Statistics of Wars, Oppressions and Atrocities of the Nineteenth Century

(the 1800s)

Alphabetical Index

Site Index

Over 1,000,000 killed

  1. 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:
      1. The Revolution itself (including all internal conflicts)
      2. The Revolutionary Wars during which France fought international wars as a Republic
      3. 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 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
    • 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.)
    • 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
    • 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."
    • 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:
    • 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
  2. 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
    • 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"
    • 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."
    • 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.
  3. 19th Century Slave Trade
  4. 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.)"
  5. 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.
    • Alan McFarlane, The Savage Wars of Peace: England, Japan and the Malthusian Trap (2003): 20M
    • Encyclopedia Britannica, 15th edition, "Taiping Rebellion," v.11, p.509 (1992): 20M
      • 100,000 k. at Nanking.
    • Spence, Search for Modern China, p.805: 20m
    • Colin McEvedy, Atlas of World Population History, "China" (1978) pp.170-173: 25,000,000
    • MSN Encarta Encyclopedia, “China”, p.20 [http://encarta.msn.com/encyclopedia_761573055_20/China.html]
    • Robert L. Worden, et al., ed., China: a country study, 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
  6. 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
  7. 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.
    • 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)
  8. 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]
  9. Congo Free State (1886-1908)
    • Approximately 4,500,000 deaths during the 19th C.
    • See the 20th Century

