List of Retronyms - Historiographic Retronyms

Historiographic Retronyms

Aztec Empire

Term coined by Alexander von Humboldt in the early 19th Century to differentiate between the pre-Hispanic "Mexican empire" and the then new post-Hispanic one (this, in turn, became known as the First Mexican Empire upon the French-backed enthronization of Maximilian I in 1864).

Byzantine Empire

Term coined in 1557 to name the East Roman Empire, then defunct by over a century, in the historical period following the disintegration of the Western Roman Empire in 476 AD. The entity was commonly known as 'Roman Empire' to its inhabitants and 'Empire of the Greeks' to contemporary Western Europeans.

Gran Colombia

Historians' term for the first "Republic of Colombia", which included what are now Colombia, Venezuela, Ecuador, and Panama.

Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth

Term coined in the 20th century, after the restoration of separate Poland and Lithuania as independent states.

Weimar Republic

Used to refer to the German Reich during the period in which it was a liberal democracy, prior to being taken over by the Nazi Party.

World War I/First World War

Originally this was called "The Great War" and commonly believed to be "the war to end all wars". However, when a second war enveloped Europe, Asia, and much of the Pacific, it became necessary to distinguish them. Similarly, the 1991 war in the Persian Gulf, formerly called "Desert Storm" or just the "Gulf War", is now (since the 2003 invasion of Iraq) often referred to as "The First Gulf War".