Talk:World war

Those who say WW2 began in 1937 or earlier need to pick up a few WW2 books. 99.9999% of them will state the war began on the 3rd of September 1939 so what's with all this revisionist history?

This is because this is the start of the Second Sino-Japanese War, which basically was WWII in East Asia anyways.

Cameron Nedland 02:12, 13 December 2005 (UTC)

World War - A war involving many important nations - Oxford English Dictionary Online

A world war never meant a majority of the world's nations, a war fought over the world, etc. It was always a war with the major nations involve. A war between the USA, GB, China, Russia and India fought on a tennis court would still be a world war. A war between Poland, New Zealand, Argentina and Singapore fought all over the world would not be a world war. This wikipedia article is wrong.

Tennis court, lol.

-G

Why did you revert to the last edit?

Because it's your own personal interpretation. RickK 05:35, 2 Nov 2003 (UTC)

What's my personal interpretation? There is an article on World War IV. I just want it to be easier to find.

OK, it's somebody else's personal interpretation. Well, I'll revert it, but it needs some changes. RickK 05:44, 2 Nov 2003 (UTC)

"Since the conclusion of World War II, known as "the war to end all wars", the world has generally been united by a common desire never again to have another world war. "

Uh.... huh. And which world is this? --cuiusquemodi 20:56, May 18, 2004 (UTC)

The Cold War and War on Terrorism are not considered World Wars? By whom?? This section needs deleting, many commentators call the CW WW3 and the WoT WW4 (or WW3 if they dont count the CW). They have a far better claim to world war then the "League of Aubsburg" - CJWilly

Have you read the definition of "World War" used in this article? I'd hardly call a war with casualties in the low thousands a "World War". --Carnildo 10:43, 6 Dec 2004 (UTC)

The Cold War was global, and had deaths in the millions. Two of the nations involved didn't directly fire at each other- so? It's certainly better qualified than some of the other wars listed. The War on Terror isn't "A World War" or "Not a World War." It hasn't concluded, and can't be defined yet. Alakhriveion 22:17, 13 Jan 2005 (UTC)

What happened to my article on Global Wars... I didn't say anything about merging the topics...

The article on "Global Wars" and the article on "World Wars" covered the same ground, so I merged the two. "World War" became the introduction of the combined article, while "Global War" became the body. I felt "World War" was the better article title, so I put the article under that title, and made "Global War" a redirect. --Carnildo 21:21, 6 Dec 2004 (UTC)

WW3/WW4 .. cold war?! war on terrorism?!!?

guess u got know clue what u are talkin. the cold war was a war of knowledge and upgrade between russia and usa. even thinkin bout describin it as a World War infamizes millions of human beings, who died in the 2 World Wars. and who - except some patriotic american clowns - describe the war on terror as a world war - not even finished? it aint no premier if some warlords follow their own targets .. might it coz of religious, racist or inhuman reasons. so the specs and claims should be placed in a special chapter, no juggling with words to profile themselve without knowin anything bout the issue. big up myself for instructin u clowns

What this article should be

The way I see it is that this article should be, at least when listing the wars, a summary and overview for each conflict. I've created Participants in World War I and Participants in World War II which contain the info I've just taken out of this article - I don't see the need to have the entire participant list here. I've also reordered the wars to most-recent first. violet/riga (t) 23:09, 13 Jan 2005 (UTC)

"Wars not considered World Wars"

This section isn't neutral or informative. It states opinions about the Cold War (That it wasn't a World War) as fact, and groundlessly judges the War on Terrorism- it can't be called a World War or not a World War until it's over. Unless someone can see in to the future, I think that's pretty slanted. Alakhriveion 18:24, 16 Jan 2005 (UTC)

I've replaced the text. I see what you're saying but think that rewording it would be better - links to those two wars would naturally fit into this page. I'll let you reword as you see fit or, if you don't in the near future, will give it a go myself. Cheers, violet/riga (t) 19:15, 16 Jan 2005 (UTC)

Quite the contrary Alakhriveion, the "War on Terrorism" and the "Cold War" can easily be seen to be non-wars. Not only are they not world wars, they are not even regular wars. The War on Terrorism has no well-defined beginning and I would be interested to see what you would consider "the end" of this supposed war. While a third world war may be the end result of what we Americans are currently calling the "War on Terror", no actual war has yet taken place. That human interest in war-making has led to these collections of events being termed wars has no bearing on their actual status as non-wars. Dwee 25 Feb 2005

