World War

A world war is a war affecting most of the world's most powerful and populous countries. 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). However, it is also sometimes applied to earlier wars and to a hypothetical future war.

Read more about World War:  Origins of The Term, World Wars Before The 20th Century, World Wars of The 20th Century, Later World Wars

Famous quotes containing the words world and/or war:

    The world has narrowed to a neighborhood before it has broadened to brotherhood.
    Lyndon Baines Johnson (1908–1973)

    Come Vitus, are we men, or are we children? Of what use are all these melodramatic gestures? You say your soul was killed, and that you have been dead all these years. And what of me? Did we not both die here in Marmaros fifteen years ago? Are we any the less victims of the war than those whose bodies were torn asunder? Are we not both the living dead?
    Peter Ruric, and Edgar G. Ulmer. Hjalmar Poelzig (Boris Karloff)