Deadliest wars

Quick info: I am presenting the list of deadliest and most catastrophic wars in human history. Data are collected from Wikipedia. These figures of one million or more deaths include the deaths of civilians from diseases, famine, etc., as well as deaths of soldiers in battle and possible massacres and genocide.

 

10. Thirty Years’ War (1618 – 1648)

Death toll = 3 – 11.5 million

The Thirty Years’ War was one of the most destructive conflicts in European history. The war was fought primarily (though not exclusively) in what is now Germany and at various points involved most of the countries of Europe. Naval warfare also reached overseas and shaped the colonial formation of future nations.

The origins of the conflict and goals of the participants were complex and no single cause can accurately be described as the main reason for the fighting. Initially the war was fought largely as a religious conflict between Protestants and Catholics in the Holy Roman Empire, although disputes over the internal politics and balance of power within the Empire played a significant part. Gradually, the war developed into a more general conflict involving most of the European powers. In this general phase, the war became more a continuation of the Bourbon-Habsburg rivalry for European political pre-eminence, and in turn led to further warfare between France and the Habsburg powers, and less specifically about religion.

A major impact of the Thirty Years’ War was the extensive destruction of entire regions, denuded by the foraging armies. Episodes of famine and disease significantly decreased the populace of the German states, Bohemia, the Low Countries and Italy, while bankrupting most of the combatant powers. While the regiments within each army were not strictly mercenary in that they were not guns for hire that changed sides from battle to battle, the individual soldiers that made up the regiments for the most part probably were. The problem of discipline was made more difficult still by the ad hoc nature of 17th century military financing. Armies were expected to be largely self-funding from loot taken or tribute extorted from the settlements where they operated. This encouraged a form of lawlessness that imposed often severe hardship on inhabitants of the occupied territory. Some of the quarrels that provoked the war went unresolved for a much longer time. The Thirty Years’ War was ended with the treaties of Osnabrück and Münster, part of the wider Peace of Westphalia.

 

9. Napoleonic Wars (1804 – 1815)

Death toll = 3.5 – 4.5 million

The Napoleonic Wars were a series of conflicts declared against Napoleon’s French Empire and changing sets of European allies by opposing coalitions that ran from 1803 to 1815. As a continuation of the wars sparked by the French Revolution of 1789, they revolutionised European armies and played out on an unprecedented scale, mainly due to the application of modern mass conscription. French power rose quickly, conquering most of Europe, but collapsed rapidly after France’s disastrous invasion of Russia in 1812. Napoleon’s empire ultimately suffered complete military defeat resulting in the restoration of the Bourbon monarchy in France. The wars resulted in the dissolution of the Holy Roman Empire and sowed the seeds of nascent nationalism in Germany and Italy that would lead to the two nations’ consolidation later in the century. Meanwhile the Spanish Empire began to unravel as French occupation of Spain weakened Spain’s hold over its colonies, providing an opening for nationalist revolutions in Latin America. As a direct result of the Napoleonic wars the British Empire became the foremost world power for the next century, thus beginning Pax Britannica.

No consensus exists as to when the French Revolutionary Wars ended and the Napoleonic Wars began. One possible date is 9 November 1799, when Bonaparte seized power in France with the coup of 18 Brumaire. 18 May 1803 is probably the most commonly used date, as this was when a renewed declaration of war between Britain and France (resulting from the collapse of the Treaty of Amiens), ended the only period of general peace in Europe between 1792 and 1814. The latest proposed date is 2 December 1804, when Napoleon crowned himself Emperor. The Napoleonic Wars ended following Napoleon’s final defeat at Waterloo on 18 June 1815 and the Second Treaty of Paris.

 

8. Second Congo War (1998 – 2003)

Death toll = 3.8 – 5.4 million

The Second Congo War, also known as Africa’s World War and the Great War of Africa, began in August 1998 in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (formerly called Zaire), and officially ended in July 2003 when the Transitional Government of the Democratic Republic of the Congo took power (though hostilities continue to this day). The largest war in modern African history, it directly involved eight African nations, as well as about 25 armed groups. By 2008 the war and its aftermath had killed 5.4 million people, mostly from disease and starvation, making the Second Congo War the deadliest conflict worldwide since World War II. Millions more were displaced from their homes or sought asylum in neighboring countries. Despite a formal end to the war in July 2003 and an agreement by the former belligerents to create a government of national unity, 1,000 people died daily in 2004 from easily preventable cases of malnutrition and disease. The war and the conflicts afterwards are, among other things, driven by the trade of conflict minerals.

