A world war is a war affecting the majority of the world's most powerful and populous nations. 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). It also applies to the next conflict that may occur in the future, World War III, which g...
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A world war is a war affecting the majority of the world's most powerful and populous nations. 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). It also applies to the next conflict that may occur in the future, World War III, which generally ranges from limited war with nuclear weapons, to destruction of the planet.
Some regard a number of other conflicts throughout history as "world wars".
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...
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