List of wars and anthropogenic disasters by death toll
This is a list of wars and anthropogenic disasters by death toll. Anthropogenic means caused by humans. The list covers the name of the event, location and the start and end of each event. Some events may belong in more than one category. In addition, some of the listed events overlap each other, and in some cases the death toll from a smaller event is included in the one for the larger event or time period of which it was part.
There is often large uncertainty about the number of deaths. The tables are initially sorted by the geometric mean, meaning the square root of the product of the lowest and highest estimate. For example,.
Wars and armed conflicts with highest estimated death tolls of 100,000 or more
This section lists all wars in which the highest estimated casualties exceed 100,000, this includes deaths of both soldiers, civilians, etc from causes both directly and indirectly caused by the war, which includes combat, disease, famine, massacres, suicide, and genocide.Event | Lowest estimate | Highest estimate | Geometric mean estimate | Location | From | Until | Duration | Notes, see also | ||||||||
Second World War | World War II casualties| | 1945 | 6 years and 1 day | Note: many victims included here come from before 1939, specifically in China. See also: World War II casualties. | ||||||||||||
Three Kingdoms | 36,000,000 | 40,000,000 | 37,947,332 | China | 96 years | Academically, the period of the Three Kingdoms refers to the period between the foundation of the state of Wei in 220 and the conquest of the state of Wu by the Jin dynasty in 280. The earlier, "unofficial" part of the period, from 184 to 220, was marked by chaotic infighting between warlords in various parts of China. | ||||||||||
Mongol conquests | + | 34641016 | Eurasia | 199 years | See also: Mongol Empire, Destruction under the Mongol Empire | |||||||||||
European colonization of the Americas | 8400000 | 138000000 | 34047026 | Americas | 199 years | Death toll estimates vary due to lack of consensus as to the demographic size of the native population pre-Columbus, which might never be accurately determined. The 90% death rate was mainly caused by disease. Vast depopulation contributed to Little Ice Age | ||||||||||
Taiping Rebellion | 10000000 | 100000000 | 31622777 | China | 14 years | See also: Qing dynasty | ||||||||||
Red Eyebrows | China | 28 years | See also: Xin Dynasty | |||||||||||||
Muslim conquests in the Indian subcontinent | + | India, Pakistan, Bangladesh | 1214 years. | The most violent invasions, however, only began in the 11th century with Mahmud Ghazni. The 60 to 80 million estimate is specifically made from 1000 to 1525 | China | 12 years | See also: Red Turban Rebellion | |||||||||
Transition from Ming to Qing | 25000000 | 25000000 | 25000000 | China | 65 years | See also: Qing dynasty | ||||||||||
Second Sino-Japanese War | 20000000 | 25000000 | 22360680 | China | 8 years | – Part of World War II | ||||||||||
An Lushan Rebellion | 13,020,000 | 36,000,000 | 21,633,308 | China | 8 years | Also known as the An–Shi rebellion, potentially the deadliest man-made disaster in human history in proportion of total world population at the time. | ||||||||||
First World War | World War I casualties| | Worldwide | 4 years, 3 months, 1 week | Note: Maximum estimate is counting the related 1918 influenza pandemic deaths | ||||||||||||
Conquests of Timur | 8000000 | 17000000 | 12649111 | Central Asia, Middle East and South Asia | 35 years | Up to 5% of the world's population at the time. | ||||||||||
Dungan Revolt | 8000000 | 12000000 | 9797959 | China | 15 years | See also: Qing dynasty | ||||||||||
Chinese Civil War | 8000000 | 11692000 | 9671401 | China | 22 years | |||||||||||
Reconquista | 7,000,000 | 7,000,000 | 7,000,000 | Iberian Peninsula | 781 years | Note: cannot be considered a single war | ||||||||||
Russian Civil War | 5000000 | 9000000 | 6708204 | Russia | 5 years | See also: Russian Revolution, List of civil wars | ||||||||||
Thirty Years' War | 3000000 | 11500000 | 5873670 | Holy Roman Empire, Europe | 30 years | Initially a religious war between Catholics and Protestants, it became a general European political war. It was one of the longest and most destructive conflicts in European history. | ||||||||||
Mughal–Maratha Wars | 5600000 | 5600000 | 5600000 | India | 27 years | |||||||||||
Napoleonic Wars | 3500000 | 7000000 | 4949747 | Europe, Atlantic, Pacific and Indian Ocean | 13 years | See also: Napoleonic Wars casualties | ||||||||||
Yellow Turban Rebellion | 3000000 | 7000000 | 4582576 | China | 184 | 205 | 22 years | – Part of the Three Kingdoms War | ||||||||
Second Congo War | 2500000 | 5400000 | 3674235 | Democratic Republic of the Congo | 6 years | |||||||||||
Korean War | 1500000 | 4500000 | 3000000 | Korean Peninsula | 4 years | Categorized as part of the Cold War. | ||||||||||
French Wars of Religion | 2000000 | 4000000 | 2828427 | France | 37 years | Largely a religious war between Catholics and Huguenots | ||||||||||
Indian Rebellion of 1857 | 800000 | 10000000 | 2828427 | India | 1 year | |||||||||||
Hundred Years' War | 2300000 | 3300000 | 2754995 | Western Europe | 116 years | Edwardian War, Caroline War, Lancastrian War | ||||||||||
Vietnam War | 966000 | 3800000 | 2383000 | Southeast Asia | 21 years | Cold War and First Indochina War | ||||||||||
Crusades | 1000000 | 3000000 | 2000000 | Holy Land, Europe | 196 years | Christian military excursions in the Middle East. | ||||||||||
Nigerian Civil War | 1000000 | 3000000 | 2000000 | Nigeria | 4 years | Ethnic cleansings of the Igbo people followed by Civil War. | ||||||||||
Mfecane | 1500000 | 2000000 | 1750000 | Southern Africa | 13 years | Ndwandwe–Zulu War | ||||||||||
Punic Wars | 1250000 | 1850000 | 1520691 | Mediterranean | 264 BC | 146 BC | 118 years | See also: Carthage, Roman Republic | ||||||||
Tây Sơn Rebellion | 900000 | 2000000 | 1500000 | Vietnam, Laos, Cambodia, South China Sea | 31 years | |||||||||||
Second Sudanese Civil War | 1000000 | 2000000 | 1414214 | Sudan | 23 years | First Sudanese Civil War | ||||||||||
Qin's wars of unification | 2000000 | 2000000 | 2000000 | China | 230 BC | 221 BC | 9 years | See also: History of China | ||||||||
Seven Years' War | 868000 | 1400000 | 1102361 | Worldwide | 7 years | |||||||||||
Soviet–Afghan War | 600000 | 2000000 | 1095445 | Afghanistan | 9 years | Sometimes categorized as a proxy war during the Cold War. – Part of the War in Afghanistan | ||||||||||
Japanese invasions of Korea | 1000000 | 1,000,000 | 1000000 | Korea | 7 years | |||||||||||
Mongol invasion of Vietnam | 700000 | 1200000 | 1000000 | Southeast Asia | 9 years | Mongol invasions and conquests | ||||||||||
French Revolutionary Wars | 1000000 | 1,000,000 | 1000000 | Worldwide | 10 years | |||||||||||
Mexican Revolution | 500000 | 2000000 | 1000000 | Mexico, United States | 10 years | Includes Pancho Villa's raids and the Columbus Raid. | ||||||||||
Italian conquest of the Horn of Africa | 1000000 | 1,000,000 | 1000000 | Horn of Africa | 16 years | |||||||||||
Panthay Rebellion | 890000 | 1000000 | 943398 | China | 18 years | |||||||||||
Wars of the Three Kingdoms | 876,000 | 876,000 | 876,000 | British Isles | 12 years | |||||||||||
Conquests of Mehmed the Conqueror | 873,000 | 873,000 | 873,000 | Eastern Europe | 30 years | |||||||||||
Ethiopian Civil War | 500000 | 1500000 | 866025 | Ethiopia | 17 years | |||||||||||
Jewish–Roman wars | 350000 | 2000000 | 836660 | Roman Empire | 70 years | See also: Roman Empire | ||||||||||
American Civil War | 650000 | 1000000 | 800000 | Southeastern United States and Pennsylvania | 4 years | See also: United States | ||||||||||
Algerian War | 350000 | 1500000 | 724569 | Algeria | 7 years, 4 months, 2 weeks, and 4 days | |||||||||||
War of the Spanish Succession | 400000 | 1251000 | 707389 | Europe, North America, South America | 12 years | |||||||||||
Spanish Civil War | 500000 | 1000000 | 707107 | Spain | 4 years | |||||||||||
Eighty Years' War | 230000 | 2000000 | 678233 | The Low Countries, South America, Caribbean Sea, East and Southeast Asia | 80 years | |||||||||||
Gallic Wars | 400000 | 1000000 | 632445 | France | 58 BC | 50 BC | 9 years | See also: Roman Empire | ||||||||
Spanish American wars of independence | 600,000 | 600,000 | 600,000 | Americas | 25 years | |||||||||||
Paraguayan War | 300000 | 1200000 | 600000 | Southern Cone | 7 years | Military history of South America, Francisco Solano López and Luís Alves de Lima e Silva, Duke of Caxias | ||||||||||
Iran–Iraq War | 289220 | 1100000 | 564041 | Iran–Iraq border | 8 years | Iran claims: 123,220 KIA + 11,000 civilians Iraq claims: 105,000 KIA + 50,000 in Kurdish Genocide Others claim 600,000 Iranians killed and 500,000 Iraqis | ||||||||||
French invasion of Russia | 540,000 | 540,000 | 540,000 | Russia | 5 months, 2 weeks and 6 days | – Part of the Napoleonic Wars | ||||||||||
Syrian Civil War | 500000 | 570000 | 535000 | Syria | Present | 8 years | ||||||||||
Lý-Song War | 375000 | 600000 | 530000 | Vietnam, China | 1077 | 2 years | ||||||||||
English Civil War | 356,000 | 735,000 | 511,527 | England | 9 years | – Part of the Wars of the Three Kingdoms | ||||||||||
Angolan Civil War | 504,158 | 504,158 | 504,158 | Angola | 27 years | |||||||||||
First Sudanese Civil War | 500,000 | 500,000 | 500,000 | Sudan | 17 years | |||||||||||
War on Terror | 480000 | 507000 | 493500 | Worldwide | Present | 18 years | Includes Iraq War, War in Afghanistan, War in North-West Pakistan and Operation Inherent Resolve | |||||||||