This is one opinion. It's disputed. As for the War on Terror, the Invasions of Iraq and Afghanistan are clearly wars. Whether or not these combat terrorism is an issue, but whether or not they're part of the war currently being refered to as the 'War on Terror' cannot be. It's beginning date could be disputed, but World War Two's could be as well.-Alakhriveion

history

I'm interested in the history of the term. When was "world war" first applied to either WWI or WWII? I think it was in the 50s, but I need some reference... dab (ᛏ) 12:04, 23 Feb 2005 (UTC)

No much earlier. According to this page, the term "world war" was first used in 1909. The term "World War II" was first used in 1919 so the term First World War must have already been in occasional use for the Great War. The wars were called the First and Second World Wars already in 1938 in Time magazine. Rmhermen 16:18, Feb 24, 2005 (UTC)

thanks! see also the following replies and follow-up question that turned up on WP:RD dab (ᛏ) 18:43, 25 Feb 2005 (UTC)

If you have access to a good dictionary - I'll have a glance at our multi-volume OED in the reference department tomorrow if I remember - try looking them up and seeing if there's a citation; I think "World War Two" was in use as early as the 1940s, possibly even during the war, but I don't know when it became the "proper name". Shimgray 16:51, 24 Feb 2005 (UTC)

Being a little more helpful... "the world war" is used in The World War and What was Behind It (1918); it's uncapitalised, but the meaning is clear and it's definitely used as a specific term.

In January '43, FDR commented "In the years between the end of the first World War and the beginning of the second World War..." [1]; again, the meaning is fairly explicit.

The terms were still ambiguous by the early 1950s, though; my 1952 Revised Edition of Brewer's Dictionary of Phrase and Fable feels the need to note that ...in all references to the two Great Wars of this century, World War I indicates that of 1914-18, World War II that of 1939-45. (it's interesting they say -18 not -19, but I digress) Shimgray 17:31, 24 Feb 2005 (UTC)

Why is it "interesting they say -18, not -19"? Last time I checked, World War I was generally agreed to last until 1918. Please enlighten me. Nightstallion 19:19, 24 Feb 2005 (UTC)

Aha, but here's the rub - fighting lasted from 1914 to 1918, but the Treaty of Versailles was only signed in 1919. As such, the war was often referred to as lasting until 1919 at the time, even though there was no fighting that year; you often see war memorials referring to the "1914-1919 War", contemporary medals were often marked "1914-1919", and the like. This fell out of use over the years, and now 1918 is far more common. If you look at Google, for example, "1914-18" gets about ten times as many hits as "1914-19". (partly due to the emphasis in many countries on the Armstice celebrations, but I suspect it also had a lot to do with the growing emphasis on "social history" rather than "diplomatic history", and the reduced role of people Learning Dates Of Treaties. I haven't ever studied that, though...)

I wasn't sure when the general transition of "the correct dates" shifted, but for some reason I'd expected it to be later than 1950. Another one for research... Shimgray 20:31, 24 Feb 2005 (UTC)

If it's any help, I am currently working with a huge collection of Archives at the New York State Archives on World War I, specifically newspapers, local histories, letters, photos, etc... of New Yorkers involved in World War I. I've found that the term "World War" was firmly in place by 1917 when the US entered the war. Many of the welcome back parties, thrown in 1919 for returning troops thank "our boys who participated in the World War" (Capitalized). Another point. 1919 was viewed by many as the end of the war in the 1920s not because of the treaty as much as that was when the Allies finally started to see their sons and husbands and fathers and brothers come home (so it's actually the social and diplomatic history that matter). Remember, there was an occupying army in Germany until the treaty was signed. Many of the service cards and service abstracts will include "Member of German Occupation Army" in the list of battles or actions participated in by the person who the card or abstract describes.Billy P 15:20, 11 July 2005 (UTC)

Seven Years War

was the first ever war that wasnt started in europe

good job to whoever wrote that--JinFX HuangDi 1698 02:51, 2005 March 8 (UTC)

That is absolute bullshit. Cameron Nedland 02:12, 13 December 2005 (UTC)

Where is the article going?

