world war

The Oxford English Dictionary had 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,{{cite web|url=https://www.marxists.org/archive/marx/works/1887/12/15.htm|title=Introduction to Borkheim|last=Engels|first=Frederick|access-date=2015-03-01|archive-date=2018-07-16|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180716152910/https://www.marxists.org/archive/marx/works/1887/12/15.htm|url-status=live}} 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").Rasmus Björn Anderson (translator: Viktor Rydberg), Teutonic Mythology, vol. 1, [https://books.google.com/books?id=-uJRw32enFQC&pg=PT237 p. 139] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200126230205/https://books.google.com/books?id=-uJRw32enFQC&pg=PT237 |date=2020-01-26 }}, London: S. Sonnenschein & Co., 1889 {{OCLC|626839}}. German writer August Wilhelm Otto Niemann 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",{{sfn |Shapiro |Epstein |2006 |p=329}} 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.{{cite news|title=Chief Editor's notes June 2014|work=Oxford English Dictionary's blog|date=2014-06-13|first=Michael|last=Proffitt|url=https://public.oed.com/blog/june-2014-update-chief-editors-notes-june-2014/|access-date=2022-04-25|archive-date=2022-04-15|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220415031658/https://public.oed.com/blog/june-2014-update-chief-editors-notes-june-2014/|url-status=live}}{{cite web|url=http://qi.com/infocloud/the-first-world-war|title=The First World War|work=Quite Interesting|archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20140103043739/https://qi.com/infocloud/the-first-world-war|archivedate=2014-01-03}} 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 War{{nbsp}}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.{{cite magazine |url=https://time.com/3195322/world-war-grey-friday/ |title=Grey Friday: TIME Reports on World War II Beginning |magazine=TIME |date=September 11, 1939 |access-date=20 October 2014 |quote=World War II began last week at 5:20 a. m. (Polish time) Friday, September 1, when a German bombing plane dropped a projectile on Puck, a fishing village and airbase in the armpit of the Hel Peninsula. |archive-date=11 October 2014 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20141011180303/http://time.com/3195322/world-war-grey-friday/ |url-status=live }} 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, "world war" is translated as {{Lang|fr|guerre mondiale|italic=yes}}; in German, {{Lang|de|Weltkrieg|italic=yes}} (which, prior to the war, had been used in the more abstract meaning of a global conflict); in Italian, {{Lang|it|guerra mondiale|italic=yes}}; in Spanish and Portuguese, {{Lang|es|guerra mundial|italic=yes}}; in Danish and Norwegian, {{Lang|no|verdenskrig|italic=yes}}; in Polish {{Lang|pl|wojna światowa|italic=yes}}; in Russian, {{Lang|ru|мировая война|italic=yes}} ({{Lang|ru-LT|mirovaya voyna|italic=yes}}); and in Finnish, {{Lang|fi|maailmansota|italic=yes}}.

{{Main|World War I}}

File: General gouraud french army world war i machinegun marne 1918.JPEG soldiers holding a position in the ruins of a church during the Second Battle of the Marne, part of World War I]]

The First World War occurred from 1914 to 1918. In terms of human technological history, the scale of World War{{nbsp}}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, Italian, 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. {{explain|date=December 2022}}

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.

{{Main|World War II}}

File:The British Army in the Normandy Campaign 1944 B8553.jpg mechanized infantry Churchill tank passing a destroyed Wehrmacht Panzer IV tank during Operation Overlord, part of World War II]]

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. The main Axis powers were Nazi Germany, the Empire of Japan, and the Kingdom of Italy; while the United Kingdom, the United States, the Soviet Union and China were the "Big Four" Allied powers.{{cite book|title=The Turning Point: Roosevelt, Stalin, Churchill, and Chiang Kai-Shek, 1943: The Moscow, Cairo, and Teheran Conferences|first=Keith|last=Sainsbury|location=Oxford|publisher=Oxford University Press|year=1986}} Nazi Germany, led by Adolf Hitler, was responsible for genocides, most notably the Holocaust, which murdered demographics considered Untermensch by the Nazis. These included about six million Jews and about five million others, such as Slavs, Roma, homosexuals, and the physically and mentally disabled.{{Cite web |title=Documenting Numbers of Victims of the Holocaust and Nazi Persecution |url=https://encyclopedia.ushmm.org/content/en/article/documenting-numbers-of-victims-of-the-holocaust-and-nazi-persecution |access-date=2020-09-05 |website=encyclopedia.ushmm.org |archive-date=2020-02-20 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200220011124/https://encyclopedia.ushmm.org/content/en/article/documenting-numbers-of-victims-of-the-holocaust-and-nazi-persecution |url-status=live }} 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 Nanjing 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.{{cite web |url= https://storiespreschool.com/worldwar.html |title= World War |access-date= 11 November 2019 |archive-date= 11 November 2019 |archive-url= https://web.archive.org/web/20191111061254/https://storiespreschool.com/worldwar.html |url-status= live }}