Even though the war may have officially ended years ago, people in the Congo are still dying at a rate of an estimated 45,000 per month; 2,700,000 people have died since 2004. This death toll is due to widespread disease and famine; reports indicate that almost half of the individuals killed are children under the age of 5. This death rate has been prevalent since sincere efforts at rebuilding the nation began in 2004. Efforts are hampered by factors such as the Kivu conflict, which may be, and often is, considered a continuation of the Second Congo War. Motivations of the 2009 Eastern Congo offensive are also entangled in the ongoing conflicts of the DRC. The death toll of violent military, militants, and insurgent actions have been estimated at over 1,000 in 2009 alone.

 

 

7. Rusian Civil War (1917-1921)

Death toll = 5 – 9 million

The Russian Civil War (1917–1921) was a multi-party war that occurred within the former Russian Empire after the Russian provisional government collapsed and the Soviets under the domination of the Bolshevik party assumed power, first in Petrograd (St. Petersburg) and then in other places.

The principal fighting occurred between the Bolshevik Red Army, often in temporary alliance with other leftist pro-revolutionary groups, and the forces of the White Army, the loosely-allied anti-Bolshevik forces. Many foreign armies warred against the Red Army, notably the Allied Forces, and many volunteer foreigners fought on both sides of the Russian Civil War. The Polish–Soviet War is often viewed as a theatre of the conflict. Other nationalist and regional political groups also participated in the war, including the Ukrainian nationalist Green Army, the Ukrainian anarchist Black Army and Black Guards, and warlords such as Ungern von Sternberg.

The most intense fighting took place from 1918 to 1920. Major military operations ended on 25 October 1922 when the Red Army occupied Vladivostok, previously held by the Provisional Priamur Government. The last enclave of the White Forces was the Ayano-Maysky District on the Pacific coast, where General Anatoly Pepelyayev did not capitulate until 17 June 1923. In Soviet historiography the period of the Civil War has traditionally been defined as 1918–1921, but the war’s skirmishes actually stretched from 1917 to 1923.

The results of the civil war were momentous. Russia had been at war for seven years, during which time some 20,000,000 of its people had lost their lives. The civil war had taken an estimated 15,000,000 of them, including at least 1,000,000 soldiers of the Russian Red Army and more than 500,000 White soldiers who died in battle. Semyonov alone killed 100,000 men, women and children in the regions where he held authority. During the Red Terror, the Cheka carried out an estimated 250,000 summary executions of “enemies of the people”.

Some 300,000 to 500,000 Cossacks were killed or deported during Decossackization, out of a population of around three million. An estimated 100,000 Jews were killed in Ukraine, mostly by the White Army. Punitive organs of the “All Great Don Host” sentenced 25,000 people to death between May 1918 to January 1919. Kolchak’s Government shot 25,000 people in Ekaterinburg province alone.

 

 

6. Dungan Revolt in China (1862 – 1877)

Death toll = 8 – 12 million

The Dungan Revolt was a religious war in 19th-century China. It is also known as the Hui Minorities’ War. The term is sometimes used to refer to the Panthay Rebellion in Yunnan as well. It was an uprising by members of the Hui and other Muslim ethnic groups in China’s Shaanxi, Gansu and Ningxia provinces, as well as in Xinjiang, between 1862 and 1877.

