You’ve certainly have heard of the term world war, used mainly to describe two important historical events: WWI and WWII. But, do you know what it really means?
Its meaning is way more complex than referring to a warlike event happening worldwide, for it has to do with geopolitical, economical, and historical events that make an armed conflict receive such a name.
This is how the term was coined and why we haven’t had (luckily) a World War III.
The first time the term World War was used in the English language dates back to 1848 in a Scottish newspaper, according to the Oxford English Dictionary.
However, the first time the term World War I appeared was in a Time Magazine article in June 1939. Before the term was coined, they referred to it by the name “Great War”.
What a world war really means?
Throughout human history, armed conflicts between empires, tribes, countries… you name it have occurred, but not all of them have received the name world war.
The Merriam-Webster dictionary defines it as “a war engaged in by all or most of the principal nations of the world”.
If we consider the principal nations of the world the ones that are part either of the Security Council or G7, then we can say that those are: China, France, Russia, the United Kingdom, and the United States; adding Germany, Canada, Italy and Japan for the latter.
Why not every war is considered a world war
Besides the involvement of the countries named before, a world war has to have a social, cultural, and economic impact worldwide. For example, migration changes, displacement of local residents, mobilization of armies, and people called to fight from around the world.
Some historians believe that the Seven Years’ War, the 18th-century conflict among Europe’s powers, or even the Napoleonic Wars that involved, literally, most of the world, should be considered as world wars.
