how many world wars were there

There have been two wars that are officially called “World Wars”: World War I and World War II.

Quick Scoop

• World War I: 1914–1918, involved many major powers across Europe, Asia, Africa, and the Americas.

• World War II: 1939–1945, even larger in scale, with fighting across Europe, Africa, Asia, and the Pacific.

Some historians argue that earlier large, multi-continent conflicts like the Seven Years’ War or the Napoleonic Wars could also count as “world wars” because they involved several great powers fighting across multiple regions. However, in everyday use and in school, when people say “How many world wars were there?”, the accepted answer is two.

Information gathered from public forums or data available on the internet and portrayed here.