The uprising was chaotic and often involved warring factions of bands and military leaders with no goal or purpose, merely to fight, on the western bank of the Yellow River (Shaanxi, Gansu and Ningxia (excluding the Xinjiang province)), in alignment with the Christian Empire, the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom, on the southern bank of the Yangze River. A common misconception is that it was directed against the Qing Dynasty, but there is no evidence at all showing that they intended to attack the capital of Beijing. The uprising was actively encouraged by the leaders of the Taiping Rebellion. When that rebellion failed, mass-emigration of the Dungan people into Imperial Russia, Kazakhstan and Kyrgyzstan ensued. Before the war, the population of Shaanxi province totaled approximately 13 million inhabitants and at least 1,750,000 of whom were Dungan (Hui) (Another source from Zuo Zhongtang’s memoire states that Shanxi had 4 million muslims and after the war only 50,000 muslims of Xian were spared from execution or exile. Zuo Zhongtang expressed deepest sorrow and regret over the killings even though it was his Hunan Army that carried out the genocide against muslim population in Shanxi). After the war, the total population dropped down to 7 million; at least 150,000 fled. Between 1648 and 1878, approximately twelve million Han Chinese and Hui people died in ten unsuccessful uprisings. Xi’an, the capital of Shaanxi province, was the Holy city of Hui in China before the revolt, but the once-flourishing Hui people fell 93% after the revolt in Shaanxi province.

 

 

5. World War I (1914 – 1918)

Death toll = 10 – 65 million

World War I was a military conflict centered on Europe that began in the summer of 1914. The fighting ended in late 1918. This conflict involved most of the world’s great powers, assembled in two opposing alliances: the Allies (centred around the Triple Entente) and the Central Powers. More than 70 million military personnel, including 60 million Europeans, were mobilized in one of the largest wars in history. More than 15 million people were killed, making it also one of the deadliest conflicts in history. The war is also known as the First World War, the Great War, the World War (prior to the outbreak of World War II), and the War to End All Wars.

The assassination on 28 June 1914 of Archduke Franz Ferdinand of Austria, the heir to the throne of Austria-Hungary, is seen as the immediate trigger of the war, though long-term causes, such as imperialistic foreign policies of the great powers of Europe such as the German Empire, the Austro-Hungarian Empire, the Ottoman Empire, the Russian Empire, the British Empire, France, and Italy played a major role. Ferdinand’s assassination at the hands of a Yugoslav nationalist resulted in Habsburg ultimatum against the Kingdom of Serbia. Several alliances that had been formed over the past decades were invoked, so within weeks the major powers were at war; as all had colonies, the conflict soon spread around the world.

The conflict opened with the German invasion of Belgium, Luxembourg and France; the Austro-Hungarian invasion of Serbia and a Russian attack against Germany. After the German march on Paris was brought to a halt, the Western Front settled into a static battle of attrition with a trench line that changed little until 1917. In the East, the Russian army successfully fought against the Austro-Hungarian forces but was forced back by the German army. Additional fronts opened after the Ottoman Empire joined the war in 1914, Italy and Bulgaria in 1915 and Romania in 1916. The Russian Empire collapsed in 1917, and Russia left the war after the October Revolution later that year. After a 1918 German offensive along the western front, American forces entered the trenches and the German armies were driven back in a series of successful allied offensives. Germany agreed to a cease fire on Armistice Day, November 11, 1918.

By the war’s end, four major imperial powers—the German, Russian, Austro-Hungarian and Ottoman Empires—had been militarily and politically defeated, and the last two ceased to exist. The revolutionized Soviet Union emerged from the Russian Empire, while the map of central Europe was completely redrawn into numerous smaller states. The League of Nations was formed in the hope of preventing another such conflict. The European nationalism spawned by the war, the repercussions of Germany’s defeat, and of the Treaty of Versailles would eventually lead to the beginning of World War II in 1939.

 

 

4. Taiping Rebellion in China (1851 – 1864)

Death toll = 20 – 30 million

The Taiping Rebellion was a widespread civil war in China from 1850 to 1864, led by heterodox Christian convert Hong Xiuquan, against the ruling Qing Dynasty. About 20 million people died, mainly civilians, in one of the deadliest military conflicts in history.

Hong established the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom, officially the “Heavenly Kingdom of Great Peace”, with its capital at Nanjing. The Kingdom’s Army controlled large parts of southern China, at its height containing about 30 million people. The rebels attempted social reforms and the replacement of Confucianism, Buddhism and Chinese folk religion by a form of Christianity. Troops were nicknamed the Long hair. The Taiping areas were besieged by Qing forces throughout most of the rebellion. The Qing government defeated the rebellion with the eventual aid of French and British forces.

