And for that matter, when was the term “World War II” coined? I suspect that they were coined more-or-less simultaneously, but I also have the sense that it didn’t happen on the day Hitler invaded Poland.
“First World War” dates to 1918 IIRC. 1919 at the very latest. That might seem odd, but the term
It was called the Great War…Until WW2 came along.
And thus the Great War became just a number.
“First World War” dates to 1918 IIRC. 1919 at the very latest. That might seem odd, but the term means “The first war involving the entire world”. It doesn’t mean, as is commonly thought, “The first of a series of World Wars”. So there was no reason *not *to use it as soon as the war expanded to encompass the Americas.
I’m not sure of the date of “Second World War”, but I would expect that it was in use by 1942 at the very latest.
Nm
There have many many threads on this. I think the best one is this one from 2007.
For those too lazy to click over. The use of WWI and WWII started in 1939 to describe the looming conflict in Europe. Obviously, however, people had the concept much earlier. There is a 1920 book called The First World War: 1914-1918. There were many references to a possible second world war between 1920 and 1939. It was in the air, and just codified in print in 1939 before the actual shooting started.
Speaking about that book, the “elves” at QI (nickname that the researchers of the BBC show have) report that:
Google’s Ngram will give you a good idea as to when the term “World War I” became popular:
The “first world war” was actually the Seven Years’ War.
I’ve read later historians lumping WWI and WWII together as one wider war with an armistice in between. It’s just that naturally no one during the between time understood the situation.
Thanks for the many answers!
The notion that the inter-war period was nothing more than an armistice goes all the way back to the Treaty of Versailles, at which time some parties felt that the peace terms were too easy on Germany, possibly allowing Germany to re-arm. These parties felt that much harsher terms were needed, to prevent that from ever happening again.
In particular, the French general, General Ferdinand Foch, famously said “This is not a peace. It is an armistice for twenty years” during (or soon after) the Versailles Conference, when he commented on the peace terms.
Maybe it should be called “The World War, part 1”.
Because it was always unfinished business.
EG UK enterring the part 2, started with a famous speach which
stipulated that they won’t stop short of Berlin… they were going to finish the job 2nd time around !
I was under the impression that if I bought, say, a sofa from a store in Connecticut, but lived in NY, that there wouldn’t be any sales tax, as the sofa would be delivered to the NY address. Is that not correct? Now, I know that if the store has a presence in NY, then I’d have to pay, but if it’s a sole store, do I? The merchant is telling me yes, but others are telling me no. What’s the deal?
Oops. Must have posted in this thread, which I was reading, instead of beginning a new thread. Can a Mod delete? I’ll repost in the appropriate place. Sorry.