Why do you think they called World War 1 the 'Great War'?

Question

So i'm doing this project at school about 'why was world war 1 called the great war?'

i have searched it on search engines, but the results are not that specific.

Does anyone have any thing to comment on or answer this question please?

THANKS.

Answer 1

I magine that WW1 was referred to as 'The great war' because it was the first war on a worldwide scale. Go to the library and get some books or google WW1 asking why it was known as the great war. I know you've probably tried these tactics but good luck hope you get the answer you're looking for!

Answer 2

Historically, the Napoleonic War[s] were usually called the "Great War" by the British. We then had a period of about one hundred years until WW-One, but again it was simply called the "Great War". The concept of a world war did not come about until WW-2 which was indeed a world war. After WW-2 so as to distinguish between these two major wars, the first was called World War One and the most recent named as World War Two.

Many of our war memorials still have the words Great War and the dates 1914-1919 and not 1914-1918. The reason for the discrepancy is because we had an Armistice in 1918 but the final surrender did not happen until 1919.

WE WILL REMEMBER THEM.

Wear your Poppy with Pride. "The Flanders Poppy".

Answer 3

The 1st world war became known as the great war in the immediate years following the peace. It was also refered to as the war to end all wars. the names reflect the number of killed, wounded and missing from all sides and the abhorance felt at the bloodshed. All of these sentiments were thrown out of the door with the outbreak of the second world war.

Answer 4

Other respondents are quite right; it was the greatest war yet known.

It was not, however, the first world war The answerer who said so is mistaken. The war between France and other European countries (notably Britain) in the 18th/19thC was the real first world war. It affected every single continent (Napoleon even had designs on Australia) and of course every European country including Russia.

Although its scale was smaller than WW1 at any given moment, it might have been comparable in total impact. It lasted over 20 years (with one short interruption after the Peace of Amiens), and its effects included the total devastation of large areas of Spain and Portugal, similar destruction as a result of the French invasion of Russia, and large-scale destabilisation of the economies and political systems of very many countries. I do not know whether there are any reliable figures for total deaths as a result of that war, but (adding in deaths in action, starvation, reprisal killings such as Napoleon's murder of 3,000 Turkish POWs in Asia Minor and deaths from disease) the number must be serious.

So 1914 was truly the great war, but really only the 2nd world war.

Answer 5

Oooh, that's a gimme. Because it dwarfed in scale all wars before it, both in intensity and in the number of nations and parts of the world that it touched. This was the first war waged by fully industrialized nations against each other, at least that lasted any length of time, and it partook fully in the Clausewitzean theory that what was required to win a war was to commit all your men and material resources to it, more fully than your opponent - a doctrine called Total War. If you draft all your young and not quite young men, and devote all of your industry and agriculture and trade to support an ultimate effort, you'll beat an enemy who doesn't commit as fully - that was the theory anyway. No one really thought through what would happen if both sides did this.

But, basically, it's just that it was so much worse than any war ever before, with far larger armies, and far more combatant nations, and generally far deadlier than previous wars had been.

Answer 6

The term "The Great War" was used to describe the biggest war up to that time. I had previously been used, but World War One was greater, so it took the title. I'm not sure why they stopped applying that term to new wars.

Now in this context, great does not mean good. It is referring to the scale of the conflict and the impact it had.

Answer 7

Because up until that time no major war had encompassed that many countries and that much technology. Think about the progression of warfare up until that point... it was the dawn of rifles that fired multiple rounds... hyper-accurate artillery, machine guns, aircraft bombing, and to top it all off, everyone could move & communicate faster than ever before. Nobody was ready for the kinds of effects the war would bring, and the fact it took so long to end and so many people ended up dying made it linger in people's minds.

Wayne

Answer 8

Great as in huge not as in good. Huge numbers of troops faced off against each other. No other war has seen that many soldiers face to face across a battle field. No other war has seen a continuous battle line from the north sea to the Swiss border. A huge war. Great in scope.
Not even in ww2 did so many men face each other in one continuous battle line.

Answer 9

It was called the great war ,Because of the industrial revolution,Supposed to be the war to end all wars.

Answer 10

"Great" was used in the older sense of the word meaning "big" or "large". It was the biggest war that had been seen to date, therefore "great".