Albigensian Crusade | 200000 | 1000000 | 447214 | Southern France | 21 years | |||||||||||
First Congo War | 250,000 | 800,000 | 447,214 | Zaire | 1 year | |||||||||||
Maratha invasions of Bengal | 400,000 | 400,000 | 400,000 | India | 10 years | |||||||||||
First Indochina War | 400,000 | 400,000 | 400,000 | Southeast Asia | 8 years | Also known as the Indochina War | ||||||||||
Continuation War | 387,333 | 387,333 | 387,333 | Northern Europe | 3 years | – Part of World War II | ||||||||||
Somali Civil War | 300,000 | 500,000 | 387,298 | Somalia | Present | 32 years | ||||||||||
Crimean War | 356,000 | 410,000 | 382,047 | Crimea | 3 years | |||||||||||
Iraq War | 268000 | 461000 | 364500 | Iraq | 8 years | See also: Casualties of the Iraq War – Part of the War on Terror | ||||||||||
Cuban War of Independence | 362,000 | 362,000 | 362,000 | Cuba | 3 years | |||||||||||
Great Northern War | 350,000 | 350,000 | 350,000 | Northern and Eastern Europe | 21 years | |||||||||||
Italian Wars | 300,000 | 400,000 | 346,410 | Southern Europe | 65 years | Also known as the Great Wars of Italy | ||||||||||
French conquest of Algeria | 300,000 | 300,000 | 300,000 | Algeria | 18 years | |||||||||||
Burundian Civil War | 300,000 | 300,000 | 300,000 | Burundi | 12 years | |||||||||||
War in Darfur | 178,258 | 461,520 | 286,827 | Sudan | Present | 15 years | ||||||||||
Bangladesh Liberation War | 26000 | 3000000 | 500,000 | East Pakistan | 1 year | See also: Bangladeshi Genocide casualties | ||||||||||
Second Italo-Ethiopian War | 278,350 | 278,350 | 278,350 | Ethiopia | 1 year | Also known as the Second Italo–Abyssinian War | ||||||||||
Papua conflict | 150,000 | 400,000 | 244,949 | New Guinea | Present | 55 years | ||||||||||
Ten Years' War | 241,000 | 241,000 | 241,000 | Cuba | 10 years | Also known as the Great War | ||||||||||
Philippine–American War | 234,000 | 234,000 | 234,000 | Philippines | 13 years | Also known as the Philippine War | ||||||||||
Venezuelan War of Independence | 228,000 | 228,000 | 228,000 | Venezuela | 13 years | – Part of the Spanish American Wars of Independence | ||||||||||
Ugandan Bush War | 100,000 | 500,000 | 223,607 | Uganda | 5 years | Also known as the Luwero War | ||||||||||
Lord's Resistance Army insurgency | 100,000 | 500,000 | 223,607 | Central Africa | Present | 31 years | ||||||||||
Franco-Dutch War | 220,000 | 220,000 | 220,000 | Western Europe | 6 years | Also known as the Dutch War | ||||||||||
Colombian conflict | 220,000 | 220,000 | 220,000 | Colombia | Present | 54 years | ||||||||||
Iraqi-Kurdish conflict | 138,800 | 320,100 | 210,784 | Iraq | 85 years | |||||||||||
Campaigns of Suleiman the Magnificent | 200,000 | 200,000 | 200,000 | Eastern Europe, Middle East and North Africa | 25 years | |||||||||||
Franco-Spanish War | 200,000 | 200,000 | 200,000 | Western Europe | 24 years | |||||||||||
Carlist Wars | 200,000 | 200,000 | 200,000 | Spain | 56 years | |||||||||||
La Violencia | 192,700 | 194,700 | 193,697 | Colombia | 10 years | |||||||||||
Internal conflict in Myanmar | 130,000 | 250,000 | 180,278 | Myanmar | Present | 70 years | ||||||||||
Kalinga War | 150000 | 200000 | 173205 | India | 262 BC | 261 BC | 2 years | |||||||||
Winter War | 153,736 | 194,837 | 173,071 | Finland | 1 year | – Part of World War II | ||||||||||
Greek Civil War | 158,000 | 158,000 | 158,000 | Greece | 3 years | |||||||||||
North Yemen Civil War | 100,000 | 200,000 | 141,421 | Yemen | 8 years | |||||||||||
1991 uprisings in Iraq | 85,000 | 235,000 | 141,333 | Iraq | 1 month and 4 days | |||||||||||
Balkan Wars | 140,000 | 140,000 | 140,000 | Balkans | 1 year | |||||||||||
Anglo-Spanish War | 138,285 | 138,285 | 138,285 | Europe and Americas | 19 years | |||||||||||
Saint-Domingue Expedition | 135,000 | 135,000 | 135,000 | Haiti | 1 year | |||||||||||
Yugoslav Wars | 130,000 | 140,000 | 134,907 | Balkans | 10 years | |||||||||||
Lebanese Civil War | 120,000 | 150,000 | 134,164 | Lebanon | 15 years | |||||||||||
Sierra Leone Civil War | 50,000 | 300,000 | 122,474 | Sierra Leone | 11 years | |||||||||||
Great Turkish War | 120,000 | 120,000 | 120,000 | Eastern Europe | 16 years | Also known as the War of the Holy League | ||||||||||
Thousand Days War | 120,000 | 120,000 | 120,000 | Colombia | 3 years | |||||||||||
Moro conflict | 120,000 | 120,000 | 120,000 | Philippines | Present | 49 years | ||||||||||
Arab–Israeli conflict | 116,074 | 116,074 | 116,074 | Middle East | Present | 70 years | ||||||||||
Mexican Drug War | 106,800 | 106,800 | 106,800 | Mexico | Present | 12 years | Also known as the Mexican War on Drugs | |||||||||
Aceh War | 97,000 | 107,000 | 101,877 | Indonesia | 41 years | Also known as the Infidel War | ||||||||||
Bosnian War | 97,214 | 104,732 | 100,903 | Bosnia and Herzegovina | 4 years | – Part of the Yugoslav Wars | ||||||||||
German Peasants' War | 100,000 | 100,000 | 100,000 | Germany | 1 year | Also known as the Great Peasants' War | ||||||||||
Kurdish rebellions in Turkey | 100,000 | 100,000 | 100,000 | Middle East | Present | 97 years | ||||||||||
Congo Crisis | 100,000 | 100,000 | 100,000 | Republic of the Congo | 5 years | |||||||||||
Insurgency in Laos | 100,000 | 100,000 | 100,000 | Laos | 32 years | |||||||||||
Kivu Conflict | 100,000 | 100,000 | 100,000 | Democratic Republic of the Congo | Present | 14 years | – Part of the Second Congo War | |||||||||
Kashmir Conflict | 80,000 | 110,000 | 93,808 | North India, Pakistan | Present | 71 years | ||||||||||
Algerian Civil War | 44,000 | 200,000 | 93,808 | Algeria | 11 years | |||||||||||
Angolan War of Independence | 82,991 | 102,991 | 92,452 | Angola | 13 years | |||||||||||
Sri Lankan Civil War | 80,000 | 100,000 | 89,443 | Sri Lanka | 26 years | |||||||||||
Indian annexation of Hyderabad | 29,212 | 242,212 | 84,116 | India | 5 days | Also known as Operation Polo |
War crimes, massacres and ancient war atrocities
This section lists non-combatant deaths during wars that were committed or caused by military or quasi-military forces. They may not particularly target ethnic, religious, or political groups but are usually part of a military strategy that disregards civilian lives, or they may be arbitrary acts of cruelty.Event | Lowest estimate | Highest estimate | Geometric mean estimate | Location | From | Until | Duration | Notes |
War crimes during World War II | 29000000 | 30500000 | 29074054 | Worldwide | 1939 | 1945 | 6 years | See also: World War II casualties. |
Japanese war crimes | 3000000 | 14000000+ | 6480741 | In and around East and South East Asia, Oceania and the Pacific | 1931 | 1945 | 8 years | Japanese war crimes occurred in many Asian and Pacific countries during the period of Japanese imperialism, primarily during the Second Sino-Japanese War and World War II. If total casualties for these conflicts are assigned exclusively to Japanese aggression the toll could reach some 30 million deaths. These incidents have also been described as an Asian Holocaust and Japanese war atrocities. Some war crimes were committed by military personnel from the Empire of Japan in the late 19th century, although most took place during the first part of the Shōwa Era, the name given to the reign of Emperor Hirohito, until the surrender of the Empire of Japan, in 1945. |
Three Alls Policy | 2700000 | 2700000 | 2700000 | China | 1940 | 1942 | 2 years | In a study published in 1996, historian Mitsuyoshi Himeta claims that the Three Alls Policy, a scorched-earth policy implemented by the Imperial Japanese Army on China, sanctioned by Emperor Hirohito himself, was both directly and indirectly responsible for the deaths of "more than 2.7 million" Chinese civilians. |
War crimes during the Chinese Civil War | 1800000 | 3500000 | 2509980 | China | 1927 | 1950 | 23 years | During the war, both Nationalists and Communists carried out mass atrocities, with millions of non-combatants deliberately killed by both sides. |
War crimes during the First and Second Sudanese Civil Wars | 2000000 | 2000000 | 2000000 | Sudan | 1956 | 2005 | 49 years | |
War crimes during the Soviet–Afghan War | 500000 | 2000000 | 1000000 | Afghanistan | 1979 | 1989 | 10 years | Some refer to the mass murder of civilians during the Soviet Invasion as a genocide, however those killed were on the basis of political alignment making it a politicide. |
War crimes of Zhang Xianzhong | 1000000 | 1000000 | 1000000 | Sichuan, China | 1644 | 1646 | 2 years | Committed during a bloody peasant revolt that massacred a large portion of Sichuan's population. |
War crimes during Warlord Era China | 910000 | 910000 | 910000 | China | 1900 | 1927 | 27 years | |
War crimes during the Second Italo-Ethiopian War | 62000 | 485000 | 173407 | Ethiopia | 1935 | 1941 | 6 years | Angelo Del Boca, The Ethiopian War 1935–1941, cites a 1945 memorandum from Ethiopia to the Conference of Prime Ministers, which tallies 760,300 natives dead; of them: battle deaths: 275,000, hunger among refugees: 300,000, patriots killed during occupation: 78,500, concentration camps: 35,000, Feb. 1937 massacre: 30,000, executions: 24,000, civilians killed by air force: 17,800. |
Mongol sacking after the Siege of Baghdad | 200000 | 2000000 | 632456 | Baghdad | January 29, 1258 | February 10, 1258 | 12 days | Mass slaughter of civilians by the Mongols in Baghdad. Considered to be the end of the "Islamic Golden Age." |