Between 100,000 and 1,000,000

  1. United States, eradication of the American Indians (1775-1890) 350,000 [make link]
  2. Australia (1788-1921) 240,000 [make link]
  3. New Zealand (1800s) 200,000 [make link]
  4. Russo-Turkish War (1806-12) 225,000 [make link]
    • Urlanis: 225,000 soldiers killed and died
    • Eckhardt: 45,000 military
    • OnWar.com
      • Russia: 70,000
      • Turkey: 100,000
      • TOTAL: 170,000
  5. New Spain (Mexico), War of Independence (1810-21) 425,000 [make link]
  6. New Granada (Grand Colombia), Wars of Independence (1810-23) 250,000 [make link]
    • Clodfelter: population of Venezuela dropped by 100,000 (from 300,000) in the 15 years following 1810.
    • Harvey, Liberators: Latin America's Struggle for Independence, 1810-1830, p.192: "More than a quarter of a million had been killed in achieving Gran Colombia's independence".
    • Scheina, Latin America's Wars: pop. of Ecuador decreased from 600,000 to 480,000 [a loss of 120,000]. "Venezuela lost about one-fourth of its one million population."
    • Eckhardt: 37,000 total
  7. Greek Revolution (1821-28) [make link]
  8. Javanese War (1825-30) [make link]
  9. Russo-Turkish War (1828-29) [make link]
  10. French Conquest of Algeria (1829-47) [make link]
    • Mahfoud Bennoune, The Making of Contemporary Algeria, 1830-1987, (Cambridge University Press, 2002) p.42: "as a direct consequence of this kind of colonial war of conquest the total urban and rural population declined from an estimated three million in 1830 to 2,462,000 by 1876."
      • French losses: 92,329 soldiers dead in the hospital and 3,336 killed in battle, 1830-51
    • Ben Kiernan, Blood and Soil, p. 374: 825,000 Algerians killed
    • COWP: 300,000 total, incl.15,000 French
  11. Spain, 1st Carlist War (1832-40) [make link]
  12. Ireland, Famine (1845-48) [make link]
  13. Mexico (1847-55) [make link]
  14. Crimean War (1854-56) [make link]
  15. China, Punti-Hakka Clan Wars (1856-67) [make link]
    • Some guy on Internet (Jon Kehrer): 500,000 people died [http://www.apex.net.au/~jgk/taishan/phcwar.html]
  16. Venezuela, Federal War (1859-63) [make link]
  17. China, Nien Rebellion (1860-68) [make link]
  18. China, Miao Rebellion (1860-72) [make link]
  19. American Civil War (1861-65) [make link]
    • Military/Total Deaths [Sources listed in reverse chronological order]
      • J. David Hacker, "A Census-Based Count of the Civil War Dead", Civil War History, December 2011: 750,000 to 850,000 total dead
        • This is the first major reassessment of the Civil War's death toll in over a hundred years. (see "Recounting the Dead", NY Times, Sept. 20, 2011) [http://opinionator.blogs.nytimes.com/2011/09/20/recounting-the-dead/]
      • Encyclopedia Americana (2003)
        • United States: 360,222
          • k. in battle: 67,058
          • d. of wounds: 43,012
          • [Total battle deaths: 110,070]
        • Confederacy: 258,000
          • k. in battle: 94,000
        • [TOTAL: 618,222]
          • [Battle deaths: 204,070]
      • Britannica (1992)
        • United States: 359,528
        • Confederacy: 258,000
        • TOTAL: 617,528
      • DoD (USA only)
        • Battle deaths: 140,414
        • Other deaths: 224,097
        • TOTAL: 364,511
      • COWP: 650,000 total, incl. 364,511 USA
      • McPherson, Battle Cry of Freedom (1988)
        • United States: 360,000
        • Confederacy: 260,000
        • TOTAL: 620,000 (p.854)
      • Trager, The People's Chronology, "1865"
        • United States: 360,222
          • k. in battle: 110,000
        • Confederacy: 258,000
          • k. in battle: 94,000
        • TOTAL: 618,222
          • k. in battle: 204,000
      • Singer, Eckhardt: 650,000
      • Dumas:
        • USA
          • KIA: 67,038
          • Died of wounds: 43,000
          • Disease: 224,586
          • Accident, murder, suicide, etc.: 24,872
          • TOTAL: 359,496
      • Urlanis (1971)
        • K. in Battle: 134,000
        • Military. Killed and died: 538,000
      • Regimental Losses In the American Civil War - William F. Fox, 1889 [http://www.civilwarhome.com/foxs.htm] , also, A Compendium of the War of the Rebellion - Frederick H. Dyer, 1908 [http://www.civil-war.net/searchstates.asp?searchstates=Total]
        • Killed and Mortally Wounded: 110,070
        • Died of Disease: 199,720
        • In Confederate prisons: 24,866
        • Drowning: 4,944
        • Accidents: 4,114
        • Total Deaths, all causes: 359,528
    • Civilian Deaths
      • McPherson, Battle Cry of Freedom (1988)
        • Civilian deaths: 50,000 (p.619)
      • One Kind of Freedom: The Economic Consequences of Emancipation by Roger Ransom, Richard Sutch, p.53-54 (2001)
        • General Howard, Freedmen's Bureau, estimated that 25% of African-Am. lost their lives by the war.
        • Instead, Ransom/Sutch estimate that 1.6% of African-Am. died as a direct result of the war. [based on the 3.5M blacks in the CSA, this would come to around 56,000 civilian deaths. Howard's est. would be 875,000 d.]
      • James Alan Marten, Civil War America: Voices from the Home Front (2007) p. 213
        • "Out of the 4000 black refugees living in Helena, Arkansas, in 1863–1864, about 1100 died. In Memphis, 1200 out of the 4000 contrabands died in only three months, while the camp at Natchez—also holding 4000 refugees—suffered a nearly 50 percent mortality rate in 1863."
    • Battles
  20. Hui Rebellion (1862-78) [make link]
    • Dillon, China’s Muslim Hui Community, p.60: General Zuo reported to Beijing that only 60,000 of the 700,000 Muslims in Shaanxi survived the revolt.  Colonel Mark Bell, a British observer, claimed that the population of Gansu plunged from 15 million to 1 million
    • Eckhardt: 300,000 died in the Moslem Rebellions (1860-72)
    • COWP: 300,000 died in the Moslem Rebellions (1863-72)
  21. Paraguay, War of the Triple Alliance (1864-70) [make link]
  22. Ten Years War, Cuba (1868-78) [make link]
  23. Franco-Prussian War (1870-71) [make link]
  24. Russo-Turkish War (1877-78) [make link]
  25. Cuban Revolution (1895-98) [make link]
  26. Somalia (1899-1920)
  27. Colombia, War of a Thousand Days (1899-1902)
  28. Boxer Rebellion (1899-1901)
  29. Philippine-American War (1899-1902)

