10 deadliest wars in history
Terrorism has existed since primitive times, and war has existed since prehistoric times. War and terrorism are difficult to avert due to their long histories. While some war studies researchers believe that conflict is a universal and ancestral feature of human nature, others believe that it is the outcome of specific socio-cultural, economic, or ecological circumstances. Warfare, for whatever cause, is wreaking havoc on human existence, even when seen from a statistical standpoint.
War is one of the most significant causes of poverty. A war between states can have a negative impact on individuals. They may be caught up in physical conflict or face the severe economic ramifications of product inflation and heavy taxation. Wars are frequently followed by ineffective government leadership and public unrest, both of which contribute to cyclical poverty. Here is a list of the ten bloodiest conflicts in history.
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10 deadliest wars in history
10. Second Congo War
1998 – 2003
Casualties: 5-6 million
The Second Congo War was an internal African conflict that primarily erupted in the Democratic Republic of the Congo. The conflict began in 1998 and ended in 2003 when a Transitional Government took power. It was the most extensive interstate war in modern African history, involving nine African nations and approximately twenty armed groups, and earned the moniker “Africa’s World War” and “Great War of Africa.” An estimated 3.8 million people died, the majority of whom died due to starvation and disease.
Congo has a tumultuous history. Even by the standards of late-nineteenth-century colonialism, King Léopold II’s rule is widely regarded as arbitrary and brutal. Moreover, Congo has been a state that has had tremendous trouble since transitioning to self-rule in 1960, owing to its mineral wealth and the lingering effects of the colonial period.
10 deadliest wars in history
09. Russian Civil War
1917 – 1923
Casualities: 7-12 million
The Russian Civil War was fought between various Russian and expansionist anti-Bolshevik armies and saw the Red Army effectively protect their newly formed Bolshevik government led by Vladimir Lenin. The primary causes of the 1917 Russian Revolution have toppled the Romanov dynasty and installed a government willing to end the tension of Russia’s disastrous performance in World War I. The civil war erupted due to the formation of numerous groups opposing Lenin’s Bolsheviks after November 1917. Monarchists, militarists, and, for a brief period, foreign nations were among these groups.
The opposing parties were called the Whites, and the communists were called the Red Army. The white rebellion was erratic for two years until Yakut’s White Army collapsed in June 1923 but continued in several parts until 1934. As a result, a few parts of the former Russian Empire were formed as sovereign countries, each civil independence war. Shortly after, the rest of the former Russian Empire was absorbed into the Soviet Union.
10 deadliest wars in history
08. Dungan Revolt
1862 – 1877
Casualities: 8-13 million
In 19th-century China, the Dungan Revolt was primarily an ethnic conflict with a few religious overtones. This same revolt was sparked by a valuation dispute over bamboo poles sold by a Han to a Hui, who didn’t even pay the amount demanded by the Han merchant. The Hui people of China are chiefly a Muslim group who live in the northwestern provinces and the central plain, but they are spread around the country. The Han people are not Muslims but rather an East Asian ethnic group.
This occurred during the Qing Dynasty, and the Qing generals eventually intervened to end the ethnic war. They retook Xinjiang, putting an end to the rebellion in 1877. However, some Hui people fled to imperial Russia, and the bodies of two Hui leaders were burned in front of the public. Some estimate that 12 million people died by the end of the 15-year war.
10 deadliest wars in history
07. Conquest of Timur
1379 – 1405
Casualities: 17-20 million
Timur’s Conquests were indeed a series of violent military operations waged by Timur the Lame against the remnants of the Mongol Empire and numerous other nations. The danger from the Central Asian plains was regaining pace and a threat to the established civilizations of Western and Southern Asia. Even Christian Europe was alarmed. The more they vilified him, the more Timur Lenk enjoyed it; he relished in his self-proclaimed position as the “second coming” of Genghis Khan.