The outcome of the war had a profound effect on the course of world 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-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 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 energy, and electronic computers.

{{Main article|World War III}}

File:DF-ST-82-06464 Troops from the 82nd Airborne Division are dropped by parachute during exercise Reforger '80.jpeg during Exercise Reforger 1984, a Cold War-era NATO military exercise used to prepare for potential conventional warfare against the Warsaw Pact; such a conflict was expected to be 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.Biggs, Lindy and Hansen, James (editors), 2004, Readings in Technology and Civilisation, {{ISBN|0-7593-3869-8}}.Worland, Rick, 2006, The Horror Film: An Introduction, Blackwell Publishing, {{ISBN|1-4051-3902-1}}. It is often suggested that it would become a nuclear war, and be more devastating and violent than both the First and Second World Wars. Albert Einstein is often quoted as having said in 1947 "I know not with what weapons World War{{nbsp}}III will be fought, but World War{{nbsp}}IV will be fought with sticks and stones."{{Cite book | first = Alice | last = Calaprice | title = The new quotable Einstein | page = 173 | publisher = Princeton University Press | year = 2005 | isbn = 978-0-691-12075-1}}{{cite web |url=https://www.nbcnews.com/id/wbna7406337 |title=The culture of Einstein |publisher=NBC News |date=2005-04-19 |access-date=2012-08-24 |archive-date=2013-10-05 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20131005132629/http://www.nbcnews.com/id/7406337/ |url-status=live }}{{Cite web |title=24 Jun 1948, Page 4 - The Berkshire Eagle at Newspapers.com |url=http://www.newspapers.com/image/30745506/ |access-date=2022-04-22 |website=Newspapers.com |archive-date=2022-04-22 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220422225558/http://www.newspapers.com/image/30745506/ |url-status=live }}{{Cite web |title=Did Albert Einstein Say World War IV Will be Fought 'With Sticks and Stones'? |url=https://www.snopes.com/fact-check/einstein-world-war-iv-sticks-stones/ |access-date=2022-04-22 |website=Snopes.com |date=16 April 2018 |archive-date=2022-04-22 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220422225558/https://www.snopes.com/fact-check/einstein-world-war-iv-sticks-stones/ |url-status=live }} It has been anticipated and planned for by military and civil authorities, and it has also been explored in fiction. Scenarios have ranged from conventional warfare to limited or total nuclear warfare.{{citation needed|date=January 2023}}