Between 10,000 and 100,000

  1. India, Sati (1800-29)
    • Somewhere around 17,500 widows burned during the 19th Century.
  2. Egypt (1805-11)
    • Muhammad Ali v. Ottomans
      • OnWar.com
        • Britain: 5,000
        • Egypt: 39,000
        • Rebels: 3,000
        • Ottomans: 9,000
        • TOTAL: 56,000
  3. Anglo-American War of 1812 (1812-15) [makelink]
    • Dept.of Defense; 1984 World Almanac
      • USA: 2,260 KIA
    • Eckhardt: 4,000 military
    • Clodfelter
      • USA: 2,260 KIA + 15,000 disease
      • UK: ca. 3,000
    • Donald Hickey, The War of 1812 (1989)
      • USA:
        • KIA: 2,260
        • Executions: 205
        • Deaths by disease: 17,000
        • TOTAL: approx 20,000
      • UK:
        • No British numbers available. Hickey suggests there were probably more battle deaths and fewer disease deaths.
    • William Osborn: The Wild Frontier: atrocities during the American-Indian War from Jamestown Colony to Wounded Knee (2000)
      • Deaths caused by specific settler atrocities (1812-15): 58
      • Deaths caused by specific Indian atrocities (1812-15): 1,325
  4. 1st Anglo-Burmese War (1823-26)
    • Singer: 15,000 UK
    • Eckhardt: 5,000 civ. + 15,000 mil. = 20,000
  5. Turkey, massacre of the Jannisaries (1826)
    • PGtH: 20,000
    • Trager, People's Chronology: 6-10,000
    • Eckhardt: 14,000 civ. + 6,000 mil. = 20,000
  6. Portugal (1829-34)
    • Govt. vs. Conservatives
      • Singer: 20,000, plus 100 British
      • Eckhardt: 20,000
  7. Polish Insurrection (1830-32)
    • Singer: 15,000 Russians
    • Clodfelter
      • Russians: 15,000
      • Poles: many more
    • Eckhardt: 6,000 civ. + 15,000 mil. = 21,000
    • Urlanis: 70,000 total
  8. 1st Syrian War (1831-32)
    • Singer: Turkey lost 10,000 k
    • Eckhardt: 8,000 civ. + 10,000 mil. = 18,000
  9. 1st British-Afghan War (1838-42)
    • Singer: UK lost 20,000 k.
    • Eckhardt: 20,000 mil.
  10. 2nd Syrian War (1839-40)
    • Singer: Turkey lost 10,000 k.
    • Eckhardt: 2,000 civ. + 10,000 mil. = 12,000
  11. Argentina (1841-51)
    • Govt. vs. Unitarios
      • Singer: 10,000 (plus 100 UK and 100 France)
  12. Vietnam, Persecution of Christians (ca. 1832-1887) [make link]
  13. 1st Sikh War (1845-46)
  14. Mexican-American War (1846-48) [make link]
  15. Revolutions of 1848 (1848-49)
    • France
      • Clodfelter: 1,460 Parisians k., incl 150 after surrender
      • Singer (Govt. vs. Republicans): 3,000
    • Austria
      • Clodfelter (Vienna): 19 officers + 200 soldiers + 3,000 citizens
      • Singer (Govt. vs. Liberals): 3,500
    • Austro-Sardinian Wars (1848-49)
      • Singer
        • Austria: 5,600
        • Sardinia: 3,400
        • TOTAL: 9,000
      • Clodfelter
        • 1st: 1,030 Austrians KIA
        • 2nd
          • Austrians: 857 KIA + 2,000 marsh fever
          • Sardinia: 2,400
        • [TOTAL: >6,287]
    • 1st Schleswig-Holstein War (1848-49)
      • Singer
        • Prussia: 2,500
        • Denmark: 3,500
        • TOTAL: 6,000
      • Clodfelter (dead, mostly disease.)
        • Prussia, allies: 2,500
        • Denmark: 3,500
        • [TOTAL: 6,000]
    • Hungarian Revolt (1848-49)
      • Urlanis: 100,000
      • Clodfelter: 60,000
        • Habsburgs: 16,600 k. or wounded
        • Russia: 903 KIA + 13,554 disease
    • Two Sicilies (1848-49)
      • Singer (Govt. vs. Liberals): 1,000
    • Roman Republic (1849)
      • Singer
        • France: 500
        • Two Sicilies: 100
        • Papal States: 1500
        • Austria: 100
        • TOTAL: 2,200
    • TOTAL
      • [Clodfelter: ca. 77,000]
      • [Singer: 24,700]
  16. Persia (1848-54)
    • 16 Dec. 1979 Washington Post: 20,000 Babis (Baha'is) massacred. (also http://www.wikipedia.org/wiki/Babis)
  17. Nicaragua, Walker Filibuster (1856-57)
    • Scroggs, Filibusters and financiers: the story of William Walker and his associates (1916) p.305
      • Walker's forces: "one thousand died of disease or were killed" out of 2518 total
      • Losses among Nicaragua and allies: "four or five times greater than those of the Americans"
    • Scheina, Latin America's Wars