I have just pilfered the introductions from the WWI and WWII pages for brif introductions to these two wars. I guess they are a bit long for this page but can be shortened later... Anyway, some things I think this page needs:

1. Reference (page number, volume) of the Churchill quote, and I guess that the fact this is in his history of the English speaking peoples should be in the 7 years war section not the intro (but the quote itself could stay in the intro).
2. Other historians views of what counts as a World War? With refs.
3. Contrast with Total war - some world wars are total wars but the two are not the same thing.
4. The Cold War / War on Terror info may be better in the Classification as a world war section.

What do you think? Andreww 01:38, 25 Apr 2005 (UTC)

What about the Crimean war?

That conflict involved Russia, Great Britan, France, The Ottoman, Sardina and even the CSA.

That conflict within itself takes up about over 80% of the world.

• But as "The majority of the conflict took place on the Crimean peninsula in the Black Sea." (according to the Crimean war article) so it fails the "Happened on more than one continent" test. Andreww 5 July 2005 08:03 (UTC)

How could the CSA have been involved in the Crimean War, it wasn't around yet!? Cameron Nedland 02:12, 13 December 2005 (UTC)

Confederate army in Crimea-- more insight--Mole Man 09:21, 24 December 2005 (UTC)

Dude, the Crimean War was in the 1850's and the CSA wasn't around until 1860. Cameron Nedland 01:50, 19 January 2006 (UTC)

Even more candidates for World War?

I'm suggesting more candidates for consideration as World Wars simply to make it clear that if a World War can happen on one continent (As World War I did in fact) and only require participation from nation-states on other continents, but not an actual theatre of fighting, then other wars that included three continents and high civilian and military casualties but did not take place in Europe and/or with modern war equipment should definately be considered. I'm always a bit pained by the Euro-Centrism or West-Centrism in Wikipedia. Here's some suggestions:

• Hunnic Expansion
• Roman Wars
• Alexandrian Wars
• The Mongolian Expansion
• The Partition of Africa
• All of the New Imperialism conflicts together
• The Latin American Revolutions
• The Expansion of Islam

All of these in fact do involve European powers in some way anyway, because I, being a Westerner, have been completely denied any real education about any conflicts that don't somehow involve a white person. I'm guessing there are Chinese, Japanese, Arab, Indian, and African wars that I don't even know about that might also qualify as World Wars.
Billy P 15:59, 11 July 2005 (UTC)

Ok, I'll bite. World War I was of global extent, according to the article: "Some of the very first actions of the war occurred far from Europe, including Africa and the Pacific Ocean." In any case I would argue that for inclusion in our list we just need to find some reputable source who calls it a "World War" because otherwise we are interpreting history and thus approaching original research. -- Andreww 09:13, 12 July 2005 (UTC)

World War V?

Theres should be a article/information on World War V since theres one on World War IV.

World War IV is occasionally used as a term, World War V has never been used. — Ilγαηερ (Tαlκ) 00:54, 19 August 2005 (UTC)

The only World War IV I'm aware of is the hypothetical one that will be fought with stones and clubs. I've never heard of a World War V. --Carnildo 04:48, 19 August 2005 (UTC)

If The Cold War was a World War, it can be World War Three, so the next one (or current one if you're of that thinking) is World War IV. Since this is all up in the air having articles all the way up to five is unneeded. Alakhriveion 04:21, 27 September 2005 (UTC)

Victims of holocaust

It should be cited the the num,ber of holcaust victims includes the sint and Roma. As the term generally refers to jewish victins only.

Incorrect battefield area

The area conversion between imperial and metric is wrong in the "Both World Wars in comparison" table; the conversion factor between sq. miles and km² is ~2.59 (area), not ~1.6093 (distance). Which value is the correct one? Sarke 15:53, 12 November 2005 (UTC)

The Spanish-American War

The Spanish-American War would technicaly be WW because it was fought on two continents. Cameron Nedland 01:50, 19 January 2006 (UTC)

Err, really? The article says that it was fought between the US with the aid of Cuban rebel forces and Spain. WWs contain many more countries, as the map on the article shows. As you can see, both WWs contain countries from every continent, unlike the Spanish-American War map would.

Personally, I can't see why people keep trying to add lesser wars to the page. World War One and World War Two are the only true world wars, and the cold war and the war on terror are not WW3 and WW4.

User:The Halo (talk) 16:2 , 20 March 2006 (UTC)

      The reason people are trying to add lesser wars is because the page is a merge from two pages:
      World War and Global War.  WW1 and WW2 are arguably not the only global wars, so others should 
      be considered.

I thought Italy fought Austria?

Then how can it be allied with Austria or Germany?

-G