Napoleonic Wars (1803-15) [make link] NOTE: The era of almost continuous warfare that followed the overthrow of the French monarchy is traditionally split into three parts: The Revolution itself (including all internal conflicts) The Revolutionary Wars during which France fought international wars as a Republic The Napoleonic Wars, during which France fought international wars as an Empire. The numbers here generally refer only to the international wars of the Imperial period, but not always.

The numbers here generally refer only to the international wars of the Imperial period, but not always. The Napoleonic Empire , 2d ed (1991, 2003) Geoffrey Ellis (citing Esdaile) KIA, Died of Wounds + Camp Disease, France Proper: 1,400,000 during the period 1792-1815, incl. 916,000 [65%] under the Empire. Total war dead among all Eur. armies: 3 million during the Napoleonic/Revolutionary Era [65% or 1.95M under the Empire?] Civilians: 1 million

, 2d ed (1991, 2003) Geoffrey Ellis (citing Esdaile) Samuel Dumas, Losses of Life Caused By War (1923) cites: Taine: 1,700,000 French Delbrück: 2,000,000 military deaths, all armies (¼ of them French) Hodge: UK Navy, 1804-15: KIA: 6,663 Shipwrecks, drownings, fire: 13,621 Disease: 72,102 TOTAL: 92,386 UK Army, 1804-15: KIA: 25,569 Disease: 193,851 TOTAL: 219,420 Fröhlich: 5,925,084 dead (1801-1815), including 1M Fr+Ger civilians and 160,000 dead in Sainte-Domingue. Danzer's Arme-Zeitung , KIA in major battles: Austria: 376,000 Prussia: 134,000 Russia: 289,000 TOTAL: 799,000 (Dumas suggests that multiplying this total by 3 to include disease deaths and small skirmishes might be appropriate. Urlanis claims that these number are for killed and wounded, not just killed.)

(1923) cites: Gaston Bodart, Losses of Life in Modern Wars (1916) French French battle deaths: 306,000 KIA among French allies: 65,000 TOTAL: 371,000 KIA Disease deaths among same: ca. 400,000 Combined French military deaths, both battle and disease: 1M Enemy deaths: about the same [1M] TOTAL: 2 Million

(1916) Urlanis K. in Battle: 560,000 Military. Killed and died: 3,105,000 French: 1,200,000 Russian: 450,000 German: 400,000 Austrian: <200,000 Spanish: >300,000 British: 243,000 Italians: 120,000

Clodfelter French and Allies (1805-1815): 370,750 French: 306,000 KIA (same as Bodart above) French allies: 65,000 KIA "most" estimate that 1.3-2.0M Fr. d. 1792-1815 UK UK Navy (same as Hodge/Dumas above) KIA: 6,663 Shipwrecks, drownings, fire: 13,621 Disease: 72,102 TOTAL: 92,386 UK Army, 1793-15: KIA: 920 officers + 15,392 men Died of wounds: 8,174 Missing and presumed dead: 2,003 [TOTAL: 26,489]

A History of Spain and Portugal , Vol. 2, Stanley G. Payne: "Altogether, the war may have cost the lives of a quarter-million Portuguese."

, Vol. 2, Stanley G. Payne: "Altogether, the war may have cost the lives of a quarter-million Portuguese." Levy, War in the Modern Great Power System Battle deaths: 1,869,000

Eckhardt: 1,000,000 civ. + 1,380,000 mil. = 2,380,000

Sorokin: TOTAL (1803-14): 1,991,284 ("losses". i.e. killed + wounded. Killed alone would be approx 1/4 to 1/3 of that, or 500-660,000)

MEDIAN Military deaths (all sides, all causes): of the eight estimates listed here, the middle three are 2 million ± Civilian deaths: all three estimates listed here: 1 million