      • American mercenaries: >1,000, mostly of disease
      • Costa Rica
        • Out of army of 2,500, only 400 lived to return home.
        • 10,000 C.R. civilians d. of cholera spread by army.
    • Clodfelter
      • Americans: 1,000 died, mostly of disease
      • four opponent Central America nations: 5,800 killed and wounded [maybe 1,450 k.?] + 5,000 died of disease
  18. Zulus (1856) [make link]
  19. South Africa, Xhosa self-destruction (1857) [make link]
  20. India, Sepoy Mutiny (1857)
    • Clodfelter
      • UK soldiers: 2,034 KIA and massacre + 8,987 by disease etc.
    • Eckhardt: 15,000 = 11,000 civ. + 4,000 mil.
    • OnWar.com
      • UK: 2,000
      • India: 8,000
      • Total: 10,000
    • Common quote, no source: "In Awadh alone 150000 people were killed - of which 100000 were civilians"
  21. War of Italian Unification (1859)
    • Singer:
      • France: 7,500
      • Sardinia: 2,500
      • Austria: 12,500
      • TOTAL: 22,500
    • Bodart (KIA + died of wounds):
      • France: 5,500
      • Piedmont: 1,500
      • Austria: 8,000
      • TOTAL: 15,000
  22. Ottoman Empire, Lebanon (1860)
    • War Between Christians and Druses
      • 1975 Britannica
        • Christians massacred in battle: 11,000
        • Died in destitution: 4,000
      • 1911 Britannica: >3,000 Christians k.
  23. Franco-Mexican War (Emp. Maximilian, 1862-67) [make link]
  24. Seven Weeks War (1866) [make link]
  25. Paris Commune (1871)
    • PGtH: 17,000 k. in suppression of the Commune
    • Singer: 20,000
    • Eckhardt: 20,000
    • Urlanis: 20,000
    • Gabriel Jackson, The Spanish Republic and the Civil War 1931-39 (1965, 1972):
      • 17,000 to 25,000 Communards shot.
      • 3,000 deaths in prison.
    • see also: Franco-Prussian War
  26. Spain, 3rd Carlist War (1872-76)
    • Clodfelter: 50,000
    • Singer: 7,000
  27. Bulgaria (1876)
    • PGtH, also Britannica (1992 and 1911 eds.): 15,000 Bulgarians massacred by Turks in Philippopolis District, incl. 5,000 in town of Batak, acc2 British report.
    • Eckhardt: 30,000 civ. + 10,000 mil. = 40,000 (1875-77)
  28. Japan (1877)
    • Govt. vs. Satsumas
      • Singer: 14,000
  29. War of the Pacific (1879-83)
    • Singer:
      • Bolivia: 1,000
      • Chile: 3,000
      • Peru: 10,000
      • TOTAL: 14,000
    • Dumas (also Clodfelter):
      • Bolivia: 920
      • Chile: 3,276
      • Peru: 9,672
      • TOTAL: 13,868
  30. South Africa, Anglo-Zulu War (1879) [make link]
  31. Transvaal (1880-81)
    • Revolt vs UK
      • Ekhardt: 18,000
  32. Sino-French War (1884-85)
    • Singer:
      • China: 10,000
      • France: 2,100
      • TOTAL: 12,100
  33. Korea, Tonghak Rebellion (1894)
    • Clodfelter: 36,000 rebels k.
  34. Sino-Japanese War (1894-95)
    • Singer:
      • China: 10,000
      • France: 5,000
      • TOTAL: 15,000
  35. Turkey (1895-96)
    • Massacre of Armenians:
      • Alan Palmer, The Decline and Fall of the Ottoman Empire (1992): 30,000
  36. Brazil, Canudos War (1896-97)
    • Singer: 5,000
    • Roelofse-Campbell: 30,000 [http://www.unisa.ac.za/dept/press/lar/112/canudos.html]
      • Govt: 5,000
      • Rebels: 25,000
  37. Spanish-American War (1898) [make link]
    • Singer:
      • Spain: 5,000
      • USA: 5,000
      • TOTAL: 10,000
    • Eckhardt:
      • US vs Spain over Cuba & Phil (1898): 190,000 civ. + 10,000 military = 200,000 [190T civilians k. is very unlikely considering that the fighting lasted only some 5 months and involved small armies. E. might be conflating the Span-Am War with the Cuban or Philippine Insurrections]
    • Urlanis
      • K. in Battle: 5,000
      • Military. Killed and died: 16,000
    • Spanish deaths:
      • Stanley Payne, Politics and the Military in Modern Spain (1967)
        • KIA: 2,159
        • Deaths by disease: 53,000
      • Hugh Thomas, Cuba, or, the pursuit of freedom (1971, 1988): Spanish losses in Cuba, 1895-98
        • KIA and died of wounds: 9,303
        • Deaths by disease: 53,440
    • USA dead:
      • Dept. of Defense, 1991 Information Please, World Almanac 1984: 385 KIA + 2,061 disease = 2,446
  38. Anglo-Boer War, 1899-1902

