war ,bond 1917

eskbanker

fwor wrote: »

The generally accepted definition of that (at least according to Wikipedia)

JohnRo

fwor wrote: »

Some of the people that edit Wiki entries may be politically motivated, but many are not. Some are commercially/financially motivated, but a huge proportion appear to be just geeks with an interest in the subject that the wiki addresses.

It is controlled by a handful of special interest groups, some sponsored, each, unsurprisingly, controlling their area of special interest.

Reaper

JohnRo wrote: »

wikipedia is a blog and a politically motivated one at that.

Not sure why you think somebody would lie on Wikipedia about what the war was called at the time, but if you need more:

BBC
Contemporaries certainly thought it was a world war and called it that. The term "World War" (Weltkrieg) first appeared in Germany in 1914. The French and British referred to the war as "La Grande Guerre" or the "Great War", but also adopted the term "World War" later in the conflict.

HistoryNet:
World War I summary: The war fought between July 28, 1914, and November 11, 1918, was known at the time as the Great War, the War to End War, and (in the United States) the European War. Only when the world went to war again in the 1930s and ’40s did the earlier conflict become known as the First World War.

System

Nasqueron wrote: »

Funnily enough, if QI is to be believed, WW1 was indeed known as the "first world war" long before WW2 - as early as 1918

Wikipedia:

"The term "First World War" was first used in September 1914 by the German biologist and philosopher Ernst Haeckel, who claimed that "there is no doubt that the course and character of the feared 'European War' ... will become the first world war in the full sense of the word"

Apodemus

For what it's worth, my granny (who served as a nurse in France in 1917-18) throughout her life always referred to it as the Great War. My parents, who lived through '39-'45 talked about "the Great War" or "our war" to differentiate the two.

Maybe it is only after the generations that experienced them that the hindsight "first" and "second" really becomes meaningful.

greenglide

... and at school when reference was made to "The Great War" I always struggled to see what was so "great" about it.

First and Second always seemed more logical.

Eco_Miser

Reaper wrote: »

We are way off topic, but what the heck... From Wikiedia:

From the time of its start until the approach of World War II, the First World War was called simply the World War or the Great War and thereafter the First World War or World War I

It's similar to royalty. Elizabeth I, James I etc would never be referred to as the 1st during their reigns.

Rarely, but as shown by later quotes, a few people called the 1914-18 war the First World War before it ended, and a monarch may occasionally be known by the full form "... the first of that name" during their lifetime.