War crimes during the Angolan Civil War | 500000 | 500000 | 500000 | Angola | 1975 | 2002 | 27 years | The 27-year war can be divided roughly into three periods of major fighting – 1975–91, 1992–94, and 1998 to 2002 – broken up by fragile periods of peace. By the time the MPLA achieved victory in 2002, more than 500,000 people had died and over one million had been internally displaced. The war devastated Angola's infrastructure, and severely damaged the nation's public administration, economic enterprises, and religious institutions. |
Biological warfare and human experimentation by the Imperial Japanese Army during World War II | 580000 | 481664 | Parts of Russia and China especially Manchuria | 1931 | 1945 | 14 years | See also: Unit 731 and the Asian Holocaust. | |
War crimes during the Maratha invasions of Bengal | 400000 | 400000 | 400000 | Bengal and Bihar regions of Indian subcontinent | 1741 | 1751 | 10 years | Maratha Empire invaded Bengal Subah, occupied the western Bengal and Bihar regions, and perpetrated atrocities against the local population. |
War crimes during La Violencia | 200000 | 300000 | 244949 | Colombia | 1948 | 1958 | 10 years | La Violencia was a ten-year period of civil war and violence in Colombia from 1948–58, between the Colombian Conservative Party and the Colombian Liberal Party, fought mainly in the rural countryside. Death toll may include non-civilian victims. |
War crimes during the Philippine–American War | 200000 | 250000 | 223607 | Philippines | 1899 | 1902 | 3 years | |
Manila Massacre | 100000 | 500000 | 223607 | Manila, Philippines | 1 month | |||
War crimes during the Colombian conflict | 177307 | 177307 | 177307 | Colombia | 1964 | present | 54 years | |
War crimes during the War in the Vendée | 100000 | 250000 | 158114 | France during the French Revolution | 3 years | Described as genocide by some historians, but this claim has been debated. See also: French Revolution. | ||
War crimes during the First and Second Chechen Wars | 55000 | 330000 | 134722 | Chechnya | 1994 | 2009 | 15 years | |
War crimes during the Iran–Iraq War | 61000 | 282000 | 131156 | Iran and Iraq | 1980 | 1988 | 8 years | 11,000 to 100,000 civilians killed on both sides, plus 50 to 182 killed in Kurdish Genocide. |
War crimes committed by South Vietnam during the Diem era and Vietnam War | 42000 | 118000 | 80000 | Vietnam | 1954 | 1975 | 21 years | |
War crimes during the Syrian Civil War | 106390 | 110,218 | 108287 | Syria | 2011 | present | 7 years | See also: List of massacres during the Syrian Civil War |
War crimes of the Viet Cong | 36725 | 227000 | 91305 | Vietnam | 1955 | 1975 | 20 years | - |
War crimes during the Second Italo-Senussi War | 80000 | 125000 | 100000 | Libya | 1923 | 1932 | 9 years | Specific war crimes alleged to have been committed by the Italian armed forces against civilians include deliberate bombing of civilians, killing unarmed children, women, and the elderly; rape and disembowelment of women; throwing prisoners out of aircraft to their death, running over others with tanks, regular daily executions of civilians in some areas, and bombing tribal villages with mustard gas bombs, beginning in 1930. |
War crimes of the Lord's Resistance Army | 100000 | 100000 | 100000 | Uganda, Central African Republic, and the Democratic Republic of Congo | 1986 | 2009 | 23 years | The Guardian reported in 2015 that Kony's forces had been responsible for the deaths of over 100,000 people and the kidnapping of at least 60,000 children. Various atrocities committed include raping young girls and abducting them for use as sex slaves. |
War crimes of the National Islamic Front | 100000 | 100000 | 100000 | Sudan | 1964 | 1999 | 35 years | Alleged human rights abuses by the NIF regime included war crimes, ethnic cleansing, a revival of slavery, torture of opponents, and an unprecedented number of refugees fleeing into Uganda, Kenya, Eritrea, Egypt, Europe and North America. |
War crimes during the Papua conflict | 100000 | 100000 | 100000 | West Papua | 1963 | present | 55 years | Since Indonesia has taken control of West Papua in 1963, the population of West Papua has recorded more than 100,000 unnatural deaths. The administration of West Papua has been called a police state. |
War crimes during the Kashmir Conflict | 47000 | 100000 | 68556 | Jammu and Kashmir, India | 1947 | present | 71 years | See also: Human Rights Abuses in Jammu and Kashmir, Insurgency in Jammu and Kashmir, List of massacres in Jammu and Kashmir |
The Rape of Nanking | 13000 5000 | 400000 100000 | 72111 22361 | Nanking, China | 1 year | The Nanking Massacre, commonly known as the Rape of Nanking, was a war crime committed by the Japanese military in Nanjing, then capital of the Republic of China, after it fell to the Imperial Japanese Army on December 13, 1937. See: Death toll of the Nanking Massacre. | ||
War crimes during the Internal conflict in Peru | 61007 | 77552 | 68784 | Peru | 20 years | In the late 20th century, the Peruvian government fought against communist terrorists in Peru. The principal actors in the war were the Communist Party of Peru or "Shining Path" and the government of Peru; the Tupac Amaru Revolutionary Movement was also involved and other paramilitary entities. Peru's Truth and Reconciliation Commission reached a figure of approx. 68,784 deaths and disappearances, of which 54% were ascribed to Shining Path, 1.5% to Tupac Amaru and 37% to State officials, who were also responsible for 83% of reported cases of sexual violence, and systematic use of torture. An academic research published in 2019 contests the Commission's methodology, reaching a total figure of approx. 47,849, of which 27,872 were victims of State officials, 18,341 of the Shining Path, and 1,636 by all other actors. | ||
War crimes during the Sheikh Said rebellion | 15,000 20,000 | 40,000 250,000 | 24,495 70,711 | Turkey | 1925 | 1925 | 1 month | The Sheikh Said Rebellion was a rebellion to revive the Islamic Caliphate System, and used elements of Kurdish nationalism for recruiting. It was led by Sheikh Said and a group of former Ottoman soldiers, known as Hamidiye soldiers. The rebellion was of two Kurdish groups, the Zaza people and the speakers of the related Kurmanji dialect of Kurdish: it "was led specifically by the Zaza population and received almost full support in the entire Zaza region and some of the neighbouring Kurmanji-dominated regions". |
Violations of Human rights in ISIL-controlled territory | Iraq, Syria, Afghanistan, Libya, Egypt, the Philippines, Nigeria and sporadic terrorism worldwide | 2014 | present | 7 years | ISIS has existed as an active terrorist organization in one form or another since at least 2003. Many tens of thousands of casualties in the Iraqi wars of the 21st century can be attributed to them and their parent organizations, such as Jama'at al-Tawhid wal-Jihad. See also the specific death tolls from 2014 onwards in International military intervention against ISIL or in the Iraqi Body Count website. | |||
War Crimes during the Sri Lankan Civil War | 7000 | 40000 | 16733 | Sri Lanka | 1983 | 2009 | 26 years | There are allegations that war crimes were committed by the Sri Lankan military and the rebel Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam during the Sri Lankan Civil War, particularly during the final months of the Eelam War IV phase in 2009. The alleged war crimes include attacks on civilians and civilian buildings by both sides; executions of combatants and prisoners by both sides; enforced disappearances by the Sri Lankan military and paramilitary groups backed by them; acute shortages of food, medicine, and clean water for civilians trapped in the war zone; and child recruitment by the Tamil Tigers. |
Sack of Thessalonica | 15000 | 15000 | 15000 | Byzantine Empire | 904 | 904 | ? | The sack of the second city of the Byzantine Empire by a Muslim fleet under the command of Leo of Tripoli. In addition to the thousands killed, the Saracen fleet also took 20,000 Greek slaves. |
Use of child soldiers in Iran during the Iran–Iraq war | 6000 | 18000 | 10392 | Iran | 1980 | 1988 | 8 years | 3% of two to six hundred thousand casualties. |
Massacres during the Algerian Civil War | 10000 | 10000 | 10000 | Algeria | 1991 | 2002 | 11 years | |
War crimes during the Russian military intervention in the Syrian Civil War | 8085 | 8085 | 8085 | Syria | September 2015 | present | 4 years | See also: Russian military intervention in the Syrian Civil War. |
War crimes during the Balochistan conflict | 7628 | 7628 | 7628 | Balochistan, Pakistan | 1937 | present | 81 years | |
September 11 attacks | 2977 | 2977 | 2977 | United States | September 11, 2001 | September 11, 2001 | 1 day | |
War crimes during the War in Donbass | 2000 | 2000 | 2000 | Donbass, Ukraine | 2014 | present | 4 years | |
Sabra and Shatila massacre | 460 | 3500 | 1269 | West Beirut, Lebanon | September 16, 1982 | September 18, 1982 | 2 days | Massacre of a Palestinian refugee camp by Lebanese Christians. |
Fort Pillow massacre | 235 | 235 | 235 | Lauderdale County, Tennessee | April 12, 1864 | April 12, 1864 | 1 day | Death toll includes both U.S. and Confederate dead. U.S. dead includes those both killed in combat and murdered by the Confederates afterwards. |
Lawrence massacre | 204 | 204 | 204 | Douglas County, Kansas | August 21, 1863 | August 21, 1863 | 1 day | Death toll includes both U.S. and Confederate dead. Deadliest terrorist attack in U.S. history until the Oklahoma City bombing of 1995. |
Genocides, ethnic cleansing, and mass ethnic and/or religious persecution
This section lists events that entail the mass murder of individuals on the basis of race, religion, or ethnicity.Political purges and repressions
This section lists events that entail the mass killings of political opposition.See also: Red Terror, White Terror, and Politicide.
