American Revolution

[jason taylor]

Originally Posted by Phantasm

Many consider the Napoleonic Wars a "world war" as they engaged most of the world powers at the time and was fought not just in Europe but also in the Caribbean and the Indian Ocean, among other places.

They were just fought well before the term "World War" came into usage.

As has been noted, the American Revolution had France entering the war on the side of the Americans. The big "world powers" of the time in the world were Britain and France, who had previously fought four wars (at least part of the reason the American colonies were in revolt was because of new taxes imposed by the British Crown to refill the treasury following what we Americans call the French-and-Indian War*). These four prior wars were fought in part in the Americas over ownership of Canada and in the fourth war the Ohio River valley.

The British-French portion of the war continued for a bit after the Treaty of Paris was signed. As a result, several naval skirmishes in the American Revolution were fought in the Caribbean between British and French ships without any American ships getting involved.


* Known in Europe as the Seven Years War.




(Apologies if anyone takes offense to anything here; I am trying to maintain a neutral stance. Real life is messy.)

Including India. Just remember Wellington won a "land war in Asia."

Overlapping wars might be a better term. There has in a sense never been a such thing as a World War. What really happens is different polities take advantage of a war somewhere else to do dirt on the guys they have bad blood with.