List Of Wars By Death Toll

• 60,000,000–72,000,000 - World War II (1939–1945)
• 36,000,000 - An Shi Rebellion (China, 755–763)
• 30,000,000–60,000,000 - Mongol Conquests (13th century) 
• 25,000,000 - Qing dynasty conquest of Ming dynasty (1616–1662)
• 20,000,000 - World War I (1914–1918) (see World War I casualties)
• 20,000,000 - Taiping Rebellion (China, 1850–1864)
• 20,000,000 - Second Sino-Japanese War (1937–1945)
• 10,000,000 - Warring States Era (China, 475 BC–221 BC)
• 8,000,000–12,000,000 - Dungan revolt (China, 1862 –1877)
• 7,000,000–20,000,000 - Conquests of Tamerlane (1370–1405)
• 5,000,000–9,000,000 - Russian Civil War and Foreign Intervention (1917–1922)
• 5,000,000 - Conquests of Menelik II of Ethiopia (1882–1898)
• 3,800,000–5,400,000 - Second Congo War (1998–2003)
• 3,500,000–6,000,000 - Napoleonic Wars (1803–1815)
• 3,000,000–11,500,000 - Thirty Years' War (1618–1648)
• 3,000,000–7,000,000 - Yellow Turban Rebellion (China, 184–205)
• 2,500,000–3,500,000 - Korean War (1950–1953)
• 2,300,000–3,800,000 - Vietnam War (entire war 1945–1975)
• 300,000–1,300,000 - First Indochina War (1946–1954)
• 100,000–300,000 - War in Vietnam (1954–1959), War in Vietnam (1959–1963) (1954–1965)
• 1,750,000–2,100,000 - American phase (1965–1973)
• 170,000 - Final phase (1973–1975)
• 175,000–1,150,000 - Secret War (1953–1975)
• 2,000,000–4,000,000 - Huguenot Wars
• 1,500,000–2,000,000 - War against Armenians, Greeks and Arameans, by the Turks.
• 2,000,000 - Shaka's conquests (1816–1828)
• 300,000–3,000,000[24] - Bangladesh Liberation War (1971)
• 2,000,000 - Russian-Circassian War (1763–1864) and the exile of another 1.5 million Circassians from there homeland to the Ottoman Empire and another 500,000 Circassians Killed at sea during the Circassian exile from there homeland.
• 1,500,000–2,000,000 - Afghan Civil War (1979-)
• 1,000,000–1,500,000 - Soviet intervention (1979–1989)
• 1,300,000–6,100,000 - Chinese Civil War (1927–1949)
• 300,000–3,100,000 - before 1937
• 1,000,000–3,000,000 - after World War II
• 1,000,000–2,000,000 - Mexican Revolution (1910–1920)
• 1,000,000 - Iran–Iraq War (1980–1988)
• 1,000,000 - Japanese invasions of Korea (1592–1598)
• 1,000,000 - Second Sudanese Civil War (1983–2005)
• 1,000,000 - Panthay Rebellion (China,1856–1873)
• 1,000,000 - Nien Rebellion (China,1853–1868)
• 1,000,000 - Nigerian Civil War (1967–1970)
• 618,000–970,000 - American Civil War (including 350,000 from disease) (1861–1865)

Note: This list of wars is based on death toll estimates of all deaths that are either directly or indirectly caused by war. These numbers include both the deaths of military personnel which are the direct results of battle or other military wartime actions, as well as the wartime/ war-related deaths of civilians, which are the results of war induced epidemics, diseases, famines, atrocities etc.

War Ethics

The seeming contradiction between warfare and morality has led to serious moral questions, which have been the subject of debate for thousands of years. The debate, generally speaking, has two main viewpoints: Pacifists, who believe that war is inherently immoral and therefore is never justified regardless of circumstances, and those who believe that war is sometimes necessary and can be moral.

There are two different aspects to ethics in war, according to the most prominent and influential thought on justice and war: The Just War Theory. First is Jus ad bellum (literally translated as "right to war"), which dictates which unfriendly acts and circumstances justify a proper authority in declaring war on another nation. There are six main criteria for the declaration of a just war: first, any just war must be declared by a lawful authority; second, it must be a just and righteous cause, with sufficient gravity to merit large-scale violence; third, the just belligerent must have rightful intentions – namely, that they seek to advance good and curtail evil; fourth, a just belligerent must have a reasonable chance of success; fifth, the war must be a last resort; and sixth, the ends being sought must be proportional to means being used.

