The World War reference article from the English Wikipedia on 24-Apr-2004 (provided by Fixed Reference: snapshots of Wikipedia from wikipedia.org)

World War

A world war is a military conflict that affects the majority of the world's countries. World wars usually span multiple continents, and are very bloody and destructive.

The term is usually used to refer to World War I (1914–1918) and World War II (1939–1945). Both wars involved some degree of participation from most of the world's existing countries.

Other wars in earlier periods that saw conflict across the world have been considered world wars by some, including the Seven Years' War (1756–1763; Winston Churchill called it "the first world war" in his History of the English Speaking Peoples), the French Revolutionary Wars (1792–1802) and the Napoleonic Wars (1803–1815).

There is no agreement on whether there have been any world wars since 1945. "World War III" was widely used to refer to a hypothetical nuclear war between the Soviet Union, the United States and their allies. "World War III" has also been used to refer to the Cold War (1945–1990) and to the War on Terrorism. "World War IV" was used by Professor Eliot Cohen to refer to the War on Terrorism.

Since the conclusion of World War I, 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.

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