Event | Lowest estimate | Highest estimate | Geometric mean estimate | Location | From | Until | Duration | Notes |
Mass killings of landlords under Mao Zedong | 200000 | 6000000 | 4732864 | People's Republic of China | 1947 | 1951 | 4 years | Millions of landlords were killed during land reforms before the formation of the People's Republic of China because they were seen as class enemies. See also: Struggle session |
Cultural Revolution | 400000 | 10000000 | 2000000 | People's Republic of China | 1966 | 1976 | 10 years | The Cultural Revolution, formally the Great Proletarian Cultural Revolution, was a sociopolitical movement that took place in the People's Republic of China from 1966 until 1976. Set into motion by Mao Zedong, then Chairman of the Communist Party of China, its stated goal was to preserve 'true' Communist ideology in the country by purging remnants of capitalist and traditional elements from Chinese society. See also: Struggle session |
Indonesian mass killings of 1965–66 | 500000 | 3000000 | 1224745 | Indonesia | 1965 | 1966 | 1 year | Massacres of people connected to the Indonesian Communist Party were carried out in 1965–66 by the Indonesian Army and associated death squads with support from Western powers such as the United States. Death tolls are difficult to estimate, but it is widely accepted by scholars that roughly 1 million people were killed. |
Campaign to Suppress Counterrevolutionaries | 712000 | 2000000 | 1193315 | People's Republic of China | 1950 | 1951 | 1 year | The Campaign to Suppress Counterrevolutionaries was the first political campaign launched by the People's Republic of China designed to eradicate opposition elements, especially former Kuomintang functionaries accused of trying undermine the new Communist government. |
Great Purge | 681692 | 1704230 | 1077850 | Soviet Union | 1936 | 1938 | 2 years | The Great Purge or Great Terror was a period of intense political repression in the Soviet Union including execution and forced labor through the Gulag system. |
White Terror | 300000 | 300000 | 300000 | Former Russian Empire | 1917 | 1923 | 6 years | Political repression by the White movement during the Russian Civil War. |
White Terror | 150000 | 400000 | 244949 | Spain during and after the Spanish Civil War | 1936 | 1945 | 9 years | In Spain, the White Terror was the series of acts of politically motivated violence, rape, and other crimes committed by the Nationalist movement during the Spanish Civil War and during Francisco Franco's dictatorship |
Qey Shibir | 750000 | 150000 | People's Democratic Republic of Ethiopia | 1977 | 1978 | 1 year | Violent purge of those deemed Anti-Communist in Ethiopia. | |
Bodo League Massacre | 100000 | 200000 | 141421 | Korea | 1950 | 1950 | ? | Massacre of communists and suspected communists during the summer of 1950, at the start of Korean War. |
German suppression of the Freemasons | 80000 | 200000 | 126491 | German-occupied territory | 1933 | 1945 | 12 years | The Nazi regime of Germany targeted Freemasons as they saw them as collaborators in a Jewish conspiracy. |
Red Terror | 10000 | 1500000 | 122474 | Former Russian Empire during Russian Civil War | 1918 | 1922 | 4 years | Political repression by the Bolsheviks during the Russian Civil War. |
1991 uprisings in Iraq | 25000 | 180000 | 67082 | Iraq | March the 1st, 1991 | April the 5th, 1991 | 1 month and 4 days | The death toll of the uprising against Saddam Hussein's government during 1991 was high throughout the country. The rebels killed many Ba'athist officials and officers. In response, thousands of unarmed civilians were killed by indiscriminate fire from loyalist tanks, artillery and helicopters, and many historical and religious structures in the south were deliberately targeted under orders from Saddam Hussein. Saddam's security forces entered the cities, often using women and children as human shields, where they detained and summarily executed or "disappeared" thousands of people at random in a policy of collective responsibility. Many suspects were tortured, raped, or burned alive. |
Operation Condor | 50000 | 80000 | 63246 | South America | 1975 | 1983 | 8 years | A campaign of political repression by right-wing dictatorships in South America, sponsored by the United States. |
Red Terror | 38000 | 72344 | 52432 | Spain during the Spanish Civil War | 1936 | 1939 | 3 years | The Red Terror in Spain is the name given by historians to various acts of violence committed from 1936 until the end of the Spanish Civil War "by sections of nearly all the leftist groups". |
Land Reform in Vietnam | 13500 | 200000 | 51962 | North Vietnam | 1954 | 1956 | 2 years | |
Reign of Terror | 16594 | 41594 | 26272 | France during the French Revolution | 1793 | 1794 | 1 year | The Reign of Terror was a period of violence that occurred after the onset of the French Revolution, incited by conflict between two rival political factions, the Girondins and The Jacobins, and marked by mass executions of "enemies of the revolution". |
1982 Hama Massacre | 10000 | 40000 | 20000 | Hama, Syria | February 2, 1982 | February 28, 1982 | 26 days | The Hama massacre occurred in February 1982, when the Syrian Arab Army and the Defense Companies, under the orders of the country's president Hafez al-Assad, besieged the town of Hama for 27 days in order to quell an uprising by the Muslim Brotherhood against al-Assad's government. |
1932 Salvadoran peasant massacre | 10000 | 40000 | 20000 | El Salvador | January 22, 1932 | July 11, 1932 | 6 months and 20 days | Many of the victims were indigenous people. |
February 28 Incident | 10000 | 30000 | 17320 | Taiwan | 1947 | 1947 | ? | Crackdown by the Kuomintang government that ushered in the White Terror era. |
Dirty War | 9000 | 30000 | 16432 | Argentina | 1976 | 1983 | 7 years | At least 9,000 people were tortured and killed in Argentina from 1976 to 1983, carried out primarily by the Argentinean military Junta. |
Red and White terrors of the Finnish Civil War | 11650 | 11650 | 11650 | Finland | 1918 | 1918 | 3 months, 2 weeks and 4 days | Both sides of the Finnish Civil War used Terrors where 10,000 were killed in the White Terror and 1,650 were killed in the Red Terror. |
1988 executions of Iranian political prisoners | 4482 | 30000 | 11596 | Iran | 1988 | 1988 | 5 months | Massacre of political prisoners in Iran. |
White Terror | 3000 | 4000 | 3464 | Taiwan | 1949 | 1987 | 38 years | An era of martial law in Taiwan in which 140,000 where imprisoned, and 3,000 to 4,000 were executed for real or perceived opposition to the Kuomintang. |
1989 Tiananmen Square protests crackdown | 241 | 10000 | 3000 | Tiananmen Square, People's Republic of China | 1989 | 1989 | 1 month, 2 weeks and 6 days | Crackdown of anti-government protest in the People's Republic of China. |
Human rights violations in Pinochet's Chile | 1200 | 3200 | 1960 | Chile | 1974 | 1990 | 16 years | 1,200 to 3,200 alleged communists were executed, 80,000 were forcibly interned and 30,000 were tortured under the reign of Augusto Pinochet. |
Forced labor, abuse of workers, and slave trades
This section lists deaths caused by poor labor conditions, executions for not performing labor satisfactorily, and deaths caused by mistreatment of the workforce both in transit and at work locations.Event | Lowest estimate | Highest estimate | Geometric mean estimate | Location | From | Until | Duration | Notes |
Arab slave trade | 7545000 | 70000000 | 22981514 | Middle East, North Africa, and the Horn of Africa | 700s | 1899 | more than 1100 years | 1500 to 1899:
|
Laogai system | 15000000 | 27000000 | 20124610 | China | 1945 | 1976 | 31 years | Laogai, the abbreviation for Láodòng Gǎizào, which means "reform through labor", is a slogan of the Chinese criminal justice system and has been used to refer to the use of penal labour and prison farms in the People's Republic of China, which once took up more than half of the world's slaves. Laogai is different from laojiao, or re-education through labor, which was an administrative detention for a person who was not a criminal but had committed minor offenses, and was intended to reform offenders into law-abiding citizens. Persons detained under laojiao were detained in facilities that were separate from the general prison system of laogai. Both systems, however, involved penal labor. |
Atlantic Slave Trade | 2000000 | 60000000 | 10954451 | Africa, the Americas, and the Atlantic | 1500s | 1700s | 200 years | |
Slavery in the Ottoman Empire | 10500000 | 11250000 | 10868533 | Eurasia, Middle East, North Africa | 1450 | 1800 | 350 years | There is no concrete number for the number of people killed due to the Barbary Slave Trade. The method many people use is to estimate the mortality rate of slave raids and multiply them by the number people took as slaves. Scholars estimates 3 people were killed for every 1 slave abducted. Includes Barbary Slave Trade. |
