World war

1. The World Wars of the 20th century took place on almost every populated continent on Earth. Many of the states who fought in the First World War also fought in the Second, although not always on the same sides. The two World Wars of the 20th century caused unprecedented casualties and destruction across the theaters 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 military combatants and non-combatant civilians was often overlooked or ignored. Both world wars saw large scale murders. The Ottomans were responsible for the death of over one million Armenians. The Nazis were responsible for multiple 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. 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 states for decades after the end 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 goal 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.

2. A world war is a war affecting most of the world's most powerful and populous countries. 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). However, it is also sometimes applied to earlier wars and to a hypothetical future war.

3. Origins of the term

3.1. 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.

3.2. 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 worldwide conflict in the event of war breaking out. The fact that the powers involved had large overseas empires virtually guaranteed that 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 fighting far more widely than in the pre-colonial era.

3.3. 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 to the war the word was used in the more abstract meaning of "a global conflict"); in Italian, the Guerra Mondiale; in Russian the мировые войны (miroviye voyni); in Spanish the Guerra Mundial and so on.

4. World wars before the 20th century

4.1. Before the 20th century, there were a number of wars spanning multiple continents, including: the Eighty Years' War (1568-1648) the Dutch-Portuguese War (1602-1663) the Nine Years' War (1688–1697), also called the "War of the Grand Alliance" or "War of the Palatine Succession" the War of the Spanish Succession (1701–1714) the War of the Austrian Succession (1740–1748) the Seven Years' War (1756–1763), which Winston Churchill called "the first world war" in A History of the English-Speaking Peoples[6] the American Revolutionary War (1775–1783) the French Revolutionary Wars (1792–1802) the Napoleonic Wars (1803–1815) the Crimean War (1853–1856) Before the late 19th century, the concept of a world war would be the result of military action caused by quarrels between European powers which took place in fairly limited, though sometimes far-flung, theaters of conflict.

5. World wars of the 20th century

5.1. The World Wars of the 20th century took place on almost every populated continent on Earth. Many of the states who fought in the First World War also fought in the Second, although not always on the same sides. The two World Wars of the 20th century caused unprecedented casualties and destruction across the theaters 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 military combatants and non-combatant civilians was often overlooked or ignored. Both world wars saw large scale murders. The Ottomans were responsible for the death of over one million Armenians. The Nazis were responsible for multiple 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.

6. All the participants of the War of the Spanish Succession

7. All the participants of the War of the Austrian Succession

8. All the participants of the Seven Years' War

9. All the participants of the Napoleonic Wars. France, its client states, and allies depicted in green, opposing coalition forces in blue.

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

11. World Map with the participants in World War II. The Allies depicted in green (those in light green entered between 7 December 1941 and 14 August 1945), the Axis Powers in blue, and neutral countries in grey. The Xikang region of Tibet was under Chinese control.