Hundred Years War.

[Shipstabber]

What did people call the Hundred Years War while it was happening?

Ditto for the Thirty Years War, etc.

[Octavius]

The Hundred Years' War is the name modern historians give to what was actually a series of related armed conflicts fought over a 116-year period between the Kingdom of England and France, beginning in 1337 and ending in 1453. Historians lump these conflicts under the same label for convenience.  At the time, it was probably viewed as feudal between the various dynsatys' and nobles.

Simlarly the 30 year war was from its outset a religious conflict between Protestants and Catholics, the self-preservation of the Habsburg dynasty was also a central motive.

[-=BigD=-]

Like octavius said the names seem to be given after.

If i referred the war i�d assume everyone knew i�d mean the �war� in Iraq. The current or most recent conflict my nation had been in. Or if your nation is always ruffling someones feathers then you�d be more specific. (How many �Operation ....insert inspiring name here...� have the U.S and co. been in recently) So maybe the French called it the English War and the English called it the French War.

But i bet it was just �The War�.

Also i wonder if the newspapers play a part in �naming� today�s conflicts.

[Octavius]

I think if you said 'the war' people would assume that you meant WW2.  And World War I, is also known as the Great War, the War of the Nations and the War to End All Wars.  The conflict you refer to is called:

The conflict with Iraq (BBC) or The War in Iraq (CNN) or  the Iraq War (New York Times).  The Arab world might refer to it as the Iraqi Invasion.

Remember the war in Kuwait was called the Gulf War during conflict, a name that still remains. 

[Narolines]

I suspect the Arab world might refer to the "conflict" in Iraq as the American Invasion........

[jno]

Well of course they didn't, they didn't know it would last 100 years. If you believe otherwise, would you like to buy this valuable coin with 55BC printed on it?

Supposed line from a Hollywood historical epic:

'Men of the Middle Ages! We are off to fight in the Hundred Years' War!'

[Xollob]

Captain Darling's last (and most poignant) line in Blackadder Goes Forth:
"Thank God! We lived through it! The Great War: 1914-1917."

Related question: was WWI referred to as "the Great War" while it was still happening?

Slight tangent: I remember talking a few years ago to a young American GI. He talked about "the war", and it took me a while to realise he meant the Gulf War of 1991. For him it was as natural to refer to this conflict as "the war" as it was for my parents to refer to WWII in the same manner.

[Octavius]

Yes, perhaps a generation gap thing.  I imagine, 'the war' to teenagers today will refer to the present conflict in Iraq.

But during the war....

I think in WW1 to the allied forces at the time it was a series of battles against the hun (Ypres, Jutland, Somme etc) but they might have called it The (Western) Front,  German Invasion (of Belgium) or perhaps even the war against fascism.

Daily Mirror 4 August 1914

"Great Britain is in a state of war with Germany. It was officially stated at the Foreign Office last night that Great Britain declared war against Germany at 7pm. The British Ambassador in Berlin has been handed his passport.

War was Germany's reply to our request that she should respect the neutrality of Belgium, whose territories we were bound in honour and by treaty obligations to maintain inviolate.

Germany tried to bribe us with peace to desert our friends and duty. But Great Britain has preferred the path of honour."