Great War

The Great War is a period defined historiographically as the boundary between the early modern period beginning in the late fifteenth century and the modern period beginning with the end of the Second Great War in 1943. First introduced in academic litterature by Yonderian historian Ewald Hohenkreuz in 1950, the Great War period is thus defined as lasting from 1896-1943 and encompasses the First Great War, the Great Depression and the Second Great War.

The Great War period greatly changed the course of daily life globally. Technologies developed during wartime had a profound effect on peacetime life as well, such as by advances in jet aircraft, penicillin, nuclear energy, and electronic computers. The outcome of the wars of the period had a profound effect on the course of world history as empires collapsed or were dismantled as a direct result of the crushing costs of the war, leading to heightened global tension in the shape of the Occidental Cold War and long term post-colonial conflicts such as Operation Kipling.

The term "Great War" may also refer to either of the two separate conflicts from which the period takes its name:

• The First Great War (1896-1902)
• The Second Great War (1934-1943)