In the 20th century, China’s communist leader Mao Zedong glorified the Taipings as early heroic revolutionaries against a corrupt feudal system. More recently a total rethinking has occurred in China on the destruction that the rebellion had caused to the Chinese nation, plus the dangers of radical religiosity.

 

3. Mongol Conquests (1207 – 1472)

Death toll = 30 – 60 million

Mongol invasion of Central Asia initially was composed of Genghis Khan’s victory over and unification of the Mongol and Turkic central Asian confederations such as Merkits, Tartars, Mongols, Uighurs that eventually created the Mongol Empire. It then continued with invasion of Khwarezmid Empire in Persia.

Huge areas of Islamic Central Asia and north-east Iran were seriously depopulated. Every city or town that refused surrender and resisted the Mongols was subject to destruction. Each soldier was required to execute a number of persons that varied according to circumstances. After the conquest of Urgench, each Mongol warrior – in an army group that might have consisted of two tumens (units of 10,000) – was required to execute 24 people. The city figures of victims were likely inflated by significant numbers of refugees.

The Mongol invasion of the Middle East consists of the conquest, by force or voluntary submission, of the areas today known as Iran, Iraq, Syria, and parts of Turkey, with further Mongol raids reaching southwards as far as Gaza into the Palestine region in 1260 and 1300. The major battles were the Battle of Baghdad (1258), when the Mongols sacked the city which for 500 years had been the center of Islamic power; and the Battle of Ain Jalut in 1260, when the Muslim Egyptian Mamluks, were for the first time able to stop the Mongol advance at Ain Jalut, in the northern part of what is today known as the West Bank.

Mongol invasion of Europe largely constitute of their invasion and conquest of disintegrating Kievan Rus, invasion of Poland and Hungary among others. Over the three years (1237–1240) the Mongols destroyed and annihilated all of the major cities of Eastern Europe with the exceptions of Novgorod and Pskov.

 

2. An Shi Rebellion in China (756 – 763)

Death toll = 33 – 36 million

The An Shi Rebellion took place in China during the Tang Dynasty, from December 16, 755 to February 17, 763. The common term for the rebellion takes the first names of the initiating rebel An Lushan, an ex-Tang general, and An’s successor Shi Siming. It is also known as the An Lushan Rebellion or Tianbao Rebellion, as it began in the 14th year of that era. The rebellion spanned the reign of three Tang emperors. The registered population declined by up to 36 million, though most of this was due to the breakdown of the census system during the war.

 

1. World War II (1939 – 1945)

Death toll = 40 – 72 million

World War II, or the Second World War (often abbreviated as WWII or WW2), was a global military conflict lasting from 1939 to 1945 which involved most of the world’s nations, including all of the great powers, organised into two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis. It was the most widespread war in history, with more than 100 million military personnel mobilised. In a state of “total war”, the major participants placed their entire economic, industrial, and scientific capabilities at the service of the war effort, erasing the distinction between civilian and military resources. Marked by significant action against civilians, including the Holocaust and the only use of nuclear weapons in warfare, it was the deadliest conflict in human history, and it has been estimated that it resulted in fifty million to over seventy million fatalities.

The war is generally accepted to have begun on 1 September 1939, with the invasion of Poland by Nazi Germany and subsequent declarations of war on Germany by France and most of the countries of the British Empire and Commonwealth. China and Japan were already at war by this date, whereas other countries that were not initially involved joined the war later in response to events such as the German invasion of the Soviet Union and the Japanese attacks on the U.S. Pacific Fleet at Pearl Harbor and on British overseas colonies, which triggered declarations of war on Japan by the United States, the British Commonwealth, and the Netherlands.

The war ended with the total victory of the Allies over Germany and Japan in 1945. World War II left the political alignment and social structure of the world significantly changed. While the United Nations was established to foster international cooperation and prevent future conflicts, the Soviet Union and the United States emerged as rival superpowers, setting the stage for the Cold War, which lasted for the next forty-six years. Meanwhile, the acceptance of the principle of self-determination accelerated decolonization movements in Asia and Africa, while Western Europe began moving toward economic recovery and increased political integration.