BATTLES: Arcis-Sur-Aube Aspern-Essling Austerlitz Bautzen Berezina Borodino Dresden Eckmühl Lâon Leipzig Ligny Lützen Quatre Bras Talavera Trafalgar Viasma Wagram Waterloo Wavre Wurschen

ATROCITIES: Chartrand, The Portuguese Army of the Napoleonic Wars : 2,969 people reported murdered by French near Coimbra, Port. Rothenburg, The Napoleonic Wars : After fall of Jaffa, Nap. had 2,500 POWs shot.

see also: French Revolutionary Wars Mfecane (1818-1840), and the reign of Shaka (1816-1828) 1 500,000 [make link] Eugene Walter, Terror and Resistance (1969) cites the following, but admits it might be lower: Henry Francis Flynn: more than 1,000,000 deaths caused by Shaka's wars. George Theal, History of South Africa (1915): 2,000,000

(1969) cites the following, but admits it might be lower: The diary of Henry Francis Fynn, 1838, p.20: “The numbers whose death he occasioned have been left to conjecture, but exceed a million.”

Major Charters, Royal Artillery, “Notices Of The Cape And Southern Africa, Since The Appointment, As Governor, Of Major-Gen. Sir Geo. Napier.” United Service Journal and Naval and Military Magazine , London: W. Clowes and Son, 1839, Part III, p.24: “Chaka may be termed the South African Attila; and it is estimated that not less than 1,000,000 human beings were destroyed by him"

, London: W. Clowes and Son, 1839, Part III, p.24: “Chaka may be termed the South African Attila; and it is estimated that not less than 1,000,000 human beings were destroyed by him" Encyclopaedia Britannica, 15th edition, “Shaka”, v.10. p.689 (“… left 2,000,000 dead in its wake.”)

Donald R. Morris, The Washing of the Spears, p.60 ("At least a million people, and more likely two, died in a decade that virtually depopulated" the interior.)

Hanson, Carnage and Culture , p. 313: "Shaka ... slaughtered 50,000 of his enemies in battle.... As many as 1 million native Africans had been killed and starved to death as a direct result of Shaka's imperial dreams."

, p. 313: "Shaka ... slaughtered 50,000 of his enemies in battle.... As many as 1 million native Africans had been killed and starved to death as a direct result of Shaka's imperial dreams." NOTE: These numbers are controversial in South Africa. Afrikaaners claim that Shaka depopulated much of southern Africa leaving it conveniently empty and free for the taking when the Boers moved in. Africans, on the other hand, deny this and claim that the death toll is wildly exaggerated. But one or two million are the only actual numbers I've seen. 19th Century Slave Trade Atlantic slave trade: ca. 1.6M transported and 2.5M deaths.

Islamic slave trade: ca. 2M transported and 3M died. Venezuela, power struggles (1830-1903) 1,000,000 [make link] Scheina, Latin America's Wars : "during these seventy-four years of conflict some 300,000 combatants and 700,000 civilians were killed directly (battlefield deaths and assassinations) or indirectly (wounds, sickness, starvation, and imprisonment.)" This includes the Federal War, 1859-63

: "during these seventy-four years of conflict some 300,000 combatants and 700,000 civilians were killed directly (battlefield deaths and assassinations) or indirectly (wounds, sickness, starvation, and imprisonment.)" Taiping Rebellion (1850-64) 20,000,000 [make link] Ho Ping-to, Studies in the Population of China, 1368–1953, pp. 246–247: “Some nineteenth century Western observers estimated the total population loss during the Taiping period at 20,000,000 to 30,000,000. Their estimates, however intelligent, were the guesswork of treaty port residents”). Ho is lukewarm on these estimates and seems to consider them too low. The only hard evidence Ho gathers is that the provinces hardest hit by the rebellion had lost 19.2 million people between 1850 and 1953. “Although twentieth-century . . . wars must also have affected the populations of these provinces, the . . . figures may reflect permanent wounds that the populations . . . received in the great upheaval of the middle of the nineteenth century.”

