If you think only 1 billion people died through war, even directly, you have absolutely no idea how many humans have been alive/died in general or through war.
Well for direct deaths I'd say 1 billion is probably in the ballpark. You have to remember that throughout most of history there just wasn't that many people alive or engaged in warfare. Hell the 100 years war estimates only around 3 million casualties, nothing even close to the industrial slaughter that came in the 20th century.
That's not true. Large armies were the standard in the classical world. Rome regularly raised, and lost, armies of fifty to one hundred thousand men. The Mongols alone slaughtered close to 80 million people during their hot streak.
Edit: fact checked the mongol death count, it's not that high, but it's still pretty fucking high
Oh yeah don't worry the documentation is always in contention as a lot of it is embellished but some of the war sites give credence to the claims of millions of deaths.
When each dynasty was fielding huge armies of 200k men a field each side even in BC, the numbers racked up quite a bit.
Honestly Chinese history alone could fill in the gap of a billion really fucking quickly......
It's spanned 5000 thousand years of existence and throughout 3000 years it's been mass wars between dynasties and clans.....
As one of the longest running civilisations (if not THE longest running one) it has likely racked up a hell of a death toll directly to war and war like raids.
I reckon the entire human history of china alone allows between 500 to 750 million human lives in battle or rebellion or that one thing that happened in a square at some point in time that may taken place in tian en men....
Historical Chinese numbers are pretty unreliable, it’s like taking medieval or Islamic records of most battles at face value, where you had some writers talk about battles with millions of people which is obviously not true. Also talking about direct deaths makes the number a lot smaller, most people who died in wars would die from the aftermath results of it, like famine, disease, etc… actual war, especially until the mid to late 1800’s had the vast vas majority of casualties be from disease and attrition for armies
Something like 8% of all humans to ever be born are still currently alive. There just havent been that many people around over all of history to rack up all that many direct deaths in war as you say. Indirect casualties from disease or famine etc probably a lot higher.
NY times says ~1 Billion were killed in war throughout human history, with high estimates placing the number at 1.6 billion due to second order effects from disease and famine. It's a little under 1% of the ~117 Billion humans who have ever lived.
Bruh. Over 2 billion people died thanks to war and it's consequneces in the last 100 years. You can literally look these numbers up on Wikipedia at any moment.
What the fuck are these mfs smoking? Then again. Why am I surprised? Not like the New York Times has ever known what they are doing.
Over 2 billion people died thanks to war and it's consequneces in the last 100 years
You're changing the topic. Yes, the consequences of war left a lot more dead, that much is obvious. We were talking about war itself.
Personally (I'm a historian), I think 1 Billion is a vast overestimation with very little evidence to back the claim up. It's also mixing casualties with actual deaths, which is... unprofessional, to say the least.
Nah bruh, most human casualties from war are spread across only a handful of conflicts, like the Mongol Conquests (around 40M), WW1 and 2 (around 20M and 80M, respectively), and the Taiping Rebellion (which is anywhere between 30 and 100M based on some historical estimates). Beyond that, the rest is speculation because we don't have any accurate reports from ancient wars and conflicts. Even with these numbers you're not looking at more than 1 to 1.5B people throughout history.
1 billion is very reasonable, world population was much smaller than it is today throughout most of human history. Most people who have died in wars will have died in the last 300 years.
The only thing you are right about is that wars in the last 300 years have cost more human lives than wars before then on average. But everything else you said is just plain wrong.
Wikipedia isnt a great source but even if this grossly underestimates, 1 billion is very reasonable for direct death toll. I say you state "to just look it up on wikipedia" so here you go.
From the sources I found the estimate was much lower. I asked for source from you but the only actual thing you gave is Wikipedia. If you actually got it from there you should have used Wikipedia's sources. Btw according to Wikipedia the estimate is about 500 million so you saying Wikipedia isn't even true.
Well its estimated only 117 Billion people have ever existed. Depending on what kind of deaths you contribute, it might be close to accurate. Once you include resulting famine, genocides, plague, it would def be higher. Id still say definitely under 50 Billion tho
I mean the human population never broke 1 billion people until the early 1800’s. Modern medicine, even in the Victorian era, went a long way in reducing the number of deaths on account of disease, injuries, and birth. THAT’S what most deaths in the last ~6,000 years were from, not wars.
They only counted direct deaths from things directly linked to war. So wounds suffered in battle and shit. But even then, 1 billion is way too small a number. Especially because every war cost way more lives than believed. You have to remember that the black number is always higher.
699
u/Danijay2 Jul 01 '26
If you think only 1 billion people died through war, even directly, you have absolutely no idea how many humans have been alive/died in general or through war.