List of wars by death toll

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This list of wars by death toll includes all deaths that are either directly or indirectly caused by war. These numbers include the deaths of military personnel which are the direct results of a battle or other military wartime actions, as well as wartime/war-related deaths of civilians which are often results of war-induced epidemics, famines, genocide, etc. Due to incomplete records, the destruction of evidence, differing methods of counting, and various other reasons, death tolls of wars have often been quite uncertain, and heavily debated.

While the definition of war isn't entirely clear-cut, there is a general understanding of what it is. Merriam-Webster defines war as "a state of usually open and declared armed hostile conflict between states or nations",[1] Oxford English Dictionary defines war as "hostile contention by means of armed forces, carried on between nations, states, or rulers, or between parties in the same nation or state; the employment of armed forces against a foreign power, or against an opposing party in the state",[2] and Encyclopædia Britannica defines war as "a conflict between political groups involving hostilities of considerable duration and magnitude".[3]

List

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This is a dynamic list and may never be able to satisfy particular standards for completeness. You can help by adding missing items with reliable sources.
War Death
range 		Date Combatants Location
World War II 50–85 million[4][5][6] 1937[a]–1945 Allied Powers vs. Axis Powers Global
An Lushan Rebellion 13–36 million[9] 754–763 Tang Dynasty and Uyghur Khaganate vs. Yan Dynasty China
Three Kingdoms War 34 million[10] 220–280 Multiple sides China
Taiping Rebellion 20–30 million[11][12] 1850–1864 Qing Dynasty vs. Taiping Heavenly Kingdom China
Manchu Conquest of China 25 million[13][14] 1618–1683 Manchu vs. Ming Dynasty China
World War I 15–20 million[15][16][17] 1914–1918 Allied Powers vs. Central Powers Global
Russian Civil War 7–12 million[18] 1917–1922 Multiple sides; Bolsheviks, Anti-Bolshevik left, White Movement, Allied and Central Intervention, as well as various separatists Russia
Thirty Years' War 4–12 million[19] 1618–1648 Anti-Imperial Alliance vs. Imperial Alliance Europe
Spanish conquest of Mexico 10.5 million[20][21] 1519–1530 Spanish Empire vs. Aztec Empire Mexico
Spanish conquest of the Inca Empire 10 million[22] 1533–1572 Spanish Empire vs. Inca Empire South America
Dungan Revolt 8–10 million[citation needed] 1862–1877 Qing Dynasty vs. Kashgaria vs. Hui Muslims China
Chinese Civil War 4–9 million[23] 1927–1949 Multiple sides, but predominantly Communists vs. Kuomintang China
Reconquista 7 million[24] 718–1492 Spanish and Portuguese Christians vs. Spanish and Portuguese Muslims Iberia
Napoleonic Wars 5–7 million[25] 1803–1815 French Republic, later French Empire, vs. Coalition forces Europe
Second Congo War 5.4 million[26][27] 1998–2003 Multiple sides Democratic Republic of the Congo
Spanish conquest of New Granada 5.25 million[28][29] 1499–1540 Spanish Empire vs. Colombian Civilizations Colombia
Korean War 2.5–3.5 million[30][23] 1950–1953 South Korea vs. North Korea Korea

Charts and Graphs

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Bubble chart of wars over 1.5M deaths.

See also

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Notes

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  1. ^ While the war in Europe began in 1939, the Marco Polo Bridge Incident is often considered by many to be the beginning of World War II at large[7][8]

References

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  1. ^ "war". Merriam-Webster.
  2. ^ "war". Oxford English Dictionary.
  3. ^ Frankel, Joseph. "war". Encyclopædia Britannica.
  4. ^ "Research Starters: Worldwide Deaths in World War II". National World War II Museum.
  5. ^ "World War II". National Park Service.
  6. ^ "World War II". highpointnc.gov.
  7. ^ "Liberation in China and the Pacific". National World War II Museum.
  8. ^ Patranobis, Sutirtho (29 August 2015). "WWII began in 1937 with Japanese invasion: China". Hindustan Times.
  9. ^ White, Matthew (2012). The Great Big Book of Horrible Things: The Definitive Chronicle of History's 100 Worst Atrocities. W. W. Norton. p. 93. ISBN 978-0-393-08192-3.
  10. ^ "Selected Death Tolls for Wars, Massacres and Atrocities Before the 20th Century". Necrometrics.
  11. ^ "Taiping Rebellion". Encyclopædia Britannica. 21 August 2024.
  12. ^ "The Taiping Rebellion of 1850-64". University at Albany.
  13. ^ "To history, today's violence is a speck". South China Morning Post. 28 October 2011.
  14. ^ "5 Of The 10 Deadliest Wars Began In China". Business Insider. 6 October 2014.
  15. ^ "World War I Casualties" (Document). United States Census Bureau.
  16. ^ "Killed, wounded, and missing". Encyclopædia Britannica.
  17. ^ "Number of military and civilian fatalities during the First World War, per country or world power, between 1914 and 1918". Statista.
  18. ^ Mawdsley, Evan (24 February 2009). The Russian Civil War. Simon and Schuster. ISBN 978-1-681-77009-3.
  19. ^ Daudin, Pascal (23 May 2017). "The Thirty Years' War: The first modern war?". International Committee of the Red Cross.
  20. ^ The Native population of the Americas in 1492, de William M. Denevan, Univ. de Wisconsin Press, 1992, pp. 28
  21. ^ Andrés Lira and Luis Muro: "El siglo de la Integración ", p. 10
  22. ^ "De re Militari: muertos en Guerras, Dictaduras y Genocidios". remilitari.com.
  23. ^ a b "Death Tolls for the Major Wars and Atrocities of the Twentieth Century". Necrometrics.
  24. ^ Kabha, Mustafa (2023). "The Fall of Al-Andalus and the Evolution of its Memory in Modern Arab-Muslim Historiography". The Maghreb Review. 48 (3): 289–303. doi:10.1353/tmr.2023.a901468. ISSN 2754-6772.
  25. ^ Esdaile, Charles (2007). Napoleon's Wars: An International History 1803–1815. Viking. ISBN 9780670020300.
  26. ^ Bavier, Joe (22 January 2008). "Congo war-driven crisis kills 45,000 a month-study". Reuters.
  27. ^ Moszynski, Peter (2 February 2008). "5.4 million people have died in Democratic Republic of Congo since 1998 because of conflict, report says". BMJ (Clinical Research Ed.). 336 (7638): 235. doi:10.1136/bmj.39475.524282.DB. PMC 2223004. PMID 18244974.
  28. ^ Jaime Jaramillo Uribe. "Ensayos de historia social: La sociedad neogranadina" (in Spanish). Retrieved 7 August 2024.
  29. ^ https://www.banrep.gov.co/sites/default/files/paginas/lbr_colonial_graficos3.pdf
  30. ^ Millett, Allan (25 August 2024). "Korean War". Encyclopædia Britannica.

Further reading

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