Talk:Theater (warfare)

Can someone move the text around to elminate this big blank spot? I am unfamiliar with how to do so. Colonel Marksman 20:44, 12 September 2006 (UTC)Reply

The article contends:

The first multi-theatre war of the modern era was the series of Napoleonic wars,

This seems clearly to be nonsense. Even taking "theater" to apply only to very wide areas, the Seven Years War would clearly qualify (with fighting in Germany, the Atlantic, North America, the West Indies, India, the Philippines, and the Mediterranean). So the War of the Austrian Succession (North America, the Low Countries, Central Europe, Italy and the Mediterranean, India, the West Indies). So probably the War of the Spanish Succession (Spain, the Low Countries, Italy, Central Europe [at least until Blenheim], North America, the West Indies) and the Nine Years War (Central Europe, the Low Countries, Italy, Ireland, North America). Working more narrowly, one could certainly define the Thirty Years War, especially after France's entry, as a multi-theater war (fighting in the Pyrenees, the Low Countries, Italy, and Germany). Going back even further, some of the Valois-Habsburg wars would likely qualify. For example, the war of 1542 to 1544 found operations taking place between Charles V and the Ottomans in Hungary and the Mediterranean, between Charles V and Francis I in Italy, between Francis and both Charles V and Henry VIII in the Low Countries and Northern France, and between Henry VIII and the Scots up north - and Suleiman and Francis were actively allied, so it's not just two separate simultaneous wars - Franco-Turkish cooperation was probably more significant in that war than German-Japanese cooperation in World War II, for instance. john k (talk) 02:03, 6 May 2009 (UTC)Reply

The intro paragraph mentions that "a theater can include the entirety of the air, space, land and sea area". Anyone care to explain why space is mentioned because, as far as I'm aware, there is no space warfare going on, or at the very least it is a secret kept well hidden from the public. It seems quite unusual to mention it here when the article makes no reference to fiction (which may include space warfare). 86.8.136.194 (talk) 16:52, 19 March 2016 (UTC)Reply

Why is the term "theatre"/"theater" used at all in describing the area where a war is taking place? I find it a pretty strange term to use, and one that seems inappropriate and in dubious taste, as it seems to trivialize war, seeming to reduce it to something one might gain entertainment from, since entertainment is the principal purpose of literal theatres.

I suppose there is a reason why this rather odd term was ever adopted, and if anyone knows how and why the term came to be adopted in connection with war, it would be good if this could be included within the article. (I would do it myself, but I have no idea how the term arose.) M.J.E. (talk) 17:33, 24 April 2024 (UTC)Reply

0530533920 95.186.12.158 (talk) 20:42, 10 May 2024 (UTC)Reply