Atrocities in the Congo Free State | 3000000 | 13000000 | 6244998 | Congo Free State | 23 years | Private forces under the control of Leopold II of Belgium carried out mass murders, mutilations, and other crimes against the Congolese in order to encourage the gathering of valuable raw materials, principally rubber. Significant deaths also occurred due to major disease outbreaks and starvation, caused by population displacement and poor treatment. Estimates of the death toll vary considerably because of the lack of a formal census before 1924, but a commonly cited figure of 10 million deaths was obtained by estimating a 50% decline in the total population during the Congo Free State and applying it to the total population of 10 million in 1924. | ||
Gulag system | 1053829 | 6000000 | 2514552 | Soviet Union | 1930s | 1950s | 20 years | Gulag is an acronym for the organization that administered the forced labor system in the Soviet Union that became a colloquialism in the west for the camps themselves. The system was used to punish criminals, political dissidents, and prisoners of war. There is a growing consensus among scholars that, based on archival data, the number of deaths in the gulag system fall within the range 1.5 to 1.7 million. |
Forced labor in North Korea | 400000 | 1500000 | 774597 | North Korea | 1972 | ongoing | 46 years | |
Hacienda peonage and chattel slavery | 173000 | 2015000 | 590419 | Mexico | 1900 | 1920 | 20 years | R.J. Rummel, coiner of the word "Democide," estimated the mortality rate for Mexican Peonage, a form of debt labor, by comparing it to similar forced labor systems such as the Soviet Gulag, and then applying and reducing it accordingly to the population of Mexico at the time, coming up with an annual death rate of 69,000. |
Forced labor of Koreans by Imperial Japan | 270000 | 810000 | 467654 | Korea and Manchuria | 1939 | 1945 | 6 years | |
Slavery in the French colonial empire | 200000 | 13000000 | 1612452 | Africa | 1900 | 1940 | 40 years | |
Slavery in Portugal | 325000 | 325000 | 325000 | Portuguese Empire | 1900 | 1925 | 25 years | |
Barbary slave trade | 245000 | 380000 | 305123 | Italy, Spain, and Portugal | 1500s | 1600s | 100 years | – Part of Slavery in the Ottoman Empire |
Slavery during the Amazon rubber boom | 250000 | 250000 | 250000 | Amazon, Brazil | 1900 | 1912 | 12 years | |
Construction of the Burma Railway | 102621 | 102621 | 102621 | Burma | 1943 | 1947 | 4 years | Forced labour was used in the construction of the Burma Railway. More than 180,000 Southeast Asian civilian labourers and 60,000 Allied prisoners of war worked on the railway. Of these, estimates of Romusha deaths are little more than guesses, but probably about 90,000 died. 12,621 Allied POWs died during the construction. The dead POWs included 6,904 British personnel, 2,802 Australians, 2,782 Dutch, and 133 Americans. |
Construction of the Suez Canal | 30000 | 120000 | 67082 | Egypt, and Sudan | 1859 | 1868 | 9 years | French diplomat Ferdinand de Lesseps had obtained many concessions from Isma'il Pasha, the Khedive of Egypt and Sudan in 1854–56 to build the Suez Canal. Some sources estimate the workforce at 30,000, but others estimate that 120,000 workers died over the ten years of construction due to malnutrition, fatigue, and disease, especially cholera. |
Forced labor of Chinese contract workers in Peru | 40000 | 50054 | 44746 | Peru | 1849 | 1874 | 26 years | 80,000 to 100,000 Chinese contract laborers, 95% of which were Cantonese and almost all of which were male, were sent mostly to the sugar plantations from 1849 to 1874, during the termination of slavery. They were to provide continuous labor for the coastal guano mines and especially for the coastal plantations where they became a major labor force until the end of the century. While the coolies were believed to be reduced to virtual slaves, they also represented a historical transition from slave to free labor. A third group of Chinese workers was contracted for the construction of the railway from Lima to La Oroya and Huancayo. Chinese migrants were barred from using cemeteries reserved for Roman Catholics, and were instead buried at pre-Incan burial sites. Between 1849 and 1874 half the Chinese population of Peru perished due to abuse, exhaustion, and suicide caused by forced labor. |
Forced labor of Allied POWs during World War II | 35000 | 35000 | 35000 | In and around the Pacific | 1939 | 1945 | 6 years | According to the Japanese military's own record, nearly 25% of 140,000 Allied POWs died while interned in Japanese prison camps, where they were forced to work. |
FIFA World Cup related abuses of Human rights in Qatar | 1200 | 1800 | 1342 | Qatar | 2013 | ongoing | 5 years | Out of at least 100,000 laborers. |
Anthropogenically exacerbated outbreaks of disease and famine
This section includes famines and disease outbreaks that were caused or exacerbated by human action.Note: Some of these famines diseases were partially caused by nature.
Event | Lowest estimate | Highest estimate | Geom. mean estimate | Location | From | Until | Duration | Notes |
Great Chinese Famine | 11600000 | 55000000 | 25258662 | China | 1958 | 1962 | 4 years | During the Great Leap Forward under Mao Zedong tens of millions of Chinese starved to death. State violence during this period further exacerbated the death toll, and some 2.5 million people were beaten or tortured to death in connection with Great Leap policies. |
Famine and disease caused by World War II | 19000000 | 28000000 | 23065130 | Worldwide | 1939 | 1945 | 6 years | See also: World War II casualties |
All famines in India under British influence | + | India | 1757 | 1947 | 190 years | Up to 80 million Indians died of starvation while India was under British rule, either during the rule of the. Millions of tonnes of wheat were exported to Britain as famine raged. Forced cultivation of opium, ruthless taxation and the destruction of traditional industry contributed massively to these disasters. | ||
Famine and disease caused by Japanese imperialism | 8136000 | 14936000 | 11023579 | Japanese Empire | 1937 | 1945 | 8 years | Combined death tolls from famine and disease from China, Vietnam, Indonesia, and the Philippines. |
Northern Chinese Famine of 1876–79 | 9000000 | 13000000 | 10816650 | China | 1876 | 1879 | 3 years | ENSO famine. |
Great Bengal famine of 1770 | 10000000 | 10000000 | 10000000 | British Bengal | 1769 | 1773 | 4 years | The famine killed a third of the Bengali population at the time. It is attributed to the policies of the ruling British East India Company. |
Russian famine of 1921 –22 | 5000000 | 10000000 | 7071072 | Soviet Russia | 1921 | 1922 | 1 year | May have been exacerbated by War Communism policies, but it is debatable to which extent. See also: Droughts and famines in Russia and the Soviet Union, and Russian Civil War, with its policy of War communism, especially prodrazvyorstka. |
Famine and disease caused by the Second Sino-Japanese War | 5000000 | 10000000 | 7071068 | China | 1937 | 1945 | 8 years | See also: World War II casualties. |
Soviet famine of 1932–33 | 4400000 | 9100000 | 6327717 | Soviet Union | 1932 | 1933 | 1 year | The majority of famine victims were Ukrainian. Many nations, including Ukraine, regard the famine's effect in the Ukraine as a genocide against Ukraine, known as the Holodomor. 1.8 – 4.8 million: Ukraine 600,000 – 2.3 million: Kazakhstan 2 million: Elsewhere |
Famine and disease caused by World War I | 5411000 | 6100000 | 5745181 | Worldwide | 1914 | 1918 | 4 years | See also: World War I casualties. |
Great Famine of 1876–78 | 6100000 | 10320000 | 8300000 | British India | 1876 | 1878 | 2 years | ENSO famine. See also: Late Victorian Holocausts. |
Famine and disease caused by the Second Congo War | 3800000 | 5400000 | 4529901 | Africa | 1998 | 2004 | 6 years | Majority of those who died in war perished from famine and disease. |
Iranian famine of 1917–1919 | 2000000 | 10000000 | 4472136 | Iran | 1917 | 1919 | 3 years | The Persian famine of 1917–1919 was a period of widespread mass starvation and disease in Persia. The famine took place in the occupied territory of Iran that had declared neutrality. According to the estimates acknowledged, 2–10 million people died of hunger and disease. A variety of factors are commented to have caused and contributed to the famine such as war profiteering, and poor harvests but mainly requisitioning and confiscation of foodstuffs by the occupying Russian and British armies. |
