. Herwig created a list of eight world wars, including the two generally agreed-upon world wars, the Seven Years' War, and five others: the Nine Years' War (1689–1697), the War of the Spanish Succession (1701–1714), the War of the Austrian Succession (1740–1748), the French Revolutionary Wars (1792–1802), and the Napoleonic Wars (1803–1815). British historian John Robert Seeley dubbed all of those wars between France and Great Britain (later the UK) between 1689 and 1815 (including the American Revolutionary War from 1775 to 1783) as the Second Hundred Years' War, echoing an earlier period of conflict between France and England known as the Hundred Years' War (1337–1453). Some writers have referred to the American Revolutionary War alone as a world war. Others (like William R. Thompson or Chase-Dunn and Sokolovsky) also include the Italian Wars and Dutch wars
Other historians suggest even earlier conflicts to be world wars. For example, Russian ethnologist Lev Gumilev called the Byzantine–Sasanian War of 602–628 "the World War of the 7th century" because it evolved into a war between the fourfold alliance of the Tang dynasty, the Western Turkic Khaganate, the Khazars, and the Byzantine Empire against a triple union of the Sasanian Empire, the Pannonian Avars, and the Eastern Turkic Khaganate, with proxy conflicts in Afro-Eurasia (like the Aksumite–Persian wars) and across the Old World.Gumilyov L. N. Ancient Turks. Chapter XV. World War VII. - M. : Iris-Press, 2009. - 560 p. — (Library of history and culture).
Others consider that the Ottoman–Portuguese confrontations and Ottoman–Habsburg wars can be considered as world conflicts, prototypes of the "Great Game" in Eurasia and the Scramble for Africa, but between two main power-projecting and religious blocs, the Ottoman Empire, as holders of the Muslim Caliphate, and the Habsburgs, as Holy Roman Emperor.Crowley, Roger Empires of the Sea: The Siege of Malta, the battle of Lepanto and the contest for the center of the world, Random House, 2008
However, the Americas and Oceania were not involved in those conflicts, in which case, other historians consider the Thirty Years' War and Eighty Years' War (specially Iberian–Dutch War) Jan Glete. The sea power of Habsburg Spain and the development of European navies, 1500-1700*. Paper to the conference Guerra y Sociedad en la Monarquía Hispánica: Politica, Estrategia y Cultura en la Europa Moderna (1500-1700), Madrid, 9-12 March 2005 as the first global conflict, pitting the Spanish Empire and Portuguese Empires against the French, Dutch, and and their allies (mostly Protestantism, like Danish and Swedish oversea expeditions) across the five continents.Written by Felix Velazquez Lopez. With the collaboration of several academics from universities in Spain. Produced by Premium Cinema. (2010). «The History of the Greatest Empire Ever Known: Chapter 5, Felipe III (Los Austrias)».
Another possible example is the Second Congo War (1998–2003) even though it was only waged on one continent. It involved nine nations and led to ongoing low-intensity warfare despite official peace and the first democratic elections in 2006. It has been referred to as "Africa's World War".
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