I’ve always wondered this. The 7 Years war was fought on multiple continents and decided the world as we know it, just like both World Wars. I just don’t get why it wasn’t seen as a world war and I came here to ask why.
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Actually, the War of the Austrian Succession in the 1740s and the Seven Years War of 1756-63 are often considered the first truly world wars because they were fought in the European colonies as well as in Europe. By the time the Europeans had significant colonial holdings their conflicts spread across the globe. The First World War is quite similar to previous European conflicts in this regard. With perhaps the difference being the intensity of the conflict, its arenas in dozens of colonies (the sheer number of allies and co-belligerents), and the eventual direct involvement of the United States. Then the Second World War involved Japan too. So you could argue (and you’d get no pushback from historians) that the globalization of European war did not begin in the 20th century. Source: I’m an international relations prof, but you can look up these conflicts on Wikipedia.
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