Bengal famine of 1943 | 3000000 | 4000000 | 3464100 | British India | 1943 | 1944 | 1 year | The Japanese conquest of Burma cut off India's main supply of rice imports, however, war-related administrative policies in British India ultimately helped to cause the massive death toll. |
Indian famine of 1896–97 and the Indian famine of 1899–1900 | 8400000 | 19000000 | 13700000 | British India | 1896 | 1900 | 4 years | ENSO famines. See also: Late Victorian Holocausts. |
Famine and diseased caused by the Biafran Blockade during Nigeria's Civil War | 2000000 | 3000000 | 2449490 | Nigeria | 1967 | 1970 | 3 years | More than two million Igbo died from the famine imposed deliberately through blockades during the war. Lack of medicine also contributed. Thousands starved to death daily as the war progressed. |
Famine and disease during the Japanese occupation of the Dutch East Indies | 2400000 | 2400000 | 2400000 | Indonesia | 1944 | 1945 | 1 year | An estimated 2.4 million Indonesians starved to death during the Japanese occupation of Indonesia. The problem was partly caused by failures of the main 1944–45 rice crop, but the main cause was the compulsory rice purchasing system that the Japanese authorities put in place to secure rice for distribution to the armed forces and urban population. |
Soviet famine of 1946–47 | 1000000 | 1500000 | 1224745 | Soviet Union | 1946 | 1947 | 1 year | Debated as to whether it was caused by war or government policy. |
Great Irish Famine | 750000 | 1500000 | 1060660 | Ireland | 1846 | 1849 | 3 years | Although blight ravaged potato crops throughout Europe during the 1840s, the impact and human cost in Ireland, where a third of the population was significantly dependent on the Irish Lumper potato for food, was exacerbated by a host of political, social and economic factors, which continue to remain the subject of historical debate. |
Vietnamese Famine of 1945 | 400000 | 2000000 | 894427 | Vietnam | 1944 | 1945 | 1 year | The Japanese occupation during World War II caused the famine in North Vietnam. |
Cambodian Holocaust Famine | 800000 | 950000 | 871780 | Cambodia | 1975 | 1979 | 4 years | An estimated 2 million Cambodians lost their lives to murder, forced labor, and famine, perpetrated by the Khmer Rouge, nearly half of which was caused by forced starvation. Came to an end due to invasion by Vietnam in 1979. |
1983–85 famine in Ethiopia | 400000 | 1000000 | 632456 | Ethiopia | 1983 | 1985 | 2 years | The famines that struck Ethiopia between 1961 and 1985, especially the one of 1983–1985, were in large part created by government policies. |
Famine and disease during the Japanese occupation of the Philippines | 336000 | 336000 | 336000 | Philippines | 1942 | 1945 | 3 years | See also: World War I casualties. |
North Korean famine | 240000 | 420000 | 330000 | North Korea | 1994 | 1998 | 4 years | The famine stemmed from a variety of factors. Economic mismanagement and the loss of Soviet support caused food production and imports to decline rapidly. A series of floods and droughts exacerbated the crisis, but were not its direct cause. The North Korean government and its centrally-planned system proved too inflexible to effectively curtail the disaster. Recent research suggests the likely number of excess deaths between 1993 and 2000 was about 330,000. |
Cuban War of Independence Famine | 300000 | 300000 | 300000 | Cuba | 1895 | 1898 | 3 years | Most of dead in this war perished from famine and disease. |
Great Famine of Mount Lebanon | 200000 | 200000 | 200000 | Mount Lebanon, Ottoman Empire | 1915 | 1918 | 3 years | Around 200,000 people starved to death at a time when the population of Mount Lebanon was estimated at 400,000. The Mount Lebanon famine caused the highest fatality rate by population of World War I. Bodies were piled in the streets, and people were reported to be eating street animals, while some resorted to cannibalism. |
1998 Sudan famine | 70000 | 70000 | 70000 | Sudan | 1998 | 1998 | ? | The famine was caused almost entirely by human rights abuse and the war in Southern Sudan. |
Famine in Yemen | 50000 | 50000 | 50000 | Yemen | 2016 | present | 2 years | The famine was triggered by Saudi Arabia's intervention into the Yemeni Civil War, which is backed by Western powers including the United States. Around 13 million people, or roughly half of the country's population, is facing starvation in what the UN calls "the worst famine in the world in 100 years". |
Anthropogenically exacerbated floods and landslides
These are floods and landslides that have been partially caused by humans, for example by failure of dams, levees, seawalls or retaining walls.Event | Lowest estimate | Highest estimate | Geom. mean estimate | Location | From | Until | Duration | Notes |
1931 China floods | 2,500,000 | 3,700,000 | 3,041,381 | China | ? | |||
1887 Yellow River flood | 900,000 | 2,000,000 | 1,341,641 | China | ? | |||
1938 Yellow River flood | 500,000 | 700,000 | 591,608 | China | ? | |||
Flight of the Boat People | 200,000 | 560,000 | 334,664 | Gulf of Thailand and Pacific Ocean | 1978 | 1979 | 1 year | |
1935 Yangtze river flood | 145,000 | 145,000 | 145,000 | China | ? | |||
St. Felix's Flood, storm surge | more than 100,000 | more than 100,000 | 100,000 | Netherlands | ? | |||
Hanoi and Red River Delta flood | 100,000 | 100,000 | 100,000 | North Vietnam | ? | |||
1911 Yangtze river flood | 100,000 | 100,000 | 100,000 | China | ? | |||
The failure of 62 dams in Zhumadian Prefecture, Henan, the largest of which was Banqiao Dam, caused by Typhoon Nina. | 26,000 | 230,000 | 77,330 | China | August 1975 | August 1975 | ? | |
St. Lucia's flood, storm surge | 50,000 | 80,000 | 63,246 | Netherlands, England | ? | |||
Vargas Tragedy, landslide | 10,000 | 50,000 | 22,361 | Venezuela | ? | |||
North Sea flood, storm surge | 2,400 | 2,400 | 2,400 | Netherlands, Scotland, England, Belgium | January 31, 1953 | January 31, 1953 | 1 day | |
Johnstown Flood | 2,209 | 2,209 | 2,209 | Pennsylvania | May 31, 1889 | May 31, 1889 | 1 day |
Human sacrifice and suicide
This section lists deaths from the practice of human sacrifice or suicide.Event | Lowest estimate | Highest estimate | Geom. mean estimate | Location | From | Until | Duration | Notes |
Human sacrifice in Aztec culture | 20000 | 5000000 | 316228 | Mexico | 14th century | 200 years | Skull racks: 60,000 to 136,000 See also: Aztecs | |
Human sacrifice in Shang dynasty China | 13000 | 13000 | 13000 | China | 1300 BC | 1050 BC | 250 years | Last 250 years of rule |
Suicide bombings during the Iraq War | 12284 | 18000+ | 12284 | Iraq | Ongoing | See also: Iraqi insurgency and Iraqi Civil War | ||
Sati ritual suicides | 7941 | 7941 | 7941 | India | 13 years | |||
Kamikaze suicide pilots | 3912 | 3912 | 3912 | Pacific theatre | 1 year | See also: Empire of Japan | ||
Mass suicide at Masada | 967 | 967 | 967 | Masada | Spring 73 CE | Spring 73 CE | ? | |
Jonestown | 909 | 909 | 909 | Jim Jones | ||||
Palestinian suicide attacks | 804 | 804 | 804 | Israel and Palestine | July 6, 1989 | April 18, 2016 | 27 years | May only include victims |
Riots and political unrest
Riots and incidents where at least 100 people died are listed here.Event | Victims | Country | Locale | Date |
Partition of India and Pakistan | 200,000–2,000,000 | British India | Punjab and Bengal | |
La Violencia | 200,000–300,000 | Colombia | Country-wide | –1960 |
1959 Tibetan uprising | 85,000–87,000 | Tibet, China | Lhasa | |
Nika riots | 30000 | Byzantium | Constantinople | 532 |
La semaine sanglante | 6,667–20,000 | France | Paris | |
February 28 Incident | 10,000–30,000 | China | Taiwan | |
Jeju Uprising | 14,000–30,000 | Southern Korea, present-day South Korea | Jeju island | |
August Uprising | 13,000–15,500 | Soviet Union | Georgia | |
1932 Salvadoran peasant uprising | 10,000–40,000 | El Salvador | ||
Romanian Peasants' Revolt | 10,000–20,000 | Romania | ||
Kronstadt rebellion | 10000 | Russia | Kronstadt | |
1984 anti-Sikh riots | 2,800–8,000 | India | New Delhi | |
March 1st Movement | 7500 | Japanese Korea, present-day South Korea | Seoul | |
Second Intifada | 4,179–4,354 | Israel/Palestinian territories | –2005 | |
Pitchfork Uprising | 3800 | Russia | ||
Iranian Revolution | 2781 | Iran | ||
8888 Uprising | 3,000–10,000 | Burma/Myanmar | –1993 | |
First Intifada | 2204 | Israel/Palestinian territories | ||
Banana Massacre | 47–2,000 | Colombia | Ciénaga | |
Santa María School massacre | 2300 | Chile | Iquique | |
Assam Movement | 2191+ | India | Assam | –1985 |
1994 South African transitional violence | 1652 | South Africa | ||
Romanian Revolution of 1989 | 1104 | Romania | Bucharest and major cities | |