Several editions of Guinness Book of World Records call this the bloodiest civil war in history with 20-30 million dead.

call this the bloodiest civil war in history with 20-30 million dead. Alan McFarlane, The Savage Wars of Peace: England, Japan and the Malthusian Trap (2003): 20M

(2003): 20M Encyclopedia Britannica , 15th edition, "Taiping Rebellion," v.11, p.509 (1992): 20M 100,000 k. at Nanking.

, 15th edition, "Taiping Rebellion," v.11, p.509 (1992): 20M Spence, Search for Modern China , p.805: 20m

, p.805: 20m Colin McEvedy, Atlas of World Population History , "China" (1978) pp.170-173: 25,000,000

, "China" (1978) pp.170-173: 25,000,000 MSN Encarta Encyclopedia , “China”, p.20 [ http://encarta.msn.com/encyclopedia_761573055_20/China.html ]

, “China”, p.20 [ ] Robert L. Worden, et al., ed., China: a country study , Library of Congress, Federal Research Division, 1987.

, Library of Congress, Federal Research Division, 1987. PGtH: 20,000,000

Small & Singer: 20,000,000

Eckhardt: 2,000,000

COWP: 2,000,025, incl. 25 UK Panthay Rebellion (1855-73) 1,000,000 [make link] Raphael Israeli, Islam in China (Lexington Books, 2007) p.286: one million

Damian Harper, China, (Lonely Planet) p.648: one million

Clodfelter, v.1, p.401: one million Colonial El Niño Famines (1876-1900) 27,000,000 [make link] Mike Davis, Late Victorian Holocausts: El Niño Famines and the Making of the Third World (2001) argues that the business policies of the imperial European landlords, merchants and bureacrats in the face of El Niño drought intensified these famines and thereby caused millions of deaths. If true, this accusation could easily create a moral equivalence between these famines and the devastating Communist famines of the 20th Century, but so far, Davis is the only major authority I found who tackles this question.

(2001) argues that the business policies of the imperial European landlords, merchants and bureacrats in the face of El Niño drought intensified these famines and thereby caused millions of deaths. If true, this accusation could easily create a moral equivalence between these famines and the devastating Communist famines of the 20th Century, but so far, Davis is the only major authority I found who tackles this question. Estimated death tolls: 1876-79 Famine India est. by Digby: 10.3 M est. by Maharatna: 8.2 M est. by Seavoy: 6.1 M China Broomhall: 20 M Bohr: 9.5-13 M Brazil: 0.5-1.0 M (Cunniff) 1896-1900 Famine India The Lancet: 19.0 M Maharatna: 8.4 M Seavoy: 8.4 M Cambridge: 6.1 M China: 10 M (Cohen) Brazil: 1.0-1.5 M (Smith) TOTAL: 31,700,000 to 61,300,000 (midpoint: 46.5M)

Sudan, Mahdist state (1881-98) 5 500,000 [make link] Francis Mading Deng, War of Visions: Conflict of Identities in the Sudan (1995) p.51: "It is estimated that the population of Sudan fell from around 7 million before the Mahdist revolt to somewhere between two and three million after the fall of the Mahdist state." [4m -5m]

Jok Madut Jok, War and Slavery in Sudan (2001) p.75: "By 1898. the population of Sudan under the Mahdist rule and those areas within its proximity was reduced from eight million to two and a half million people." [5.5m]

Edward Spiers, Sudan: The Reconquest Reappraised (1998) p.12: "Sir Reginald Wingate estimated that the mortality in the Mahdist state from war and misgovernment was 6 million out of a population of 8 million."

Henry Cecil Jackson, Osman Digna (1926) p.185: "Between the years 1883 and 1898 the population of the Sudan fell from eight and a half million people to less than two millions." [6.5m] Congo Free State (1886-1908) Approximately 4,500,000 deaths during the 19th C.

See the 20th Century