Why was World War I called The Great War?

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sorry, I misread stuff.

― 2 american 4 u (blueski), Tuesday, 14 November 2006 12:55 (seventeen years ago) link

Anyway, go and read Lixi's book and tell us!

― ailsa (ailsa), Tuesday, 14 November 2006 13:04 (seventeen years ago) link

some batshit rule about how women always get the seat facing the room, and men sit across from them

that's not batshit, it's an iron law.

― Euai Kapaui (tracerhand), Tuesday, 14 November 2006 13:09 (seventeen years ago) link

I had hoped that the batshit rule might explain how they can go upside down without crapping all over themselves.

― NickB (NickB), Tuesday, 14 November 2006 13:18 (seventeen years ago) link

i think andrew is right. it would be cheating for me to give the answer.

― 2 american 4 u (blueski), Tuesday, 14 November 2006 13:19 (seventeen years ago) link

the brits called it the PHONEY WAR to start with (bcz nothing was happening yet)

― mark s (mark s), Tuesday, 14 November 2006 13:46 (seventeen years ago) link

OK OK!

It was called: THE WAR OF ATTRITION!

So there you go! Neener neener neeener. And they would have called it SOMETHING before the Brit/Fr empires got involved in 39 as PROVEN by the Pears Cyclopaedic evidence, your Honour!

The defense rests! SUSTAINED!

― Bhumibol Adulyadej (Lucretia My Reflection), Tuesday, 14 November 2006 13:54 (seventeen years ago) link

oh i thought it was 'the war against aggression'!

― 2 american 4 u (blueski), Tuesday, 14 November 2006 14:02 (seventeen years ago) link

fought mostly in the war room

― 2 american 4 u (blueski), Tuesday, 14 November 2006 14:03 (seventeen years ago) link

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/War_of_Attrition

― RJG (RJG), Tuesday, 14 November 2006 14:05 (seventeen years ago) link

Oh well! There you go! You are right Steve!

I guess I was too distracted by the giant sack of DAIM bars whilst I was reading that Pears Cyclopaedia - damn my eyes!

― Bhumibol Adulyadej (Lucretia My Reflection), Tuesday, 14 November 2006 14:09 (seventeen years ago) link

i am very doubtful about this claim. a 'war of attrition' is a standard bit of language. why on earth would they call the just declared, or soon to be declared, war that?

need more than 1x source to believe it.

― benrique (Enrique), Tuesday, 14 November 2006 14:09 (seventeen years ago) link

we have three sources! starry, stevem and some pears

however my answer is correct but the pears were too PC to admit it

― mark s (mark s), Tuesday, 14 November 2006 14:13 (seventeen years ago) link

more importantly: why are pears cyclopedias called "cyclopedias"?

― mark s (mark s), Tuesday, 14 November 2006 14:14 (seventeen years ago) link

i wonder if they called it 'the phoney war' in germany?

like: let's get it on already.

― benrique (Enrique), Tuesday, 14 November 2006 14:15 (seventeen years ago) link

surely they were already gettin busy in like czecho etc?

― mark s (mark s), Tuesday, 14 November 2006 14:17 (seventeen years ago) link

it was all action the first half of september 1939, but i think they took it down a notch till -- norway? april 1940.

they did czechoslovakia in march '39 i think.

― benrique (Enrique), Tuesday, 14 November 2006 14:19 (seventeen years ago) link

that said: i think there was 'war' in colonial africa in 1939.

― benrique (Enrique), Tuesday, 14 November 2006 14:20 (seventeen years ago) link

In France it's called "la guerre de quarante"

― Revivalist (Revivalist), Tuesday, 14 November 2006 14:27 (seventeen years ago) link

Wikipedia reckons it was also known as the Bore War till it got started in earnest.

― NickB (NickB), Tuesday, 14 November 2006 14:35 (seventeen years ago) link

it certainly was.

it's an interesting question. i bet 'the falklands war' was always called that. and iirc 'the gulf war'. but what of our present wars. it's probably called 'the iraq war', but what about the war in afghanistan? doesn't have a real name.

― benrique (Enrique), Tuesday, 14 November 2006 14:41 (seventeen years ago) link

'war on terror'

― 2 american 4 u (blueski), Tuesday, 14 November 2006 14:45 (seventeen years ago) link

Drôle de guerre

I had a history teacher, echoing Churchill, who claimed that the Seven Years War (French & Indian War) was the first world war inasmuch as the hostilities occurred in Europe, the Mediterranean, the Atlantic, North America, the Carribean and India.

― M. White (Miguelito), Tuesday, 14 November 2006 15:18 (seventeen years ago) link

I kinda like the "sitzkrieg" nickname for the "Phoney War."

― Elvis Telecom (Chris Barrus), Tuesday, 14 November 2006 15:37 (seventeen years ago) link

that has to be more 'worldy' than ww1 innit.

― benrique (Enrique), Tuesday, 14 November 2006 15:38 (seventeen years ago) link

Not really. Almost all the combatants in the Seven Years War were European powers or their colonies, and WWI , while it was mostly fought in Europe and the Middle East nonetheless saw hostilities in Africa and the Pacific and there were numerous non-European allies from around the globe.

