<P> As a result of the war, the Russian, German, Austro - Hungarian and Ottoman empires were replaced by new states, based on nationalities . The Four Powers of Britain, France, the US and Italy, imposed their terms in a series of treaties agreed at the 1919 Paris Peace Conference . The formation of the League of Nations was intended to prevent another world war, but for various reasons failed to do so . The central role of the Nazi Party in World War II led to a focus on how the Treaty of Versailles impacted Germany but it also transformed large parts of Europe and the Middle East, in ways that remain relevant today . </P> <P> The term "First World War" was first used in September 1914 by 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," citing a wire service report in The Indianapolis Star on 20 September 1914 . </P> <P> Prior to World War II, the events of 1914--1918 were generally known as the Great War or simply the World War . Contemporary Europeans also referred to it as "the war to end war" or "the war to end all wars" due to their perception of its then - unparalleled scale and devastation . After World War II began in 1939, the terms became more standard, with British Empire historians, including Canadians, favouring "The First World War" and Americans "World War I". </P> <P> In October 1914, the Canadian magazine Maclean's wrote, "Some wars name themselves . This is the Great War ." However, while certainly accurate in Canada, this was not so even in Britain; historian John Holland Rose's 1911 account of the 1793--1815 wars against France was titled William Pitt and the Great War . This was validated by Gareth Glover's 2015 book, Waterloo in 100 Objects, in which he states: "This opening statement will cause some bewilderment to many who have grown up with the appellation of the Great War firmly applied to the 1914--18 First World War . But to anyone living before 1918, the title of the Great War was applied to the Revolutionary and Napoleonic wars in which Britain fought France almost continuously for twenty - two years from 1793 to 1815 ." </P>

When did the first and second world war start
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