Various former government officials, politicians, authors, and military leaders (including James Woolsey,{{citation needed|date=June 2023}} Alexandre de Marenches,{{Cite book| year=1992|title=The Fourth World War: Diplomacy and Espionage{{nbsp}}... |isbn=0688092187|last1=Andelman |first1=Professor David |last2=Marenches |first2=Comte Alexandre de |last3=Marenches |first3=Count De |last4=Andelman |first4=David |publisher=Morrow }}Book regarding alleged WWIV Eliot Cohen,{{cite web|year=2001|url=http://www.opinionjournal.com/editorial/feature.html?id=95001493|title=World War IV: Let's call this conflict what it is.|access-date=2010-02-04|archive-date=2010-03-27|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20100327142047/http://www.opinionjournal.com/editorial/feature.html?id=95001493|url-status=live}}Why war on terrorism should be called WWIV and Subcomandante Marcos{{cite journal |url=http://muse.jhu.edu/login?auth=0&type=summary&url=/journals/nep/v002/2.3marcos.html |title=The Fourth World War Has Begun |author=Subcomandante Marcos |author-link=Subcomandante Marcos |journal=Nepantla: Views from South |volume=2 |issue=3 |year=2001 |pages=559–572 |access-date=20 October 2014 |archive-date=29 October 2014 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20141029232312/http://muse.jhu.edu/login?auth=0&type=summary&url=%2Fjournals%2Fnep%2Fv002%2F2.3marcos.html |url-status=live }}) 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 proxy wars waged by the United States and Russia,{{cite news |url=https://www.nytimes.com/2015/10/13/world/middleeast/syria-russia-airstrikes.html?_r=0 |title=U.S. Weaponry Is Turning Syria Into Proxy War With Russia |author=Anne Barnard and Karen Shoumali |work=The New York Times |access-date=14 October 2015 |date=12 October 2015 |archive-date=15 October 2015 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20151015002734/http://www.nytimes.com/2015/10/13/world/middleeast/syria-russia-airstrikes.html?_r=0 |url-status=live }}{{cite news |author=Martin Pengelly |url=https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2015/oct/04/john-mccain-russia-us-proxy-war-syria-obama-putin |title=John McCain says US is engaged in proxy war with Russia in Syria |work=The Guardian |access-date=17 October 2015 |date=4 October 2015 |archive-date=12 October 2015 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20151012181525/http://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2015/oct/04/john-mccain-russia-us-proxy-war-syria-obama-putin |url-status=live }}{{cite news |url=http://edition.cnn.com/2015/10/13/middleeast/syria-civil-war/index.html |title=U.S., Russia escalate involvement in Syria |author=Holly Yan and Mark Morgenstein |publisher=CNN |access-date=17 October 2015 |date=13 October 2015 |archive-date=17 October 2015 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20151017044948/http://edition.cnn.com/2015/10/13/middleeast/syria-civil-war/index.html |url-status=live }}{{cite news |last=Taub |first=Amanda |title="The Russians have made a serious mistake": how Putin's Syria gambit will backfire |work=Vox |date=1 October 2015 |url=https://www.vox.com/2015/10/1/9434365/putin-syria-russia-mistake |access-date=17 October 2015 |archive-date=22 October 2015 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20151022072913/http://www.vox.com/2015/10/1/9434365/putin-syria-russia-mistake |url-status=live }} which led some commentators{{who|date=August 2022}} to characterize the situation as a "proto-world war", with many countries embroiled in overlapping conflicts.{{cite news|url=https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2015/10/16/world/middleeast/untangling-the-overlapping-conflicts-in-the-syrian-war.html|title=Untangling the Overlapping Conflicts in the Syrian War|work=The New York Times|access-date=19 October 2015|date=18 October 2015|archive-date=19 October 2015|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20151019023347/http://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2015/10/16/world/middleeast/untangling-the-overlapping-conflicts-in-the-syrian-war.html|url-status=live}}

File:Wojciech Kossak The Battle of Zorndorf (1758) 1899.jpg clashing with the Imperial Russian Army at the Battle of Zorndorf, part of the Seven Years' War, which some historians consider to be an early world war]]

The Seven Years' War (1754/56–1763) was fought across all of North America, Europe, Asia, Africa, and South America. Most of the great powers of the era participated, notably including the British Empire and French Empire, but polities from many continents played important roles. Some historians call it "World War 0" as a result.{{Cite news|url=https://www.economist.com/the-economist-explains/2014/07/01/why-the-first-world-war-wasnt-really|title=Why the first world war wasn't really|newspaper=The Economist|date=2014-07-01|access-date=2018-05-29|archive-date=2018-05-30|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180530034837/https://www.economist.com/the-economist-explains/2014/07/01/why-the-first-world-war-wasnt-really|url-status=live}}{{Cite book|last1=Devetak |first1=Richard |last2=Tannock |first2=Emily |date=January 2017 |title=The Globalization of International Society: Imperial Rivalry and the First Global War |chapter=Imperial Rivalry and the First Global War |url=https://academic.oup.com/book/6787/chapter-abstract/150921217?redirectedFrom=fulltext |access-date=2024-09-09 |website=academic.oup.com|doi=10.1093/acprof:oso/9780198793427.003.0007 |isbn=978-0-19-879342-7 }}

