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November 29, 2005
numbers
A non-exhaustive list of man-made disasters in the 20th century, in descending order of death toll:
World War II (1939-1945) - 55 million
Hitler - 15.5 million directly, not counting all European WWII casualties
Japan - maybe 6 million directly, not counting all Pacific WWII casualties
Stalin - 4 million
Rumania - 484,000
Mussolini - 224,250 all told; 250 Italians
Mao's regime (1949-1975) - 40 million
Stalin's regime (1924-1953) - 20 million
World War I (1914-1918) - 15 million
Russian Civil War (1917-1922) - 9 million
Leopold's Congo (1886-1908) - 8 million
Congo (1998-present) - 3.8 million
Nationalist China (1928-1937) - 3.1 million
Korean War (1950-1953) - 2.8 million
Chinese Civil War (1945-1949) - 2.5 million
Postwar purge of Germans from E. Europe (1945-1947) - 2.1 million
Sudan (1983-present) - 1.9 million
Afghanistan (1979-2001) - 1.8 million
Khmer Rouge (1975-1978) - 1.7 million
Vietnam War, American phase (1965-1973) - 1.7 million
Armenian massacres (1915-1923) - 1.5 million
Ethiopia (1962-1992) - 1.4 million
Bangladesh (1971) - 1.25 million
Mexican Revolution (1910-1920) - 1 million
Iran-Iraq War (1980-1988) - 1 million
Nigeria (1966-1970) - 1 million
Rwandan genocide (1994) - 800,000 deaths of all causes
Tibet/China (1950-present) - 600,000
Franco (1936-1975) - 465,000
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Large-scale deaths before the twentieth century:
Mongols in 13th century - 40 million (?)
Native Americans, killed by Europeans, all told - 20-40 million (?)
An Lushan Revolt and Civil War in China, 750-763 - 36 million
Establishment of Qing Dynasty in China, 1618-1644 - 25 million
Taiping Rebellion, China (1850-1864) - 20 million
Tamerlane, Central Asia (1369-1405) - 17 million
Thirty Years War (1618-1648) - 7 million
American Civil War (1861-1865) - 620,000
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Other killers:
Flu (1918-1919) - 21 million
AIDS (1981-1998) - 11.7 million
(Most of these numbers were taken from this website.)
Posted by onion slayer at November 29, 2005 10:06 AM
Comments
what about bosnian and kosovo genocide? don't forget my people!
Posted by: kenhartleyreed at November 29, 2005 08:04 PM
when you list a number as "stalin," what exactly does that mean? how many of stalin's troops were killed or how many they killed?
Posted by: Hissycat at November 30, 2005 03:20 AM
How many were killed because of Stalin. I'm not sure if the figure includes casualties from the Russian-Finnish War.
And Ken--the number of Albanians killed was a "mere" 10,000.
Posted by: onion slayer at November 30, 2005 10:37 AM
A "mere" 10,000? For a population with just under 3 million, 10,100 is quite a bit. Is this World War causalties? What about those killed during 50 years of communist regime? And then what about Albanians in Macedonia and Kosovo that have been killed for decades? The thing with the Balkans is that there is constant killing, so we're sort of lost count...
Posted by: kenhartleyreed at November 30, 2005 07:31 PM