2009 Boko Haram uprising | 1000+ | Nigeria | States of Bauchi, Borno, Yobe, and Kano | |
May 1998 riots of Indonesia | 1,000–1,200 | Indonesia | Jakarta, Medan, Surakarta | |
2008 Kenyan election protests | 1000 | Kenya | ||
Caracazo | 276–2000 | Venezuela | Caracas | |
2005 Togolese democracy protests | 500–1,000 | Togo | ||
1989 Bhagalpur violence | 1000 | India | Bhagalpur district, Bihar | |
1905 Bloody Sunday | 132–4,000 | Russia | Saint Petersburg | |
2010 South Kyrgyzstan ethnic clashes | 893 | Kyrgyzstan | ||
Iranian pilgrim riot | 400 | Saudi Arabia | Mecca | |
Jallianwala Bagh massacre | 379–1,526 | British India | Amritsar | |
Telangana movement | 360+ | India | Hyderabad | |
Tunisian Revolution | 338 | Tunisia | –2011 | |
Tiananmen Square protests of 1989 | 300–10,454 | China | Beijing | |
Kengir uprising | 700 | Soviet Union | Kazakhstan | |
2018–2020 Nicaraguan protests | 317 | Nicaragua | Country-wide | |
Gordon Riots | 285 | Great Britain | ||
1929 Palestine riots | 249 | British Mandate for Palestine | ||
2018–19 Sudanese protests | 229+ | Sudan | Nationwide | –2019 |
Military Police of Espírito Santo strike | 215 | Brazil | Espírito Santo | |
Ürümqi race riots | 197+ | China | Xinjiang | |
13 May incident | 196 | Malaysia | Kuala Lumpur | |
Andijan massacre | 187–1,500 | Uzbekistan | Andijan | |
2017 Venezuelan protests | 165 | Venezuela | Nationwide | |
2009 Guinea protests | 157 | Guinea | Conakry | |
Gwangju Uprising | 144–2,000 | South Korea | Gwangju | |
Durban riots | 142 | South Africa | Durban | |
2017 Brazil prison riots | 140+ | Brazil | ||
Muhammad cartoon riots | 139 | Nigeria, Libya, Pakistan, and Afghanistan | ||
Khartoum massacre | 128 | Sudan | Khartoum | |
Tana River District clashes | 118 | Kenya | Tana River District | –2013 |
Carandiru massacre | 111 | Brazil | São Paulo | |
Euromaidan | 121–797 | Ukraine | Kiev | |
Carandiru massacre | 111 | Brazil | São Paulo | |
New York City draft riots | 119–120 | United States | New York City | |
Georgian de-Stalinization riots | 22–100 | Georgia | Country-wide | |
Napoleon's "whiff of grapeshot" | 100 | France | Paris |
List of prisons, concentration, and extermination camps by death toll
This section lists deaths that occurred in particular prisons, concentration and/or extermination camps, deaths are from both the conditions within the camps and from the active murder/execution of prisoners.Event | Lowest estimate | Highest estimate | Geometric mean estimate | Location | From | Until | Duration | Notes |
Auschwitz concentration camp | 800000 | 1500000 | 1095445 | Oświęcim, Poland | 1940 | 1945 | 5 years | |
Treblinka extermination camp | 700000 | 1000000 | 836660 | Treblinka, Poland | 1942 | 1943 | 1 year | |
Bełżec extermination camp | 480000 | 600000 | 536656 | Bełżec, Poland | 1942 | 1943 | 1 year | |
Jasenovac concentration camp | 100000 | 700000 | 264575 | Croatia | 1941 | 1945 | 4 years | |
Kolyma | 130000 | 500000 | 254951 | Kolyma, Soviet Union | 1932 | 1954 | 22 years | |
Stutthof concentration camp | 85000 | 85000 | 85000 | Stutthof, Poland | 1939 | 1945 | 6 years | See also: Second World War |
Stara Gradiška concentration camp | 12790 | 75000 | 30972 | Croatia | 1941 | 1945 | 4 years | Primarily for women and children. |
Tuol Sleng | 17000 | 17000 | 17000 | Phnom Penh, Cambodia | 1975 | 1979 | 4 years | |
Camp Sumter | 13171 | 13171 | 13171 | Andersonville, Georgia, United States | 1864 | 1865 | 1 year | |
Crveni Krst concentration camp | 12000 | 12000 | 12000 | Niš, Serbia | 1941 | 1944 | 3 years | |
Tammisaari prison camp | 2963 | 2963 | 2963 | Tammisaari, Finland | 1918 | 1918 | 4 months | |
Elmira Prison | 2963 | 2963 | 2963 | Elmira, New York, U.S. | 1864 | 1865 | 1 year | |
Shark Island concentration camp | 1032 | 4000 | 2032 | Luderitz, German South-West Africa | 1905 | 1907 | 2 years | The minimum death toll is out of a camp population of 1,795 people, and the maximum total includes those who died in the Luderitz area. |
List of political leaders and regimes by death toll
This section lists deaths attributed to certain political leaders, deaths are from both the conditions within the country due to national policy, and active killings by forces loyal to the leader in question.Leader | Lowest estimate | Highest estimate | Geom. mean estimate | Location | From | Until | Duration | Notes |
Mao Zedong | + | China | 1946 | 1976 | 30 years | Critics of Mao Zedong have argued Mao's China saw unprecedented losses of human life through inhuman economic policies such as the Great Leap Forward, slave labor through the Laogai, violent political purges such as the Cultural Revolution the Campaign to Suppress Counterrevolutionaries, and class extermination through land reform The estimate of the minimum death toll is the sum of the minimum estimate of famine dead, land reform dead, Counterrevolutionaries dead, and Cultural Revolution dead plus the minimum killed in the 1959 Tibetan uprising and the minimum Chinese deaths in his campaign in the Korean war,. | ||
Genghis Khan and his successors Timur | + | Eurasia | 1206 | 1405 | 199 years | Due to the lack or records and the large time span in which they occurred, estimates of the violence associated with the conquests of the Mongol Empire and its predecessor states vary considerably Without including the spread of the plague to Europe, it is possible that up to 40 million people may have perished in Eurasia during Genghis Khan and his successors' conquests, primarily due to disease and starvation brought about by the invasions and massacres, and up to 17 million more during Timur's reign. | ||
Adolf Hitler | 13518250 | 45000000 | 26500000 | German-occupied Europe | 1934 | 1945 | 11 years | The estimate includes The Holocaust against the Jews, plus the genocide and mass murder of Gypsies, Serbs, East Slavs, the disabled, homosexuals, Freemasons, POWs, and the Jehovah's Witnesses
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Chiang Kai-Shek | 5965000 | 18522000 | 10511124 | China | 1928 | 1946 | 18 years | Primarily from conscription campaigns but also grain confiscations and other atrocities. |
Joseph Stalin | 3300000 | 15000000 | 8990772 | Soviet Union | 1922 | 1953 | 31 years | R.J. Rummel is one of the few who gives a much higher estimate for Stalin's regime, around 40 million deaths. The millions killed by the regime of Joseph Stalin through famine, purges, labor camps, population transfer, deportations, and NKVD massacres. The minimum death toll uses the minimum post-archive calculations from after the fall of the Soviet regime of those not killed in famine which range from four to ten million Robert Conquest, writer of the book The Great Terror, first stated an estimate of 30 million, then a few years later lowering it to 20 million, and finally saying that no fewer than 15 million perished during the entire history of the USSR. Following the collapse of the USSR and the opening of the archives, scholars have reached lower death tolls. The minimum death toll uses the minimum post-archive calculations from after the fall of the Soviet regime of those not killed in famine Timothy D. Snyder in 2011 said that Stalin approximately killed 6 million to 9 million see also Excess mortality in the Soviet Union under Joseph Stalin |
Hirohito | 26000000+ | 14000000 | In and around East and South East Asia, Oceania and the Pacific | 1926 | 1945 | 19 years | If total casualties for these conflicts are assigned exclusively to Japanese aggression, the toll could reach some 30 million deaths. See also: Japanese war crimes and Casualties of World War II | |
Leopold II of Belgium | 3000000 | 13000000 | 6244998 | Congo Free State | 13 years | Private forces under the control of Leopold II of Belgium carried out mass murders, mutilations, and other crimes against the Congolese in order to encourage the gathering of valuable raw materials, principally rubber. Significant deaths also occurred due to major disease outbreaks and starvation, caused by population displacement and poor treatment. Estimates of the death toll vary considerably due to the lack of a formal census before 1924, but a commonly cited figure of 10 million deaths was obtained by estimating a 50% decline in the total population during the Congo Free State and applying it to the total population of 10 million in 1924. See also: Atrocities in the Congo Free State | ||
