Wilson did once refer to the end of the war as the “ final triumph of justice,” but he seldom used the phrase for which he later became known. This is particularly strange because the President only once used the term - and never did so in any congressional address. He was a eloquent speech writer, but he was a few years too late to come up with the phrase.ĭespite the fact that the phrase had been used in Europe for years, it’s most often attributed to President Woodrow Wilson. By 1918, the term “The War to End All Wars” had spread all across Europe like a catchphrase and was synonymous with hope for a better future. We know today that these statements were far from true, but for the people who were living in constant fear mere miles away from the front line, it was the optimism that they needed to keep going. He believed that once the Germans were defeated, the world would have no reason to fight ever again. In his articles, Wells argued that the Central Powers were entirely to blame for the war and that it was German militarism that sparked everything.
Wells - the genius behind The Time Machine, The Invisible Man, and The War of the Worlds - wrote in an articles to local newspapers that this global struggle, this Great War, would be “The War That Will End Wars” as we know them (full versions of his articles were later transcribed into a book entitled The War That Will End War). Wells’ ‘War of the Worlds.’)Įnglish author H.G. (Illustration by Alvim Corréa, from the 1906 French edition of H.G. You wouldn’t think the guy that wrote about aliens destroying humanity would be such an optimist…
Others, however, took a more optimistic approach by calling it, “The War to End All Wars.” As history has shown, this was certainly not the case - but some plucky, upbeat civilians genuinely believed it would be rainbows and sunshine after the dust from the global conflict settled. Ernst Haeckel, a columnist for the Indianapolis Star, called it that because it escalated beyond the scope of a “European War” - it was truly international. In some rare instances, the war was referred to as the “First World War,” even before the advent of the second. So, the people of the time called it, simply, “The Great War.” There were so many participants in the brawl that you couldn’t just name the war after its location or its combatants - after all, the “French-British-German-Austrian-Hungarian-Russian-American-Ottoman-Bulgarian-Serbian War” doesn’t really roll off the tongue (nor is it a complete list). After Archduke Franz Ferdinand was assassinated, nearly every corner of the globe was drawn into a conflict - and the enormous loss of life that ensued was tragic.
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