Timur began his conquests in Persia around 1383 with the capture of Hert. However, while Timur was abroad on his missions, revolts erupted throughout Persia; whole cities were destroyed, their inhabitants murdered, and towers constructed out of their skulls. His conquests included the Ottoman Empire, the Delhi Sultanate of South Asia, the Mamluk Sultanate of the Levant, Egypt, the Kingdom of Georgia, Armenia, and the Knights Hospitaller of Smyrna, among others.
10 deadliest wars in history
06. Three Kingdom War
184 – 280
Casualities: 36-40 million
The Three Kingdoms were a group of warring Chinese kingdoms that arose after the Han dynasty’s collapse. With an ill Han government unable to maintain control over its empire, terrible localised conflicts, rebellions, and revolutions were common. The capital would soon collapse, followed by the Han dynasty, torn apart by opposing dynastic factions at court, cunning eunuchs, and unyielding Confucian literati. As a result, the Three Kingdoms period in Chinese history is one of the deadliest.
According to Wikipedia
A nationwide census taken in 280 AD, following the reunification of the Three Kingdoms under the Jin shows a total of 2,459,840 households and 16,163,863 individuals which was only a fraction of the 10,677,960 households, and 56,486,856 individuals reported during the Han era.There were regular conflicts among the three kingdoms. Still, a sudden rise in events occurred after Zhuge Liang, the Shu chancellor, developed the wooden ox, which is thought to be an early prototype of the wheelbarrow, and improved on the repeating crossbow. Ma Jun, a Wei mechanical engineer, created a hydraulic-powered, mechanical puppet theatre for his emperor. He also created a novel irrigation apparatus, the south-pointing chariot, and a directional compass that was not magnetic. The outcome of these events was the fall of the Han Dynasty.
10 deadliest wars in history
05. World War I
1914 – 1918
Casualities: 40 million
The Great War, often known as World War I, began in 1914 with the assassination of Archduke Franz Ferdinand of Austria (One of the greatest assassinations in the history of mankind). His assassination triggered a European war that lasted until 1918. Germany, Austria-Hungary, Bulgaria, and the Ottoman Empire (the Central Powers) battled against the United Kingdom, France, Russia, Italy, Romania, Japan, and the United States during the war (the Allied Powers).
The war claimed millions of lives and resulted in genocides. In addition, the 1918 Spanish flu pandemic (one of the deadliest pandemics this world has ever seen) caused an additional 17–100 million fatalities globally. World War I was a watershed moment in the world’s political, cultural, economic, and social environment.
World War I was a watershed moment in the world’s political, cultural, economic, and social environment. The war and its immediate aftermath triggered several revolutions and upheavals. Following the war, four empires vanished: the German, Austro-Hungarian, Ottoman, and Russian. Many nations regained their independence, and new ones were formed. Nevertheless, it set the basis for two of the bloodiest conflicts on our list.
10 deadliest wars in history
04. Qing Dynasty Conquest of the Ming Dynasty
1618 – 1683
Casualties – 38-42 million
From 1618 until 1683, the transition from Ming to Qing, also known as the Ming-Qing transition or the Manchu invasion of China, marked the end of two important dynasties in Chinese history. China was a decades-long struggle between the emerging Qing dynasty, the reigning Ming dynasty, and many minority groups. It culminated in the emergence of the Qing and the demise of the Ming and other groups.
Finally, in 1368, the Ming Dynasty claimed the Mandate of Heaven, which indicated that the “heavens” liked and desired them to govern. Zhu Yuanzhang was a major leader for the Ming Dynasty, which lasted for about 300 years and prospered due to open commerce and industry. Internal strife and external causes like natural catastrophes, on the other hand, severely undermined the dynasty by the time the Qing rose to attack.
In 1368, the Ming Dynasty claimed the Mandate of Heaven, which indicated that the “heavens” liked and desired them to govern. Zhu Yuanzhang was a major leader for the Ming Dynasty, which lasted for about 300 years and prospered due to open commerce and industry. Internal strife and external causes like natural catastrophes, on the other hand, severely undermined the dynasty by the time the Qing rose to attack.
