this post was submitted on 10 Oct 2025
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No, not really. Previous large scale wars were civil wars, or, wars of imperialism to carve up other countries for the imperialist powers.
There is some exceptions, but WW1/WW2 is really the first major war between imperialist powers "inter-imperialist war". WW1 and WW2 are human atrocities that are not comparable to any other war.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Napoleonic_Wars
A bit strange to ask, but should the Holy Roman Empire be considered an empire at that time?
I am not sure tbh, I know it was Italy and Germany and dissolved during the Napoleonic wars, but beyond that my knowledge of its history is thin.
I guess it also depends how and for what purpose you are defining it as an empire or not.
Wikipedia calls the holy Roman empire a polity, but refers to the first french empire under Napoleon as an empire for whatever that's worth?
Possibly the naming was aspirational, or a throwback to the Roman empire that controlled most of Europe?