― M. White (Miguelito), Tuesday, 14 November 2006 15:45 (seventeen years ago) link

was there fighting in the pacific? (this is a big knowledge gap!)

― benrique (Enrique), Tuesday, 14 November 2006 15:46 (seventeen years ago) link

yes!

didn't know any of this

― geoff (gcannon), Tuesday, 14 November 2006 15:51 (seventeen years ago) link

nah i mean in ww1. i know even less about the seven years war. (whaddayawantfromme, i only got a ba in history.)

― benrique (Enrique), Tuesday, 14 November 2006 15:52 (seventeen years ago) link

Let's just hope future historians don't refer to "World War III, known at first as War on Terror".

― Tuomas (Tuomas), Tuesday, 14 November 2006 15:53 (seventeen years ago) link

Yeah, New Zealand and Japan (and others?) pilched Germany's Far-East possessions.

xpost

― M. White (Miguelito), Tuesday, 14 November 2006 15:54 (seventeen years ago) link

xpost er you were asking about ww1 weren't you

― geoff (gcannon), Tuesday, 14 November 2006 15:54 (seventeen years ago) link

bit of a mouthful.

woof, xpost-a-rama

― benrique (Enrique), Tuesday, 14 November 2006 15:55 (seventeen years ago) link

what do ppl think of the "world war four" meme?

― geoff (gcannon), Tuesday, 14 November 2006 15:55 (seventeen years ago) link

You say 'meme', I say 'mime'. Let's call the whole thing off.

― M. White (Miguelito), Tuesday, 14 November 2006 15:58 (seventeen years ago) link

it's all abt fourth generation these days mate

― mark s (mark s), Tuesday, 14 November 2006 15:59 (seventeen years ago) link

former "gold blade" man john robb?

― benrique (Enrique), Tuesday, 14 November 2006 15:59 (seventeen years ago) link

Let's just hope future historians don't refer to "World War III, known at first as War on Terror".

For a while, when she heard W refer to the 'War on Terror', my gf had a tendency to affect the accent of Scarlet O'Hara and inquire what he had against Tara.

― M. White (Miguelito), Tuesday, 14 November 2006 16:02 (seventeen years ago) link

Almost all the combatants in the Seven Years War were European powers or their colonies

eh, the Iroquois Confederacy or those guys from TEH LAST OF TEH MOHICANS are hardly European powers. In India I understand that local forces were major players.

― DV (dirtyvicar), Tuesday, 14 November 2006 16:05 (seventeen years ago) link

That said, I once saw the Seven Years War referred to as being part of the second Anglo-French hundred years war.

― DV (dirtyvicar), Tuesday, 14 November 2006 16:05 (seventeen years ago) link

Ah, Tuomas. Dare I say it, but you have jumped the shark with this one.

― Chewshabadoo (Chewshabadoo), Tuesday, 14 November 2006 16:27 (seventeen years ago) link

Note the prophylactic use of the word 'almost', DV.

xpost

― M. White (Miguelito), Tuesday, 14 November 2006 16:27 (seventeen years ago) link

Hey, at least someone took the bait.

(Sorry, Archel.)

― Tuomas (Tuomas), Tuesday, 14 November 2006 16:59 (seventeen years ago) link

But, to be honest, I must've been over 20 when I first realized the Middle Ages weren't called that back then. I guess I'd just gotten so used to the "Middle" part of the name that I'd never even thought what it actually means.

― Tuomas (Tuomas), Tuesday, 14 November 2006 17:01 (seventeen years ago) link

Let's just hope future historians don't refer to "World War III, known at first as War on Terror".

They'll give it some trendy name like "Wr3.0 (beta)"

― Elvis Telecom (Chris Barrus), Tuesday, 14 November 2006 17:25 (seventeen years ago) link

seven years pass...

Repurposing thread for actual World War One talk as we're in the 100th anniversary year.

Obligatory: https://twitter.com/RealTimeWWI

Highly highly recommend the current "Blueprint for Armageddon" series in the Hardcore History podcast. Part 2 just went up last week.

― Elvis Telecom, Wednesday, 5 February 2014 01:33 (ten years ago) link

Obviously, The Guns of August, Barbara Tuchman, needs prominent big-upping on this thread. When you finish reading it, you know why starting this bloody, pointless, enormously futile war seemed like such a compelling idea to so many people at the time.

― Aimless, Wednesday, 5 February 2014 02:55 (ten years ago) link

An avalanche of recent publications. I need to read Max Hastings' book. I finished this three months ago.

― Bryan Fairy (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Wednesday, 5 February 2014 02:58 (ten years ago) link

o man thx for that twitter rec. npr had a similar thing for 1963 last year that was great.

― balls, Wednesday, 5 February 2014 03:00 (ten years ago) link

planning to whip through a bunch of WWI books this year and decided to start with 'guns of august.' it's pretty much as good as everyone says, and actually really surprisingly laugh-out-loud funny in places, but the endless parade of unfamiliar names in the first 50 pages or so made me dizzy. i'm kind of thinking i need to read up on my late 19th century/early 20th century european history before i tackle another WWI tome.

― (The Other) J.D. (J.D.), Wednesday, 5 February 2014 03:17 (ten years ago) link

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