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"The World Wars" redirects here. For the 2014 miniseries, see The World Wars (miniseries).

For the conflict that was referred to as the World War before the start of the second war, see World War I.

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A world war is a large-scale war which affects the whole world directly or indirectly. World wars span multiple countries on multiple continents or just two countries, with battles fought in many theaters. 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).

Contents

• 1Origin of the term

• 2First World War

• 3Second World War

• 4Third World War

• 5Other global conflicts

  • 5.1Wars with higher death tolls than the First World War

  • 5.2Wars spanning continents

• 6See also

• 7References

• 8External links

 

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 Marxand his associate, Friedrich Engels,[1] 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".)[2] 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.

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.[3]

The term "World War I" was coined by Time magazine on page 28b of its June 12, 1939 issue. In the same article, on page 32, the term "World War II" was first used speculatively to describe the upcoming war. The first use for the actual war came in its issue of September 11, 1939.[4] 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."[5]

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: "world war" is translated as guerre mondiale, in German: Weltkrieg (which, prior to the war, had been used in the more abstract meaning of a global conflict), in Italian: guerra mondiale, in Spanish and Portuguese: guerra mundial, in Danish and Norwegian: verdenskrig, and in Russian: мировая война (mirovaya voyna.)

 

Main article: World War I

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. Wars on such a scale have not been repeated since the onset of the Atomic Age and the resulting danger of mutually-assured destruction. It had been recognized that the complex system of opposing alliances (the German, Austro-Hungarian, and Ottoman Empires against the British, Russian, and French Empires) was likely to lead to a worldwide conflict if a war broke out. Due to this fact, a very minute conflict between two countries had 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 First World 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 death of over one million Armenians during the First World War.

 

Main article: World War II

 

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The Second World War occurred from 1939 to 1945 and is the only conflict in which atomic bombs have been used. Hiroshima and Nagasaki, in Japan, were devastated by atomic bombs dropped by the United States. Nazi Germany was responsible for genocides, most notably the Holocaust, the killing of six million Jews. 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 bombing of 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 where 250,000 civilians in the city were brutally murdered by Japanese troops. Non-combatants suffered at least as badly as or worse than combatants, and the distinction between combatants and non-combatants was often blurred by belligerents of total war in both conflicts.[citation needed]

The outcome of World War II had a profound effect on the course of world history. The old European empires either collapsed or were dismantled as a direct result of the wars' crushing costs and, in some cases, their fall was due to the defeat of imperial powers. The United States became firmly established as the dominant global superpower, along with its ideological foe, the Soviet Union, in close competition. The two superpowers exerted political influence over most of the world's nation-states 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 wars.[citation needed]

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 by advances in jet aircraft, penicillin, nuclear energy, and electronic computers.[citation needed]

 

Main article: World War III

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 and is often suggested to become a nuclear 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."[6][7] 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.

 

See also: American Revolutionary War, Cold War, War on Terror, Second Congo War, Syrian Civil War, Iraqi Civil War (2014–2017), and Cold War II

Various former government officials, politicians, authors, and military leaders (including the following people: James Woolsey,[8] Alexandre de Marenches,[9] Eliot Cohen,[10] and Subcomandante Marcos[11]) 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, for example, 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 these wars are commonly deemed world wars.

Wars described by some historians as "World War Zero" include the Seven Years' War[12] and the onset of the Late Bronze Age collapse.[13]

The Second Congo War (1998–2003) involved nine nations and led to ongoing low-level warfare despite an official peace and the first democratic elections in 2006. It has often been referred to as "Africa's World War".[14] During the early-21st century the Syrian Civil War and the Iraqi Civil Warand their worldwide spillovers are sometimes described as proxy wars waged between the United States and Russia,[15][16][17][18] which led some commentators to characterize the situation as a "proto-world war" with nearly a dozen countries embroiled in two overlapping conflicts.[19]

​

See also: List of wars by death toll and World War I casualties

The two world wars of the 20th century had caused unprecedented casualties and destruction across the theaters of conflict.[20] 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:

Estimated death tolls. Log. mean calculated using simple power law.

EventLowest
estimateHighest
estimateLocationFromToDuration (years)

Three Kingdoms36,000,000[21]40,000,000[22]China18428096

An Lushan Rebellion13,000,000[23]36,000,000[24]China7557639

Mongol conquests30,000,000[25]40,000,000[23]Eurasia12061324118

Conquests of Timur15,000,000[26]20,000,000[26]Asia1369140537

Qing dynasty conquest of the Ming dynasty25,000,000[27]25,000,000China1616166247

Taiping Rebellion20,000,000[28]100,000,000[29][30][31]China1851186414

World War II40,000,000[32]85,000,000[33]Global193919456

Cold War22,345,162+94,000,000Global1947199144

​

'World War 0' redirects here.