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).{{cite book | editor1 = David K. Allison | editor2 = Larrie D. Ferreiro | date = 6 November 2018 | title = The American Revolution: A World War | publisher = Smithsonian Institution | pages = 16 | isbn = 978-1-58834-659-9 | oclc = 1061862132 | url = https://books.google.com/books?id=IlpnDwAAQBAJ&pg=PA52 | access-date = 21 January 2022 | archive-date = 21 January 2022 | archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20220121061952/https://books.google.com/books?id=IlpnDwAAQBAJ&pg=PA52 | url-status = live }} 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 [Dutch-Spanish and Anglo-Dutch Wars] as part of Global Wars, while clasificating WW1 and WW2 as the Global German Wars, and the Coalition Wars with Wars of Louis XIV as the 2nd and 1st Global French Wars.{{Cite journal |last=Thompson |first=William R. |date=1983 |title=World Wars, Global Wars, and the Cool Hand Luke Syndrome: A Reply to Chase-Dunn and Sokolovsky |url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/2600689 |journal=International Studies Quarterly |volume=27 |issue=3 |pages=369–374 |doi=10.2307/2600689 |jstor=2600689 |issn=0020-8833}} However, other historians prefer to see all of those conflicts as "Hegemonic Wars" or "General Wars", been inter-regional wars on the grand scale, but not worldly.{{Cite journal |last=Levy |first=Jack S. |date=April 1985 |title=Theories of General War |url=https://www.cambridge.org/core/journals/world-politics/article/abs/theories-of-general-war/67FF1194166413E399BE9C6475F720F8 |journal=World Politics |volume=37 |issue=3 |pages=344–374 |doi=10.2307/2010247 |jstor=2010247 |issn=1086-3338}}{{Cite journal |last=Melko |first=Matthew |date=2001 |title=The Importance of General Wars in World History |url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/23607788 |journal=Peace Research |volume=33 |issue=1 |pages=83–100 |jstor=23607788 |issn=0008-4697}}

Other historians suggest even earlier conflicts to be world wars. For example, Russian ethnologist L. N. Gumilyov 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 Chinese Empire, the Western Turkic Khaganate, the Khazars, and the Byzantine Empire against a triple union of the Sasanian Empire, the 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. [http://gumilevica.kulichki.net/OT/ot15.htm Ancient Turks. Chapter XV. World War VII.] - M. : Iris-Press, 2009. - 560 p. — (Library of history and culture). {{ISBN|978-5-8112-3742-5}}

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 Ottomans, 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{{Cite web |date=2021-08-22 |title=The Ottoman 'Discovery' of the Indian Ocean in the Sixteenth Century: The Age of Exploration from an Islamic Perspective | website=History Cooperative |url=https://historycooperative.org/journal/the-ottoman-discovery-of-the-indian-ocean-in-the-sixteenth-century-the-age-of-exploration-from-an-islamic-perspective/ |access-date=2023-05-04 }}{{Cite book |last=Burke |first=Edmund |title=Encounters Old and New in World History: The Sixteenth-Century World War and the Roots of the Modern World |date=2017-06-30 |publisher=University of Hawai'i Press |isbn=978-0-8248-6591-7 |doi=10.21313/hawaii/9780824865917.003.0006}}

However, the Americas and Oceania were not involved in those conflicts, in which case, other historians consider the Thirty Years' War{{Cite book |last=Pike |first=John |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=mVaWzgEACAAJ |title=The Thirty Years War, 1618 - 1648: The First Global War and the End of Habsburg Supremacy |date=2023-01-16 |publisher=Pen & Sword Books Limited |isbn=978-1-5267-7575-7 }}{{Cite web |title=Trettioåriga kriget |url=https://historiskamedia.se/bok/trettioariga-kriget/ |access-date=2023-03-27 |website=Historiska Media |language=sv-SE}} and Eighty Years' War (specially Iberian–Dutch War){{Cite web |title=The First Global War: The Dutch versus Iberia in Asia, Africa and the New World, 1590-1609 |url=https://www.cepese.pt/portal/pt/publicacoes/obras/volume-1-number-1-summer-2003/the-first-global-war-the-dutch-versus-iberia-in-asia-africa-and-the-new-world-1590-1609 |access-date=2024-09-09 |website=CEPESE {{!}} CENTRO DE ESTUDOS DA POPULAÇÃO, ECONOMIA E SOCIEDADE |language=pt}}[https://www2.historia.su.se/personal/jan_glete/Glete-Sea_Power_Habsburg_Spain.pdf 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 and Portuguese Empires against the French, Dutch, and British Empires and their allies (mostly Protestants, 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)».{{Cite web |url=https://academic.oup.com/gh/article/38/4/550/5820729 |access-date=2023-04-04 |title= Globalizing the Thirty Years War: Early German Newspapers and their Geopolitical Perspective on the Atlantic World |date=2020 |doi=10.1093/gerhis/ghaa018 |last1=Müller |first1=Johannes |journal=German History |volume=38 |issue=4 |pages=550–567 }}{{Citation |last=Yun-Casalilla |first=Bartolomé |title=The Luso-Spanish Composite Global Empire, 1598–1640 |date=2019 |work=Iberian World Empires and the Globalization of Europe 1415–1668 |series=Palgrave Studies in Comparative Global History |pages=323–376 |editor-last=Yun-Casalilla |editor-first=Bartolomé |place=Singapore |publisher=Springer Nature |doi=10.1007/978-981-13-0833-8_7 |isbn=978-981-13-0833-8|doi-access=free }}

