Should the Seven Years War be seen as the 1st World War?

I often wonder why that isn't the case. It was after all the 1st truly global war. There were battles in Europe, North America, Africa and Asia so why isn't it called a World War?
 

Anaxagoras

Banned
Even the Seven Years War wasn't the first global war. After all, the War of the Grand Alliance (1688-1697) saw fighting in Europe, North America, the Caribbean and India.
 
I often wonder why that isn't the case. It was after all the 1st truly global war. There were battles in Europe, North America, Africa and Asia so why isn't it called a World War?

Because it was fought by european powers only, even if they fought on other continents. While in WW1 & 2 non-European powers joined in as independant powers
 
You can argue that there were others before it.

It depends on the definition:

Europeans fought in the Philippines and India but not so much the local powers (Bengal did). Does this count as being an "Indian" war?

If so, then yes.
 
It's not about the definition of "world war" its about the terminology at the time. Until the Second World War the First World War was known as the Great War. Before the First World War the Napoleonic Wars were know as the Great War. I don't know what the Seven Years War was called by folks in the late 18th century, but I doubt it was the Seven Years War. Its a weird that the number one someone would take from an epic war is how many years it lasted.

It is also known as many different things in other places - the French and Indian War in the US, the 3rd Carnatic War in Indian, the 3rd Silesian War in Germany and Austria and even the Fantastic War in Portugal.

So why not the First World War - which as you point out is a pretty legitimate name - well I think it comes from the 1940's, when they needed to distinguish between their war and the 194-18 one, one was first in their life times. I suppose some aggressive historians could have persuaded everyone that 1939-45 was actually the 4th World War, after 1756-63, the Napoleonic Wars and 1914-1918. But they didn;t.
 
Quite. Well, actually, that should be WWII.

WWI : 1740–1748 War of the Austrian Succession
WWII : 1756–1763 Seven Years' War
WWIII: 1792–1802 French Revolutionary Wars and 1803–1815 Napoleonic Wars

with WWIV and WWV being OTL's WWI and WWII
 
I think the term "World War" could only be connected to a worldwide industrial war, unless people begin calling the Seven Years War the First World War with a POD around that time.
 
That's true but they were minor players comapred to European ones.

I think that's a very Eurocentric view.

I don't think that the Mughals or the Iroquois Confederacy saw themselves as minor players. They played European alliances to their own advantages.
 
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It's your assertion that the Mughal Empire was a minor player. I'll let you have first crack at that.

They didn't operate as separate force but rather as adjunct to French. The conflict was between Britain and fRance, Mughals jsut got involved when fighting spread.
 

Dorozhand

Banned
That's true but they were minor players comapred to European ones.

Calling the 1914 conflict the First World War is an enormous European conceit. Japan and China's involvement amounted to very little in the end. The Second World War involved non-European powers as major players, but the most common definition of the war almost sneeringly omits the beginning of the Second Sino-Japanese War and focuses on Poland.
 
Calling the 1914 conflict the First World War is an enormous European conceit. Japan and China's involvement amounted to very little in the end. The Second World War involved non-European powers as major players, but the most common definition of the war almost sneeringly omits the beginning of the Second Sino-Japanese War and focuses on Poland.

In WW1, there were naval battles in the South Atlantic and the Indian Ocean. The naval bombardments of Madras and Penang come to mind. Additionally British colonial forces did engage those of the Germans in a 4 year struggle in Africa against the brilliant Von Lettow Vorbeck. The Middle East was also a massive theater as was Gallipoli. It's a world war not just because of the actors but also the locations.
 
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