A “World War” is a war, usually engaged in by multiple large and small powers, across a large expanse of the earth. The sixteenth century through the early nineteenth century were scatted with them as the new colonial powers fought each other with the various colonies engaged on the world stage.
Most of them were pretty small, but the Napoleonic Wars of the late eighteenth century through the early nineteenth century were much larger. Great Britian came out of the Napoleonic wars as—what we would call today—the world’s strongest “Superpower.” For the next 99 years they exerted control and slammed a lid on any minor wars that might have triggered a World War to ensure a long-term peace known as “Pax Britannica.”
When enough large powers grew up to challenge them in the early twentieth century that “peace” broke down and deteriorated into a World War—known at the time as “the Great War”—that dwarfed the Napoleonic Wars. At the end of the Great War there were no nations strong enough to impose peace, and the world broke into another World War within twenty years that dwarfed the Great War and changed its name into World War I…the second one being named World War II.
At the end of WW II there were two powers strong enough to be called “Superpowers”—the USSR and the USA. Unfortunately, the USSR wanted to use it position to expand control over its neighbors. The US opposed them with a policy known as “containment.” Neither power was really strong enough to overwhelm the other power, and the world settled into another extended period of relative peace known as “Pax Americana” were the two sides engaged in a power struggle using proxies instead of face-to-face confrontations.
The Soviet-American confrontation lasted forty-five years and the Pax Americana has lasted almost seventy-five years at this point but is showing signs of strain. MBC
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