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".{{cite book |url=https://archive.org/details/africasworldwarc0000prun |title=Africa's World War: Congo, the Rwandan Genocide, and the Making of a Continental Catastrophe |first=Gerard |last=Prunier |publisher=Barnes & Noble |isbn=9780195374209 |year=2014 |access-date=20 October 2014 |url-access=registration }}

{{anchor|The World Wars|World wars of the 20th century|World Wars|World

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| align="center" | {{Css Image Crop|Image = NineYearsWar.png|bSize = 256|cWidth = 256|cHeight = 128}} Nine Years' War{{cite book | editor1 = Richard F. Hamilton | editor2 = Holger H. Herwig | date = 24 February 2003 | title = The Origins of World War I | chapter = Chapter 1: World Wars: Definition and Causes | first1 = Richard F. | last1 = Hamilton | first2 = Holger H. | last2 = Herwig | publisher = Cambridge University Press | pages = 4–9 | isbn = 978-1-107-39386-8 | chapter-url = https://books.google.com/books?id=fcILAQAAQBAJ&pg=PA8 | access-date = 21 January 2022 | archive-date = 21 January 2022 | archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20220121060914/https://books.google.com/books?id=fcILAQAAQBAJ&pg=PA8 | url-status = live }}{{cite book | author1 = John Charles Roger Childs | author2 = John Childs | date = 1991 | title = The Nine Years' War and the British Army, 1688–1697: The Operations in the Low Countries | publisher = Manchester University Press | pages = 5 | isbn = 978-0-7190-3461-9 | oclc = 1166971747 | url = https://books.google.com/books?id=q_3HAAAAIAAJ&pg=PA5 | access-date = 2022-01-21 | archive-date = 2022-01-21 | archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20220121060909/https://books.google.com/books?id=q_3HAAAAIAAJ&pg=PA5 | url-status = live }}{{cite book | author = Eliot A. Cohen | date = 13 November 2012 | title = Conquered Into Liberty: Two Centuries of Battles Along the Great Warpath that Made the American Way of War | publisher = Simon and Schuster | pages = 339 | isbn = 978-1-4516-2411-3 | url = https://books.google.com/books?id=0oIwBsuA8K4C&pg=PA339 | access-date = 21 January 2022 | archive-date = 21 January 2022 | archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20220121060910/https://books.google.com/books?id=0oIwBsuA8K4C&pg=PA339 | url-status = live }}{{cite book | author = Alexander Gillespie | date = 14 January 2021 | title = The Causes of War: Volume IV: 1650 – 1800 | publisher = Bloomsbury Publishing | pages = 452 | isbn = 978-1-5099-1218-6 | oclc = 1232140043 | url = https://books.google.com/books?id=y7EVEAAAQBAJ&pg=PA452 | access-date = 21 January 2022 | archive-date = 21 January 2022 | archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20220121060911/https://books.google.com/books?id=y7EVEAAAQBAJ&pg=PA452 | url-status = live }}

| 680,000

|

| Europe, North America, South America, Asia

| 1688

| 1697

| 9

|-

| align="center" | {{Css Image Crop|Image = WaroftheSpanishSuccession.png|bSize = 256|cWidth = 256|cHeight = 128}} War of the Spanish Succession

