World war

  (Redirected from World wars)

A world war is "a war engaged in by all or most of the principal nations of the world".[1] While a variety of global conflicts have been subjectively deemed "world wars", such as the Cold War and the War on Terror, the term is widely and usually accepted only as it is retrospectively applied to two major international conflicts that occurred during the 20th century: World War I (1914–18) and World War II (1939–45).

Origin of the termEdit

The Oxford English Dictionary cited the first known usage in the English language to a Scottish newspaper, The People's Journal, in 1848: "A war among the great powers is now necessarily a world-war." The term "world war" is used by Karl Marx and his associate, Friedrich Engels,[2] in a series of articles published around 1850 called The Class Struggles in France. Rasmus B. Anderson in 1889 described an episode in Teutonic mythology as a "world war" (Swedish: världskrig), justifying this description by a line in an Old Norse epic poem, "Völuspá: folcvig fyrst I heimi" ("The first great war in the world".)[3] German writer August Wilhelm Otto Niemann had used the term "world war" in the title of his anti-British novel, Der Weltkrieg: Deutsche Träume (The World War: German Dreams) in 1904, published in English as The Coming Conquest of England.

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",[4] citing a wire service report in The Indianapolis Star on 20 September 1914. In English, the term "First World War" had been used by 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.[5]




First World WarEdit

World War I occurred from 1914 to 1918. In terms of human technological history, the scale of World War I was enabled by the technological advances of the second industrial revolution and the resulting globalization that allowed global power projection and mass production of military hardware. It had been recognized that the complex system of opposing military alliances (the German and Austro-Hungarian Empires against the British, Russian, and French Empires) was likely, if war broke out, to lead to a worldwide conflict. That caused a very minute conflict between two countries to have the potential to set off a domino effect of alliances, triggering a world war. The fact that the powers involved had large overseas empires virtually guaranteed that such a war would be worldwide, as the colonies' resources would be a crucial strategic factor. The same strategic considerations also ensured that the combatants would strike at each other's colonies, thus spreading the wars far more widely than those of pre-Columbian times.

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, the murder of more than 1,000,000 Armenians during the First World War, as well as the other late Ottoman genocides.

Second World WarEdit

The Second World War occurred from 1939 to 1945 and is the only conflict in which nuclear weapons have been used; both Hiroshima and Nagasaki, in the Japanese Empire, were devastated by atomic bombs dropped by the United States. Nazi Germany, led by Adolf Hitler, was responsible for genocides, most notably the Holocaust, the killing of 6,000,000 Jews and 5,000,000 others persecuted by the Nazis, including Romani people and homosexuals. The United States, the Soviet Union, and Canada deported and interned minority groups within their own borders and, largely because of the conflict, many ethnic Germans were later expelled from Eastern Europe. Japan was responsible for attacking neutral nations without a declaration of war, such as the attack on Pearl Harbor. It is also known for its brutal treatment and killing of Allied prisoners of war and the inhabitants of Asia. It also used Asians as forced laborers and was responsible for the Nanking massacre in which 250,000 civilians were brutally murdered by Japanese troops. Noncombatants suffered at least as badly as or worse than combatants, and the distinction between combatants and noncombatants was often blurred by the belligerents of total war in both conflicts.[8]



Third World WarEdit

Since the atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki during the Second World War, there has been a widespread and prolonged fear of a potential Third World War between nuclear-armed powers. The Third World War is generally considered a successor to the Second World War[11] and is often suggested to become a nuclear war at some point during the course of said Third World War, devastating in nature and likely much more violent than both the First and Second World Wars; in 1947, Albert Einstein commented that "I know not with what weapons World War III will be fought, but World War IV will be fought with sticks and stones."[12][13] It has been anticipated and planned for by military and civil authorities and has been explored in fiction in many countries. Concepts have ranged from purely-conventional scenarios to limited use of nuclear weapons, to the complete destruction of the planet's surface.

Other global conflictsEdit

Various former government officials, politicians, authors, and military leaders (including James Woolsey,[14] Alexandre de Marenches,[15] Eliot Cohen,[16] and Subcomandante Marcos[17]) have attempted to apply the labels of the "Third World War" and "Fourth World War" to various past and present global wars since the closing of the Second World War, such as the Cold War and the War on Terror respectively. Among these are former American, French, and Mexican government officials, military leaders, politicians, and authors. Despite their efforts, none of the wars have been commonly deemed world wars.

