What made "The Great War" a worldwide phenomenon? Is it correct to refer to this conflict as a "world war," even though most of the fighting took place in Europe?

Question

What will be an ideal response?

Answer 1

ANSWER:
While the major activity of the Great War took place among the six European nations of the Entente (England, France, and Russia) versus the Triple Alliance of Germany, Italy, and Austro-Hungary, the breakdown of the Ottoman Empire allowed the war to spread to the Near East. The Ottoman Empire joined in on the side of the Alliance to prevent partitioning by the European powers, a process that had actually begun with the Congress of Berlin some forty years earlier (as the Ottoman Empire was deemed "the sick old man of Europe"). British imperialist policies in Egypt and the creation of the state of Palestine, in accordance with the Balfour Declaration, supported interests in British Petroleum in Iran as well as access to the Suez Canal for maintaining an easier route to India. In Asia, although not typically considered a part of the Great War, there was an ongoing conflict between China and Japan, as well as internal struggles within each country. Japan had worked at industrialization in the late nineteenth century and had developed a significant manufacturing industry, but it was limited by the lack of plentiful natural resources (either for industrialization or agriculture) except water, which allowed it to develop hydroelectric technology. Japan became somewhat "open" to Western influences in education and technology. China was considered less "modernized" by comparison, retaining its links to the traditional political and social structure, but it collapsed in the wake of increasing population pressures, antiquated taxation systems, and a lack of infrastructure maintenance; it also resisted westernization, as demonstrated by the Boxer Rebellion. The Western response of suppressing the Chinese attempt to expel foreign influences led to an occupation and seizure of Beijing, which subsequently proved an impetus for the Chinese to start a revolution and modernize. Two leaders in China, Sun Yat-sen and Chiang Kai-shek (as well as the military leader Yaun Shikai) set up various plans to lead China into revolution and modernization (including flirtation with communism), but the presentation of Japan's Twenty-one Demands in 1915 and Japan's seizure of German assets in Asia (including from China) led to ongoing war between China and Japan, which was in part settled at the Paris Peace Conference ending the hostilities in Europe. Hence, because of the involvement of Asia and the Near East (as well as colonial states in Africa fighting particularly for Britain and France), this was truly a world war.