| 700,000{{cite book |last= Urlanis |first= Boris Cezarevič | page = 187 | title=Wars and Population |year = 1971 |publisher=Progress Publishing }}

| 1,251,000{{cite book |last=Levy |first=Jack |title = War in the Modern Great Power System: 1495 to 1975 | page = 90 | publisher= University of Kentucky |year=2014 |isbn=978-0813163659 }}

| Europe, North America, South America, Africa

| 1701

| 1714

| 13

|-

| align="center" | {{Css Image Crop|Image = WaroftheAustrianSuccession.png|bSize = 256|cWidth = 256|cHeight = 128}} War of the Austrian Succession{{cite book | author = John A. Lynn | date = 19 December 2013 | title = The Wars of Louis XIV 1667–1714 | publisher = Routledge | pages = 261 | isbn = 978-1-317-89951-8 | url = https://books.google.com/books?id=yy9mAgAAQBAJ&pg=PA261 | access-date = 21 January 2022 | archive-date = 21 January 2022 | archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20220121060913/https://books.google.com/books?id=yy9mAgAAQBAJ&pg=PA261 | url-status = live }}

| 359,000

|

| Europe, North America, South America, Asia

| 1740

| 1748

| 8

|-

| align="center" | {{Css Image Crop|Image = SevenYearsWar.png|bSize = 256|cWidth = 256|cHeight = 128}} Seven Years' War{{cite news |title=WW1: Was it really the first world war? |url=https://www.bbc.com/news/magazine-28057198 |access-date=20 January 2022 |work=BBC News |date=28 June 2014 |archive-date=20 January 2022 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220120202946/https://www.bbc.com/news/magazine-28057198 |url-status=live }}{{cite journal |last1=Hodgson |first1=Quentin E |title=The First Global War |journal=SAIS Review |date=2001 |volume=21 |issue=1 |pages=291–294 |doi=10.1353/sais.2001.0016 |s2cid=154584277 |url=https://muse.jhu.edu/article/30528#:~:text=The%20Seven%20Years'%20War%2Dknown,global%20war%20in%20modern%20history. |issn=1945-4724 |access-date=2022-01-20 |archive-date=2018-06-01 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180601224625/http://muse.jhu.edu/article/30528#:~:text=The%20Seven%20Years'%20War%2Dknown,global%20war%20in%20modern%20history. |url-status=live }}

| 992,000

| 1,500,000{{cite book |first=Matthew |last=White |title=The Great Big Book of Horrible Things: The Definitive Chronicle of History's 100 Worst Atrocities |date=2012 |publisher=W. W. Norton |pages=529–530 |isbn=978-0-393-08192-3}}

| Europe, North America, South America, Africa, Asia

| 1754

| 1763

| 9

|-

| align="center" | {{Css Image Crop|Image = AmericanRevolutionaryWar.png|bSize = 256|cWidth = 256|cHeight = 128}} American Revolutionary War

| 217,000

| 262,000

| North America, Gibraltar, Balearic Islands, Asia, Africa, Caribbean Sea, Atlantic Ocean, Indian Ocean

| 1775

| 1783

| 8

|-

| align="center" | {{Css Image Crop|Image = FrenchRevolutionaryWars.png|bSize = 256|cWidth = 256|cHeight = 128}} French Revolutionary Wars

| 663,000

|

| Europe, Egypt, Middle East, Atlantic Ocean, Caribbean, Indian Ocean

| 1792

| 1802

| 9

|-

| align="center" | {{Css Image Crop|Image = NapoleonicWars.png|bSize = 256|cWidth = 256|cHeight = 128}} Napoleonic Wars{{cite web |title=1812: The First World War |url=https://ageofrevolution.org/waterloo-timeline/1812-the-first-world-war/ |website=Age of Revolution |access-date=20 January 2022 |archive-date=20 January 2022 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220120202948/https://ageofrevolution.org/waterloo-timeline/1812-the-first-world-war/ |url-status=live }}

| 1,800,000

| 7,000,000Charles Esdaile "Napoleon's Wars: An International History".