10 deadliest wars in history
03. Taiping Rebellion
1850 – 1864
Casualities – 40-50 million
The Taiping Rebellion was a dramatic political and religious revolution that was perhaps the most significant event in China during the nineteenth century. It lasted 14 years (1850–64), devastated 17 provinces, killed an estimated 40 million people, and permanently changed the Qing dynasty. The revolt was led by Hong Xiuquan (1814–64), a dissatisfied civil service test applicant who, inspired by Christian beliefs, had a series of visions and thought himself to be the son of God, Jesus Christ’s younger brother, sent to reform China.
Hong joined Feng and the God Worshippers in 1847 and led them in revolt three years later. On January 1, 1851, he established his new dynasty, the Taiping Tianguo (“Heavenly Kingdom of Great Peace”), and took the title Tianwang, or “Heavenly King.”
Their philosophy of communal property drew many famine-stricken peasants, labourers, and miners, as did their rhetoric against China’s foreign Manchu overlords. Despite a large number of casualties, the war was a failure. During the Third Battle of Nanjing, Hong Xiuquan perished, and Nanjing fell. The 14-year civil war severely damaged the Qing dynasty, which would fall less than 50 years later.
10 deadliest wars in history
02. Mongol invasions and conquests
1206 – 1405
Casualties – 50-60 million
During the 13th and 14th centuries, Mongol invasions and conquests created history’s greatest continuous empire: the Mongol Empire, which by 1300 encompassed significant portions of Eurasia. Historians consider the Mongol destruction to be one of history’s worst catastrophes. Furthermore, Mongol incursions may have carried the bubonic plague across much of Eurasia, contributing to the 14th-century Black Death.
The Mongol Empire grew throughout the course of the 13th century through a series of successful wars across Asia, eventually reaching Eastern Europe in the 1240s. Genghis Khan established the first Mongol Empire in Central Asia, beginning with the union of the Mongol tribes of Merkits, Tartars, and Mongols.
It occupied 9 million square miles (23 million square kilometres) of territory at its height, making it the world’s most extensive contiguous land empire. However, the Mongol dynasty’s weakness during Kublai Khan’s reign allowed the Han Chinese Ming Dynasty to seize power in 1368. Russian princes gradually gained independence throughout the 14th and 15th centuries, and the Mongol Empire eventually collapsed.
10 deadliest wars in history
01. World War II
1939 – 1945
Casualties – 100 million
World War II, commonly known as the Second World War, was a battle that spanned nearly the whole globe from 1939 to 1945. The main combatants were the Axis countries (Germany, Italy, and Japan) and the Allies (France, the United Kingdom, the United States, the Soviet Union, and, to a lesser extent, China). The conflict was, in many ways, a continuation of the problems left unresolved by World War I, after an unsettling 20-year pause. World War II, like World War I, was a watershed moment in twentieth-century global history.
It resulted in the Soviet Union extending its authority to nations in Eastern Europe, allowing a communist movement to gain power in China eventually. It signalled a dramatic change in global power away from Western European governments and toward the United States and the Soviet Union.
World War II altered the world’s political alignment and socioeconomic structure. The United Nations (UN) was founded to promote international cooperation and to avert future wars. The Soviet Union and the United States emerged as opposing superpowers, kicking off the almost half-century Cold War. Following the destruction caused by Europe’s great powers, the dominance of its major powers diminished, resulting in the decolonization of Africa and Asia.
The majority of nations whose industries had been harmed began to recover and expand their economies. Political integration, particularly in Europe, began as an attempt to avert future wars, put an end to pre-war animosities, and establish a feeling of one identity.
Top 10 deadliest wars in history
This is the definitive list of the Top 10 deadliest wars in history, we hope that this list doesn’t extend and there be peace on earth with all goodwill for humanity. In this list, you can notice that wars brought casualties and raised the death tolls and made an everlasting impact on humanity. In addition, several conquest or wars brought great famine and pandemics, including the Great Spanish Flu and Black Death, which are among the greatest pandemics this world has ever seen.
Let’s hope we human beings realise the impact of wars and secure a beautiful world for the future generation; unfortunately, that hope is diminishing with the great border conflicts still controlling our lives. You can also learn about the Worst 10 border conflicts on this earth.