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A world war is a military conflict affecting
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, specially through the colonial empires of Great
Britain, France, Germany, Italy and Japan, besides the United States and the Soviet
Union.
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 some disagreement 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. However, the consensus currently seems to be
there have been only two proper World Wars.
Since the conclusion of World War I, known as "the war to end all wars", international organizations have been developed to
prevent the outbreak of new wars. The League of Nations was
established after World War I, and collapsed with the outbreak of World War II, after which the United Nations was formed.
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