There have been numerous wars spanning two or more continents throughout history, including:

Estimated death tolls. Log. mean calculated using simple power law.

EventLowest
estimateHighest
estimateLocationFromToDuration (years)

Late Bronze Age collapseEgypt, Anatolia, Syria, Canaan, Cyprus, Greece, Mesopotamia1200s BCE1150s BCE40–50

Greco-Persian WarsGreece, Thrace, Aegean Islands, Asia Minor, Cyprus, Egypt499 BCE449 BCE50

Peloponnesian WarGreece, Asia Minor, Sicily431 BCE404 BCE27

Wars of Alexander the GreatThrace, Illyria, Greece, Asia Minor, Syria, Babylonia, Persia, Afghanistan, Sogdiana, India335 BCE323 BCE12

Wars of the DiadochiMacedon, Greece, Thrace, Anatolia, Levant, Egypt, Babylonia, Persia322 BCE275 BCE47

First Punic War285,000
[citation needed]400,000[23]Mediterranean Sea, Sicily, Sardinia, North Africa264 BCE241 BCE23

Second Punic War616,000
[citation needed]770,000[23]Italy, Sicily, Hispania, Cisalpine Gaul, Transalpine Gaul, North Africa, Greece218 BCE201 BCE17

Roman–Seleucid WarGreece, Asia Minor192 BCE188 BCE4

Roman–Persian WarsMesopotamia, Syria, Levant, Egypt, Transcaucasus, Atropatene, Asia Minor, Balkans92 BCE629 CE721

First Mithridatic WarAsia Minor, Achaea, Aegean Sea89 BCE85 BCE4

Great Roman Civil WarHispania, Italy, Greece, Illyria, Egypt, Africa49 BCE45 BCE4

Byzantine–Sassanid warsCaucasus, Asia Minor, Egypt, Levant, Mesopotamia502 CE628 CE126

Muslim conquestsMesopotamia, Caucasus, Persia, Levant, The Maghreb, Anatolia, Iberia, Gaul, Khorasan, Sindh, Transoxania6221258636

Arab–Byzantine warsLevant, Syria, Egypt, North Africa, Anatolia, Crete, Sicily, Italy6291050421

Crusades1,000,000[34]3,000,000[35]Iberian peninsula, Near East, Anatolia, the Levant, Egypt.10951291197

Mongol conquests30,000,000[25]40,000,000[23]Eurasia12061324118

Byzantine–Ottoman WarsAsia Minor, Balkans12651479214

European colonization of the Americas2,000,000[36]100,000,000[37]Americas14921900408

Ottoman–Habsburg warsHungary, Mediterranean, Balkans, North Africa, Malta15261791265

First Anglo-Spanish WarAtlantic Ocean, English Channel, Low Countries, Spain, Spanish Main, Portugal, Cornwall, Ireland, Americas, Azores, Canary islands1585160419

Dutch–Portuguese WarAtlantic Ocean, Brazil, West Africa, Southern Africa, Indian Ocean, India, East Indies, Indochina, China1602166361

Thirty Years' War3,000,00011,500,000Europe, mainly present-day Germany1618164830

Second Anglo-Spanish WarCaribbean, Spain, Canary Islands, Spanish Netherlands165416606

Nine Years' WarEurope, Ireland, Scotland, North America, South America, Asia168816979

 

War of the Spanish SuccessionEurope, North America, South America1701171413

War of the Quadruple AllianceSicily, Sardinia, Spain, North America171817202

Third Anglo-Spanish WarSpain, Panama172717292

 

War of the Austrian SuccessionEurope, North America, India174017488

 

Seven Years' War1,500,000[23]Europe, North America, South America, Africa, Asia175417639

American Revolutionary WarNorth America, Gibraltar, Balearic Islands, India, Africa, Caribbean Sea, Atlantic Ocean, Indian Ocean177517848

 

French Revolutionary WarsEurope, Egypt, Middle East, Atlantic Ocean, Caribbean, Indian Ocean179218029

 

Napoleonic Wars3,500,000
[citation needed]7,000,000[38]Europe, Atlantic Ocean, Mediterranean Sea, North Sea, Río de la Plata, French Guiana, West Indies, Indian Ocean, North America, South Caucasus1803181513

Crimean War255,000[39]1,000,000[40]Sicily, Sardinia, Spain, North America, Southeastern Europe, Black Sea185318563

 

World War I15,000,000[41]65,000,000[42]Global191419184

 

World War II40,000,000[32]85,000,000[33]Global193919456

 

Cold War22,345,162 (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 Warincluded)[43][circular reference]+94,000,000 ( 22 millions of 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 Forwardincluded)[44][circular reference]Global1947199144

 

War on Terror272,000[45]1,260,000
[45][46][47]