Names of wars

So:
War of Independence - Colony vs Colonial Power (can include Scotland vs England etc.)

Civil War - two sides compeating to see who is top dog (in same country), but power structure more or less the same whom ever wins

Revolution - as Civil War but differnt form of governments contesting (monarch vs republic normally)

Other wars named descriptivily.
 
Problem with good war names is that they tend to reflect only one perspective (usually the winners or most influential nations) and if historians or others try to come up with broad names everyone can accept, you end up with names that don't mean anything. Here are some of my ideas:

the "American Revolution" really should be called the "War of American Independence" It was was not a "revolution" but Both Americans and Britons can agree it did result in the independence for most of England's American colonies at the time. And don't get hung up in the "but people in Latin America are also Americans" trap. Both Englishmen in England and Colonists living in the rebelling colonies considered the people of those colonies "Americans", and the war was only between England's American colonists and Great Britain (OK France and Spain helped the traitors a bit, but you know what I mean).

"War of 1812" makes no sense. What war of 1812? Is it the one celebrated in Tchaikovsky's 1812 Overture? Who did it involve? Was it really part of the Napoleonic World War? I guess "British-American War" makes the most sense, or maybe "2nd British-American War".

"Mexican-American War" is a fine term. It recognizes both combatants and can be understood in both countries. Likewise for the Franco-Prussian, Spanish-American, Russo-Japanese, Sino-Japanese, etc.

You always have a problem with failed civil wars and revolutions, evidenced by the fact that to this day Northerners and Southerners really can't agree on the name for that thing in 1860-1865. "American Civil War" works pretty good though...and it would actually work even if those slave-holding traitors actually won.

I loved "The Great War" or "The World War" for that 1914-18 dust-up, but to be honest the first true World War maybe happened in the 1940s. On the other hand there were a bunch or wars in the 18th and 19th centuries involving England, France, and a few other biggies that could also have been called world wars. Speaking of, I thnk Napoleonic War(s) is a wonderful term. Most likely it was coined by Bonaparte's foes, but Nappy had to be pleased to be so important as to have an entire series of conflicts legitimately named after him.

I generally don't like assigning numbers to wars. It's so unoriginal. As far as I'm concerned, what many people call World War 2 should be called the Anti- Fascist Wars, consisting of several separate conflicts: mainly the Hitlerian War of 1939-45 (lets give Adolf the same due we gave Nappy, OK?), and the Pacific War of 1941-1945. For all that Japanese nastiness in the 1930's, Sino-Japanese war(s) of 1931-1940 work fine for me.

I used to have the World Book Encyclopedia. Like 1954 edition, bought new by my father to my immense delight at the time. I loved it. I only gave it away because it became so fornicating out of date:(

They Called the ACW The War Between the States. Cowardness I think.
Now they do call it The Civil War.
 
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