WW1 AND WW2

[Jcarr162000]

As the description says when did the great war of 1914 to 1918 become world war one 1 and when did the conflict of 1939-45 become world war 2?

[Steve N]

Here's what Wikipedia has on the subject...

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[1]. 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.

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 global conflict in the event of war breaking out. The fact that the powers involved had large overseas empires virtually guaranteed that a conflict would be global, as the colonies' resources would be a crucial strategic factor. The same strategic considerations also ensured that the combatants would strike at each others' colonies, thus spreading the fighting far more widely than in the pre-colonial era.

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

All the participants of the War of the Spanish Succession

All the participants of the War of the Austrian Succession

All the participants of the Seven Years' War

All the participants of the Napoleonic Wars

The term First World War was used in the book The First World War: A Photographic History, edited by playwright and war veteran Laurence Stallings and published in 1933.[2] The term "World War I" was invented by Time magazine in its issue of June 12, 1939.[3] In that same issue, the term World War II was first used speculatively by Time magazine to describe the upcoming war.[4] The first use for the actual war came in its issue of September 11, 1939.[5]

SN

Edited June 4, 2012 by Steve N

[vince14]

According to QI Series 9 Episode 2 (view from the 25:00 min mark) the First World War was originally named as such by Lieutenant Colonel Charles à Court Repington, who recorded in his diary that on 10th December 1918 he met with a Major Johnson of Harvard University who agreed that the conflict should be called the First World War. He then published a book in 1920 called 'The First World War 1914 - 1918'.

Vince