Under 10,000

  1. USA, Creek War (1813-14)
    • Clodfelter: 1,800 Creeks and 700 Americans (soldiers + civilians)
  2. British-Mahabattan War (1817-18)
    • UK: 2,000 (Singer)
  3. Spain, Civil War (1820-23)
    • Singer (Govt. vs. Royalists: 1821-23): 7,000
    • Urlanis: 100,000
  4. Franco-Spanish War (1823)
    • Singer:
      • Spain: 600
      • France: 400
      • TOTAL: 1,000
  5. Turkey (1826)
    • Govt. vs. Janissaries
      • Singer: 6,000
  6. Russo-Persian War (1826-28)
    • Russia: 5,000 (Singer)
  7. Navarino Bay (1827)
    • Singer:
      • Turkey: 3,000
      • UK: 80
      • Russia: 60
      • France: 40
      • TOTAL: 3,180
  8. France, July Revolution (1830)
    • Govt. vs. Liberals
      • PGtH: 1,000
      • Singer: 1,700
      • Eckhardt: 2,000
  9. Mexico (1832)
    • Govt. vs. Liberals
      • Singer: 4,000
  10. USA, 2nd Seminole War (1835-42) [make link]
  11. Texan War (1835-36) [make link]
  12. Colombia (1840-42)
  13. Spain, 2nd Carlist War (1847-49)
    • Clodfelter: 10,000
    • Singer: 3,000 (1846-49)
  14. Chile (1851)
    • Govt. vs. Liberals
      • Singer: 3,000
  15. La Plata War (1851-52)
    • Singer:
      • Brazil: 500
      • Argentina: 800
      • TOTAL: 1,300
  16. Peru (1853-55)
    • Govt. vs. Liberals
      • Singer: 4,000
  17. Anglo-Persian War (1856-57)
    • Singer:
      • UK: 500
      • Persia: 1,500
      • TOTAL: 2,000
  18. Peru (1856-58)
    • Govt. vs. Conservatives
      • Singer: 3,000
  19. Mexico (1858-61)
    • Govt. vs. Liberals
      • Singer: 8,000
  20. Spanish-Moroccan War (1859-60)
    • Clodfelter
      • Spain: 1,152 battle + 2888 disease = 4,040
      • Morocco: 6,000 d.
      • [TOTAL: 10,040]
    • Singer:
      • Spain: 4,000
      • Morocco: 6,000
      • TOTAL: 10,000
  21. Syria (1860)
    • 1911 Britannica, "Damascus": July 1860, the Moslem population massacred about 3000 adult males Christians.
  22. Italo-Roman War (1860)
    • Singer:
      • Sardinia: 300
      • Papal States: 700
      • TOTAL: 1,000
  23. Italo-Sicilian War (1860)
    • Singer:
      • Sardinia: 600
      • Two Sicilies: 400
      • TOTAL: 1,000
  24. Colombia (1860-62)
    • Govt. vs. Liberals
      • Singer: 2,500
  25. Argentina (1863)
    • Govt. vs. Montoneros
      • Singer: 1,000
  26. Ecuadorian-Colombian War (1863)
    • Singer:
      • Colombia: 300
      • Ecuador: 700
      • TOTAL: 1,000
  27. 2nd Schleswig-Holstein War (1860)
    • Singer:
      • Prussia: 1,000
      • Austria-Hungary: 500
      • Denmark: 3,000
      • TOTAL: 4,500
  28. USA, Reconstruction (1865-76) [make link]
    • 1998 World Book Encyc.: 5,000 southern blacks murdered by whites
    • Philip Dray, At the Hands of Persons Unknown : The Lynching of Black America, cites:
      • Phil Sheridan: 3,500 whites + blacks k. 1865-75
      • Ida Wells-Barnett: 10,000 blacks lynched 1865-1890s
      • Dorothy Sterling: 20,000 k. by KKK 1868-71
  29. Spanish-Chilean War (1866)
    • Singer:
      • Peru: 600
      • Chile: 100
      • Spain: 300
      • TOTAL: 1,000
  30. Argentina (1866-67)
    • Govt. vs. Federalists
      • Singer: 1,000
  31. Venezuela (1868-71)
    • Govt. vs. Conservatives
      • Singer: 3,000
  32. Spain (1868)
    • Govt. vs. Liberals
      • Singer: 1,600
  33. Argentina (1870-71)
    • Entre Rios Rebellion
      • Singer: 1,500
  34. Colombia (1876-77)
    • Govt. vs. Liberals
      • Singer: 1,000
  35. Argentina (1880)
    • Buenos Aires Rebellion
      • Singer: 1,000
  36. South Africa (1880-81)
    • Basuto Revolt vs UK
      • Eckhardt: 1,000
  37. Tunisia (1881)
    • France v Tunisia
      • Eckhardt: 1,000
  38. Sino-French War (1884-85)
    • Singer:
      • China: 10,000
      • France: 2,100
      • TOTAL: 12,100
  39. Colombia (1884-85)
    • Govt. vs. Liberals
      • Singer: 1,000
  40. Central American War (1885)
    • Singer:
      • El Salvador: 200
      • Guatemala: 800
      • TOTAL: 1,000
  41. Chile (1891)
    • Govt. vs. Congressists
      • Singer: 5,000
  42. Brazil (1893-94)
    • Govt. vs. Rio Grande do Sud
      • Singer: 1,500
  43. Brazil (1893-94)
    • Govt. vs. Naval Royalists
      • Singer: 1,000
  44. Peru (1894-95)
    • Govt. vs. Liberals
      • Singer: 4,000
  45. Rhodesia, Matabele uprising (1896-98)
    • Laura Franey, Victorian Travel Writing and Imperial Violence: 600 Europeans + 9000 Shona and Ndebele k.
  46. Greco-Turkish War (1897)
    • Singer:
      • Turkey: 1,400
      • Greece: 600
      • TOTAL: 2,000
    • Dumas: 1,300 Turks
  47. USA, Lynching (1882-1962)

