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Philosophers and social scientists have frequently noted the propensity of humans to commit violent acts not only as individuals but as groups. The twentieth century is a legacy of the ability of humanity to engage willingly in acts of warfare and atrocity.

Matthew White has conducted a study, based on figures quoted from a number of divergent and reliable sources to arrive at a conservative estimate of nearly 170 million lives lost to war and major atrocity in the last millenium. Because fatality statistics are subject to a great deal of uncertainty in turbulent times, White has opted to conservatism in his reporting of statistics. He also employs a commonly-used strategem which forces extreme values at the upper and lower ends of the data field to cancel each other out, resulting in a "best fit" value.

Using existing data, White categorizes these twentieth century events according to most reliable fatality data. While "minor" atrocities and civil conflicts will add to the number, this table compiles those conflicts whose death tolls are close to or exceed half a million souls.


Major bloodlettings of the Twentieth Century
RankDeathsEventTime Frame
150 000 000World War II1937-1945
240 000 000China: Mao Zedong's regime1949-1976
320 000 000USSR: Stalin's regime1924-1953
415 000 000World War I1914-1918
58 800 000Russian Civil War1918-1921
64 000 000China: Warlord & Nationalist Era1917-1937
73 000 000Congo Free State1900-1908
82 800 000Korean War I1950-1953
92 700 0002nd Indochina War (incl. Laos & Cambodia)1960-1975
102 500 000Chinese Civil War1945-1949
112 100 000German Expulsions after WW21945-1947
121 900 000Second Sudanese Civil War1983-continuing
131 700 000Congolese Civil War1998-continuing
141 000 000Cambodia: Khmer Rouge regime1975-1979
151 400 000Afghanistan Civil War1980-continuing
151 400 000Ethiopian Civil Wars1962-1992
171 250 000Mexican Revolution1910-1920
181 250 000East Pakistan massacres1971
191 000 000Iran-Iraq War1980-1988
191 000 000Nigeria: Biafra1967-1970
21800 000Mozambique Civil War1976-1992
21800 000Rwanda1994
23675 000French-Algerian War1954-1962
24600 000First Indochina War1945-1954
24600 000Angolan Civil War1975-1994
26500 000Indonesia: Massacre of Communistst1965-1967
26500 000India-Pakistan Partition1947
26500 000First Sudanese Civil War1955-1972
26500 000Amazonian Indian decline1900-1999
30365 000Spanish Civil War1936-1939
??>350 000Somalia1991-ongoing
??>400 000North Korea Communist regime1948-ongoing

These values are subject to the usual margins of error. They also include all varieties of atrocity: battle deaths, civilian casualties of war, democide, famine caused by the economic disruption, etc.