| Europe, Atlantic Ocean, Mediterranean Sea, North Sea, Río de la Plata, French Guiana, West Indies, Indian Ocean, North America, South Caucasus

| 1803

| 1815

| 13

|-

| align="center" | {{Css Image Crop|Image = WWI-re.png|bSize = 256|cWidth = 256|cHeight = 128}} World War I

| 15,000,000{{harvnb|Willmott|2003|p=307}}

| 65,000,000{{cite journal |url=https://www.cdc.gov/ncidod/EID/vol12no01/05-0979.htm|journal =Emerging Infectious Diseases |publisher=CDC |title=1918 Influenza: the Mother of All Pandemics |volume= 12 |issue=1 |date= January 2006 |first1=Jeffery K. |last1=Taubenberger |first2=David M. |last2=Morens |pages =15–22 |doi =10.3201/eid1209.05-0979 |pmid =16494711 |pmc =3291398 |access-date=2017-09-18|archive-date=2009-10-06|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20091006002531/http://www.cdc.gov/ncidod/eid/vol12no01/05-0979.htm|url-status=live|hdl=1805/733 |hdl-access=free }} ||Global

| 1914

| 1918

| 4

|-

| align="center" | {{Css Image Crop|Image = Map of participants in World War II.svg|bSize = 256|cWidth = 256|cHeight = 128}} World War II

| 40,000,000{{cite book| first = David| last = Wallechinsky| title = David Wallechinskys 20th Century: History With the Boring Parts Left Out| date = 1996-09-01| publisher = Little Brown| isbn = 978-0-316-92056-8}}

| 85,000,000Fink, George: Stress of War, Conflict and Disaster

| Global

| 1939

| 1945

| 6

|-

| align="center" | {{Css Image Crop|Image = Cold War Map 1980.svg|bSize = 256|cWidth = 256|cHeight = 128}} Cold War

|

|

| Global

| 1947

| 1991

| 47

|-

| align="center" | {{Css Image Crop|Image = Battlefields in The Global War on Terror.svg|bSize = 256|cWidth = 256|cHeight = 128}} War on terror

| 4,500,000

• {{cite web|title=Human Cost of Post-9/11 Wars: Direct War Deaths in Major War Zones, Afghanistan & Pakistan (Oct. 2001 – Aug. 2021); Iraq (March 2003 – Aug. 2021); Syria (Sept. 2014 – May 2021); Yemen (Oct. 2002–Aug. 2021) and Other Post-9/11 War Zones|url=https://watson.brown.edu/costsofwar/figures/2021/WarDeathToll|access-date=10 September 2021|website=The Costs of War}}
• {{Cite news |last=Berger |first=Miriam |date=15 May 2023 |title=Post-9/11 wars have contributed to some 4.5 million deaths, report suggests |newspaper=The Washington Post |url=https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/2023/05/15/war-on-terror-911-deaths-afghanistan-iraq/ |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230529144019/https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/2023/05/15/war-on-terror-911-deaths-afghanistan-iraq/ |archive-date=29 May 2023}}
• {{Cite web |last=Savell |first=Stephanie |date=15 May 2023 |title=How Death Outlives War: The Reverberating Impact of the Post-9/11 Wars on Human Health |url=https://watson.brown.edu/costsofwar/files/cow/imce/papers/2023/Indirect%20Deaths.pdf |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230609194652/https://watson.brown.edu/costsofwar/files/cow/imce/papers/2023/Indirect%20Deaths.pdf |archive-date=9 June 2023 |website=Costs of War |publisher=Watson Institute of International & Public Affairs}}

| 4,600,000

| Global

| 2001

| present

|}

{{portal|World}}

• Interwar period
• Post-war
• Post-Cold War era
• List of largest empires
• List of military conflicts spanning multiple wars
• List of countries by number of military and paramilitary personnel
• List of ongoing armed conflicts
• Military history

{{Reflist|30em}}

• {{cite book|last1=Shapiro|first1=Fred R.|last2=Epstein|first2=Joseph|title=The Yale Book of Quotations|publisher=Yale University Press|year=2006|isbn=978-0-300-10798-2|url=https://archive.org/details/isbn_9780300107982}}
• {{cite book|last=Willmott|first=H. P.|year=2003|title=World War I|publisher=Dorling Kindersley|isbn=978-0-7894-9627-0|oclc=52541937}}

• [https://web.archive.org/web/20150501122844/http://www.ubishops.ca/baudrillardstudies/spiegel.htm This is the Fourth World War], an interview with philosopher Jean Baudrillard

{{Globalization|state=autocollapse}}

Category:War

Category:World

Category:Wars by type