Total:

EXTREMELY PRELIMINARY TOTAL:
  • Adding all the events listed here gives a very tentative total of 45 Million unnatural deaths during the 19th Century -- and I probably missed a lot.
  • You might want to add an additional 45M, depending on whether you feel that the El Niño famines of 1876 and 1896 were man-made or not. That would boost the total to 80M unnatural deaths for the 19th Century.
  • Using Table 1.2 of A Concise History of World Population, 2d by Massimo Livi-Bacci, I determined that there were 8661 million deaths between 1750 and 1950. As the 19th Century covers the middle half of that, let's assume roughly 4330 million deaths during the 1800s.
  • Another source would be "How Many People Have Ever Lived on Earth?" by Carl Haub [http://www.prb.org/Content/ContentGroups/PTarticle/0ct-Dec02/How_Many_People_Have_Ever_Lived_on_Earth_.htm]
    1. We can calculate the number of deaths between 1850 and 1900 as [1850_population] + [Births_1850-1900] - [1900_population] = [Deaths_1850-1900] = ca. 2509 million.
    2. We can calculate the number of deaths between 1750 and 1850 as [1750_population] + [Births_1750-1850] - [1850_population] = [Deaths_1750-1850] = ca. 3576 million.
    3. Adding [1] and half of [2] would give us some 4297 million deaths in the 19th Century.
  • Forty-five million unnatural deaths would be 1% of 4.3 billion deaths (or 1 out of every 96), considerably less than the percentage for the 20th Century. Counting the famines would bring the percentage to 2% or 1 out of 48.


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Last updated March 2011

Copyright © 1999-2011 Matthew White