World war

"World Wars" redirects here. For the two 20th century conflicts, see World War I and World War II. For the possibility of a third world war, see World War III. For the series of novels by Harry Turtledove, see Worldwar. See also War of the Worlds.

A world war is a war affecting the majority of the world's most powerful and populous nations. World wars span multiple countries on multiple continents, with battles fought in multiple theaters.

The term is usually applied to the two conflicts of unprecedented scale that occurred during the 20th century, World War I (1914–1918) and World War II (1939–1945). It also applies to the next conflict that may occur in the future, World War III, which generally ranges from limited war with nuclear weapons, to destruction of the planet.

Some regard a number of other conflicts throughout history as "world wars".

Origins of the term

The term World War was coined speculatively in the early 20th century, some years before the first World War broke out, probably as a literal translation of the German word Weltkrieg. German writer August Wilhelm Otto Niemann had used the word in the title of his anti-British novel Der Weltkrieg: Deutsche Träume ("The World War: German Dreams") as early as 1904, published in English as The coming conquest of England. The Oxford English Dictionary cites the first known usage in the English language as being in April 1909, in the pages of the Westminster Gazette.

It was recognized that the complex system of opposing alliances—the German Empire, Austria-Hungary, and the Ottoman Empire vs. the French Third Republic, the Russian Empire, and the British Empire was likely to lead to a global conflict in the event of war breaking out. The fact that the powers involved had large overseas empires virtually guaranteed that a conflict would be global, as the colonies' resources would be a crucial strategic factor. The same strategic considerations also ensured that the combatants would strike at each others' colonies, thus spreading the fighting far more widely than in the pre-colonial era.

Other languages have also adopted the "World War" terminology; for instance, in French, the two World Wars are the Guerres mondiales; in German, the Erste und Zweite Weltkrieg (World War I was only known or commonly recognized in public as der Weltkrieg in Germany when it was over, while prior the word was rather used in the more abstract meaning of "a global conflict"); in Russian the мировые войны (miroviye voyni); in Spanish the Guerra Mundial and so on.

All the participants of the War of the Spanish Succession

All the participants of the War of the Austrian Succession

All the participants of the Seven Years' War

All the participants of the Napoleonic Wars

The term First World War was used in the book The First World War: A Photographic History, edited by playwright and war veteran Laurence Stallings and published in 1933. The term "World War I" was invented by Time magazine in its issue of June 12, 1939. In that same issue, the term World War II was first used speculatively by Time magazine to describe the upcoming war. The first use for the actual war came in its issue of September 11, 1939.

Earlier worldwide conflicts

Other examples

• Seven Years' War (1756–1763), which Winston Churchill called "the first world war" in A History of the English-Speaking Peoples
• French Revolutionary Wars (1792–1802) and the Napoleonic Wars (1803–1815).^{[citation needed]}

Prior to the late 19th century, the concept of a world war would be at mainly quarrels between European powers which took place in fairly limited, though sometimes far-flung, theaters of conflict.

World Map with the participants in World War I.
The Allies depicted in green, the Central Powers in orange, and neutral countries in grey.

World Map with the participants in World War II.
The Allies depicted in green (those in light green entered after the attack on Pearl Harbor), the Axis Powers in blue, and neutral countries in grey. The Xikang region of Tibet was under Chinese control.

Characteristics

The World Wars of the 20th century took place on almost every populated continent on Earth. Many of the nations who fought in the First World War also fought in the Second, although not always on the same sides.

Effects

The two World Wars of the 20th century caused unprecedented casualties and destruction across the theatres of conflict. The numbers killed in the wars are estimated at between 60 and 100 million people. Civilians suffered as badly as or worse than soldiers, and the distinction between combatants and civilians was often erased. Both world wars saw large scale murders. The Ottomans were responsible for the death of over one million Armenians. The Nazis were responsible for genocides during the Second World War, most notably the Holocaust. Both the Soviet Union and United States deported and interned minority groups within their own borders, and largely due to this conflict later many ethnic Germans were expelled in much of Eastern Europe. Advances in technology were responsible for a large amount of casualties. The First World War saw major use of chemical weapons. The Second World War was also the first conflict in which nuclear weapons were used, devastating the Japanese cities of Hiroshima and Nagasaki.

	World War I	World War II
Deaths	15 to 20 M	60 M
Injured	9 to 15 M	20 M
Conscripts	65 M	90 M
Battlefield Size	3 M km²	17 M km²

The outcome of the World Wars had a profound effect on the course of world history. The old European empires collapsed or were dismantled as a direct result of the wars' crushing costs and in some cases the defeat of imperial powers. The United States was firmly established as the dominant global power, along with its ideological foe, the Soviet Union, in close competition. These two "superpowers" exerted political influence over most of the world's other nations for decades after the conclusion of World War II (ending in the late 1980s in the Soviet Union). The modern international security, economic and diplomatic system was created in the aftermath of the wars. Institutions such as NATO, the United Nations and the European Union were established to "collectivise"^{[citation needed]} international affairs, with the explicit aim of preventing another outbreak of general war^{[citation needed]}. The wars also greatly changed the course of daily life. Technologies developed during wartime had a profound effect on peacetime life as well—for instance, jet aircraft, penicillin, nuclear energy, and electronic computers.

Since the atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki during World War II, there has been a widespread and prolonged fear of a Third World War between nuclear-armed superpowers.

Later

I know not with what weapons World War III will be fought, but World War IV will be fought with sticks and stones.

“

”

Albert Einstein (1947)

Various former government officials, politicians and authors have attempted to apply the labels of WW III, WW IV, and WW V to various military engagements and diplomatic stand-offs since the close of WW II, such as the Korean War, the Cold War or the War on Terror. Among these are former American and French government officials James Woolsey and Alexandre de Marenches, author Elliot Cohen and zapatist leader Subcomandante Marcos. Despite their efforts, none of these wars are commonly considered world wars.

World War III is generally considered a hypothetical successor to World War II and is often suggested to be nuclear, devastating in nature and likely exceedingly more violent than both WW I and WW II. This war is anticipated and planned for by military and civil authorities, and explored in fiction in many countries. Concepts range from purely conventional scenarios or a limited use of nuclear weapons to the destruction of the planet. World War IV is sometimes mentioned as a hypothetical successor to World War III or as a plot element in books, movies or video games.

See also

• World War I
• World War II
• World War III
• Total war

External links

• This is the Fourth World War, an interview with philosopher Jean Baudrillard