Wars described by some historians as "World War Zero" include the Seven Years' War[18] and the onset of the Late Bronze Age collapse.[19]

The Second Congo War (1998–2003) involved nine nations and led to ongoing low-intensity warfare despite an official peace and the first democratic elections in 2006. It has often been referred to as "Africa's World War".[20] During the early-21st century the Syrian Civil War and the Iraqi Civil War and their worldwide spillovers are sometimes described as proxy wars waged between the United States and Russia,[21][22][23][24] which led some commentators to characterize the situation as a "proto-world war" with nearly a dozen countries embroiled in two overlapping conflicts.[25]

Wars with higher death tolls than the First World WarEdit

The two world wars of the 20th century had caused unprecedented casualties and destruction across the theaters of conflict.[26] There have been several wars that occurred with as many or more deaths than in the First World War (16,563,868–40,000,000), including:

Event Lowest
Location From To Duration (years)
Three Kingdoms 36,000,000[27] 40,000,000[28] China 184 280 96
An Lushan Rebellion 13,000,000[29] 36,000,000[30] China 755 763 9
Mongol conquests 30,000,000[31] 40,000,000[29] Eurasia 1206 1324 118
Conquests of Timur 15,000,000[32] 20,000,000[32] Asia 1369 1405 37
Qing dynasty conquest of the Ming dynasty 25,000,000[33] 25,000,000 China 1616 1662 47
Taiping Rebellion 20,000,000[34] 100,000,000[35][36][37] China 1851 1864 14
World War II 40,000,000[38] 85,000,000[39] Global 1939 1945 6
Cold War 22,345,162 +94,000,000 Global 1947 1991 44

Wars spanning multiple continentsEdit


Event Lowest
Location From To Duration (years)
Wars of Alexander the Great Thrace, Illyria, Greece, Asia Minor, Syria, Babylonia, Persia, Afghanistan, Sogdiana, India 335 BCE 323 BCE 12
First Punic War 285,000
[citation needed]
400,000[29] Mediterranean Sea, Sicily, Sardinia, North Africa 264 BCE 241 BCE 23
Second Punic War 616,000
[citation needed]
770,000[29] Italy, Sicily, Hispania, Cisalpine Gaul, Transalpine Gaul, North Africa, Greece 218 BCE 201 BCE 17
Roman–Persian Wars Mesopotamia, Syria, Levant, Egypt, Transcaucasus, Atropatene, Asia Minor, Balkans 92 BCE 628 CE 721
Crusades 1,000,000[40] 3,000,000[41] Iberian peninsula, Near East, Anatolia, the Levant, Egypt. 1095 1291 197
Byzantine–Ottoman Wars Asia Minor, Balkans 1265 1479 214
European colonization of the Americas 2,000,000[42] 100,000,000[43] Americas 1492 1900 408
War of the Spanish Succession
Europe, North America, South America 1701 1714 13
Third Anglo-Spanish War Spain, Panama 1727 1729 2
War of the Austrian Succession
Europe, North America, India 1740 1748 8
Seven Years' War
1,500,000[29] Europe, North America, South America, Africa, Asia 1754 1763 9
French Revolutionary Wars
Napoleonic Wars
[citation needed]
Crimean War 255,000[45] 1,000,000[46] Sicily, Sardinia, Spain, Southeastern Europe, Black Sea 1853 1856 3
World War I
15,000,000[47] 65,000,000[48] Global 1914 1918 4
World War II
40,000,000[38] 85,000,000[39] Global 1939 1945 6
Cold War
22,345,162 (casualties by all wars started in the Cold War with Gulf War, Vietnam War, Korean War, Algerian War, Iran–Iraq War, Nigerian Civil War or Soviet–Afghan War included)[49][circular reference] +94,000,000 (22 million people killed by all civil wars started in Asia, South America and Africa + number of people killed in Asia and Europe by the Communist governments, with casualties of Soviet famine of 1946–47, Cambodian genocide, Cultural Revolution, and Great Leap Forward included)[50][circular reference] Global 1947 1991 44
War on Terror
272,000[51] 1,260,000
Global 2001 present 18

See alsoEdit


  1. ^ Webster, Merriam-. "World War". Retrieved 11 November 2019.
  2. ^ Engels, Frederick. "Introduction to Borkheim".
  4. ^ Shapiro & Epstein 2006, p. 329.
  8. ^ "World War". Retrieved 11 November 2019.
  9. ^ "World War". Retrieved 11 November 2019.
  10. ^ "World War". Retrieved 11 November 2019.
  11. ^ "The Today Network - 3/11/17( The November Issue)". Retrieved 11 November 2019.
  13. ^ "The culture of Einstein". NBC News. 2005-04-19. Retrieved 2012-08-24.
  15. ^ The Fourth World War: Diplomacy and Espionage ... 1992. ASIN 0688092187.CS1 maint: ASIN uses ISBN (link)Book regarding alleged WWIV
  30. ^ "Death toll figures of recorded wars in human history".
  36. ^ Livre noir du Communisme: crimes, terreur, répression, page 468
  39. ^ a b Fink, George: Stress of War, Conflict and Disaster
  44. ^ Charles Esdaile "Napoleon's Wars: An International History".
  45. ^ Bodart, Gaston (1916). Westergaard, Harald (ed.). Losses of Life in Modern Wars: Austria-Hungary; France. Clarendon Press. p. 142.
  47. ^ Willmott 2003, p. 307
  48. ^ "Emerging Infectious Diseases journal - CDC".
  49. ^ List of wars by death toll
  50. ^ The Black Book of Communism

External linksEdit