Once a just war has been declared, the second standard, or aspect, is put into effect. Jus In bello, which literally translates to "right in war", are the ethical rules of conduct when conducting war. The two main principles in jus in bello are proportionality and discrimination. Proportionality regards how much force is necessary and morally appropriate to the ends being sought and the injustice suffered. The principle of Discrimination determines who are the legitimate targets in a war, and specifically makes a separation between combatants, who it is permissible to kill, and non-combatants, who it is not. Failure to follow these rules can result in the loss of legitimacy for the just war belligerent, and so thereby forfeit the moral right and justice of their cause.

The Just War standard is as old as Western Civilization itself, and still has significant impact on thinking about the morality of wars and violence today. Just War Theory was foundational in the creation of the United Nations and in International Law's regulations on legitimate war.

These two positions generally cover the broad philosophical and ethical bents mainstream society. However, there are several theories on and about War which are in the minority in culture, but which, because of the influence they have had in recent history, demand mention here. These strains of thought on human society and war can be broken up into two main camps: Marxist and Fascist, both of which view war as purely practical.

Marxism, and other such historicist ideals, hold that history advances through a set of dialectics (as stated by Heinrich Moritz Chalybäus). Marx, and his followers, in particular held that history advances through violence. Marxism-Leninism, in fact, held the belief that outright incitement to violence and war was necessary to topple Capitalism and free the proletariat. In these theories, the question of ethics has no place, as the value of the war is entirely dependent on whether it advances the revolution or synthesis.

Fascism, and the ideals it encompasses, such as Pragmatism, Racism, and Social Darwinism, hold that violence is good. Pragmatism holds that war and violence can be good if it serves the ends of the people, without regard for universal morality. Racism holds that violence is good so that a master race can be established, or to purge an inferior race from the earth, or both. Social Darwinism thinks that violence is sometimes necessary to weed the unfit from society so that civilization can flourish. These are broad archetypes for the general position that the ends justify the means.

Famous Quotes On War

I know not with what weapons World War III will be fought, but World War IV will be fought with sticks and stones.
Albert Einstein


Mankind must put an end to war before war puts an end to mankind.
John F. Kennedy


Only the dead have seen the end of war.
Plato


War does not determine who is right - only who is left.
Bertrand Russell


An eye for an eye only makes the whole world blind.
Mahatma Gandhi


A prisoner of war is a man who tries to kill you and fails, and then asks you not to kill him.
Winston Churchill


The object of war is not to die for your country but to make the other bastard die for his.
George S. Patton


A soldier will fight long and hard for a bit of colored ribbon.
Napoleon Bonaparte


There never was a good war or a bad peace.
Benjamin Franklin

A Brief Introduction To War

War is an organized, armed, and often a prolonged conflict that is carried on between states, nations, or other parties typified by extreme aggression, social disruption, and usually high mortality. War should be understood as an actual, intentional and widespread armed conflict between political communities, and therefore is defined as a form of political violence. The set of techniques used by a group to carry out war is known as warfare. An absence of war, (and other violence) is usually called peace.

In 2003, Nobel Laureate Richard E. Smalley identified war as the sixth (of ten) biggest problems facing the society of mankind for the next fifty years. In the 1832 treatise On War, Prussian military general and theoretician Carl Von Clausewitz defined war as follows: "War is thus an act of force to compel our enemy to do our will."

British paratroopers inside one of the C-47 transport aircraft, September 1944

U.S. Marine Raiders gathered in front of a Japanese dugout, January 1944

While some scholars see warfare as an inescapable and integral aspect of human culture, others argue that it is only inevitable under certain socio-cultural or ecological circumstances. Some scholars argue that the practice of war is not linked to any single type of political organization or society. Rather, as discussed by John Keegan in his History Of Warfare, war is a universal phenomenon whose form and scope is defined by the society that wages it. Another argument suggests that since there are human societies in which warfare does not exist, humans may not be naturally disposed for warfare, which emerges under particular circumstance. The ever changing technologies and potentials of war extend along a historical continuum. At the one end lies the endemic warfare of the Paleolithic with its stones and clubs, and the naturally limited loss of life associated with the use of such weapons. Found at the other end of this continuum is nuclear warfare, along with the recently developed possible outcome of its use, namely the rather sobering potential risk of the complete extinction of the human species.