Ranavalona I | 2500000 | 2500000 | 2500000 | Madagascar | 1829 | 1842 | 13 years | Putting an end to most foreign trade relationships, Ranavalona I pursued a policy of self-reliance, made possible through frequent use of the long-standing tradition of fanompoana—forced labor in lieu of tax payments in money or goods. Ranavalona continued the wars of expansion conducted by her predecessor, Radama I, in an effort to extend her realm over the entire island, and imposed strict punishments on those who were judged as having acted in opposition to her will. Due in large part to loss of life throughout the years of military campaigns, high death rates among fanompoana workers, and harsh traditions of justice under her rule, the population of Madagascar is estimated to have declined from around 5 million to 2.5 million between 1833–39, and from 750,000 to 130,000 between 1829–42 in Imerina. These statistics have contributed to a strongly unfavorable view of Ranavalona's rule in historical accounts. |
Pol Pot | 1386734 | 3400000 | 2171381 | Cambodia | 1975 | 1979 | 4 years | Deaths due to arbitrary torture, execution, starvation, and forced labor among the population of Cambodia under the rule of Pol Pot and the Khmer Rouge, including both killings of ethnic Khmer as well as a genocide of religious and ethnic minorities by the Khmer Rouge. Minimum death toll is the number of corpses found in the Killing Fields.See also: Cambodian genocide |
The Young Turks | 1489000 | 2810000 | 2045505 | Ottoman Empire | 1913 | 1922 | 9 years | Under the Young Turks' regime that took powerin 1908, the Ottoman Empire committed various genocides and ethnic cleansings. The death toll is derived from the sum of the death tolls of the Armenian Genocide, Assyrian Genocide, Greek Genocide, ethnic cleansing of the Thracian Bulgarians in 1913, and the Great Famine of Mount Lebanon. |
Omar al-Bashir | 1063000 | 2530000 | 1639936 | Sudan | 1989 | 2019 | 29 years | 1 to 2 million: Second Sudanese Civil War 63,000 to 530,000: Darfur genocide |
Kim Il-sung, Kim Jong-il, and Kim Jong-un | 710000 | 3500000 | 1576388 | North Korea | 1948 | present | 70 years | North Korea continues to be one of the most repressive governments in the world. Over two-hundred thousand people are interned in concentrations camps for being political dissidents or being related to political dissidents. They are subject to slavery, torture, starvation, shootings, gassing, and human experimentation. See also: Human rights in North Korea |
Suharto | 240500 | 3418000+ | 906658+ | Indonesia | 1965 | 1998 | 33 years | 65/66 Politicide: 78,500 to 3,000,000 "communists" East Timor Atrocities: 60,000 to 308,000 East Timorese West Papua Atrocities: 100,000 papuans Petrus Killings: 2,000 to 10,000 suspected criminals |
Mengistu Haile Mariam | 225000 | 2000000 | 670820 | Ethiopia | 1977 | 1987 | 10 years | |
Saddam Hussein | 200000 | 2000000 | 632456 | Iraq | 1979 | 2003 | 24 years | see Human rights in Saddam Hussein's Iraq#Number of victims |
Oliver Cromwell | 200000 | 600000 | 400000 | Ireland | 1649 | 1653 | 4 years | The Parliamentarian reconquest of Ireland was brutal, and Cromwell is still a hated figure in Ireland. The extent to which Cromwell, who was in direct command for the first year of the campaign, was responsible for the atrocities is debated to this day. Some historians argue that the actions of Cromwell were within the then-accepted rules of war, or were exaggerated or distorted by later propagandists. These arguments, in turn, have been challenged by others. |
Ante Pavelić and Nikola Mandić | 300000 | 1088000 | 571314 | Croatia | 1941 | 1945 | 4 years | See also: Independent State of Croatia |
Ho Chi Minh and the Viet Cong | 145225 | 1082000 | 396401 | Vietnam | 1954 | 2000 | 46 years | 95,000: re-education camps 13,500–200,000: land reform 36,725 to 227,000: war crimes 200,000 to 560,000: boat people The minimum death toll is the same of minimum estimates for war crimes, re-education camps, and land reform. The maximum death toll is the combination of the maximum estimated death toll of land reform, war crimes, re-education camps and boat people, which may or may not be attributable to the regime. |
Benito Mussolini | 158000 | 628000 | 314998 | Italy, Libya, Ethiopia, Yugoslavia, Greece | 1922 | 1945 | 24 years |
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Francisco Franco | 195000 | 265000 | 227321 | Spain, Austria, and Russia | 1939 | 1975 | 36 years | Diseases and starvation: 130,000 Repression: 30,000–100,000 Prison camps: 20,000 Spanish Maquis: 5,548 World War II: 5,000 Blue Division: Casualties in the Russo-German conflict totalled 22,700. In action against the Blue Division, the Red Army suffered 49,300 casualties. |
Idi Amin | 100000 | 500000 | 223607 | Uganda | 1971 | 1979 | 8 years | Idi Amin's rule of Uganda saw excessive and egregious human rights abuses toward ethnic minorities and political opposition, earning him the nickname "The Butcher of Uganda." |
Josip Broz Tito | 60000 | 802000 | 219363 | Yugoslavia | 1944 | 1980 | 36 years | |
Communist rule in Romania, various leaders | 60000 | 435000 | 161555 | Romania | 1945 | 1989 | 44 years | Total does not take into account the Romanian orphans who perished under Nicolae Ceaușescu's policies. |
FRELIMO | 83000 | 250000 | 144049 | Communist Mozambique | 1975 | 1999 | 24 years | See also: Mozambican Civil War |
Ivan the Terrible | 60000 | 260000 | 124900 | Russian Empire | 1533 | 1584 | 51 years | |
Siad Barre | 50000 | 200000 | 100000 | Somalia | 1988 | 1991 | 3 years | See also: Isaaq genocide |
Bashar al-Assad | 100000 | 585000 | 342500 | Syria | 2011 | present | 9 years | See also: Syrian Civil War |
King Salman | 85000 | 85000 | 85000 | Saudi Arabia | 2016 | present | 3 years | See also: Famine in Yemen |
Communist rule in Bulgaria, various leaders | 31000 | 220000 | 81240 | Bulgaria | 1944 | 1989 | 45 years | Collectivization and political repression in Bulgaria. |
Henry VIII | 72000 | 72000 | 72000 | England | 1509 | 1547 | 38 years | |
Vlad III | 43903 | 100000 | 66259 | Wallachia | 1456 | 1462 | 6 years | |
Communist rule in Czechoslovakia, various leaders | 65000 | 65000 | 65000 | Czechoslovakia | 1948 | 1968 | 20 years | See also: Communist repression in Czechoslovakia |
Francisco Macías Nguema | 50000 | 80000 | 63246 | Equatorial Guinea | 1968 | 1979 | 11 years | Macías Nguema is regarded as one of the most kleptocratic, corrupt, and dictatorial leaders in post-colonial African history. Sources vary, but he was responsible for the deaths of anywhere from 50,000 to 80,000 of the 300,000 to 400,000 people living in the country at the time. |
Rafael Trujillo | 50000 | 50000 | 50000 | Dominican Republic | 1930 | 1938 | 8 years | |
François Duvalier | 30000 | 60000 | 42426 | Haiti | 1957 | 1971 | 14 years | Duvalier's rule based on a purged military, a rural militia known as the, and the use of cult of personality, resulted in the murder of 30,000 to 60,000 Haitians, and the exile of many more. |
Hissène Habré | 40000 | 40000 | 40000 | Chad | 1982 | 1990 | 8 years | In May 2016, Hissène Habré was found guilty of human-rights abuses, including rape, sexual slavery, and ordering the killing of 40,000 people. He was sentenced to life in prison. He is the first former head of state to be convicted for human rights abuses in the court of another nation. |
Communist rule in Cuba, various leaders | 9240 | 92400 | 29219 | Cuba | 1976 | present | 42 years | Human rights in Cuba are under the scrutiny of Human Rights Watch, which accuses the Cuban government of systematic human rights abuses. This includes offenses such as arbitrary imprisonment, unfair trials, and extrajudicial execution. See also: Human rights in Cuba |
Ruhollah Khomeini and Ali Khemenei | 10482 | 48000 | 22431 | Iran | 1979 | present | 39 years | 4,482 to 30,000 in P.O.C. massacre 6,000 to 18,000 child soldiers killed |
Communist rule in Poland, various leaders | 22000 | 22000 | 22000 | Communist Poland | 1945 | 1989 | 44 years | See also: Communist Repression in Poland |
Tomás de Torquemada | 2000 | 124621 | 15787 | Spanish Empire | 1480 | 1498 | 18 years | Minimum death toll only includes lowest estimate of those burned at the stake, whereas the maximum death toll also includes those who died from hunger and torture. |
Various leaders | 7000 | 27000 | 13748 | Hungary | 1948 | 1956 | 8 years | Minimum death toll does not take into account those out of the 150,000 who perished in concentration camps, and only counts the 5,000 alleged spies and 2,000 party members executed, noting that 5,000 spies came from only 98,000 out of 700,000 alleged spies. See also: Communist Repression in Hungary |
Enver Hoxha | 5000 | 28000 | 11832 | Albania | 1941 | 1985 | 44 years | |
South African Apartheid, various leaders | 18997 | 21000 | 19999 | South Africa and Namibia | 1948 | 1994 | 46 years | Maximum death toll does not include deaths from the South African Border War. |
Ferdinand Marcos | 3257 | 80000 | 16142 | Philippines | 1965 | 1986 | 21 years | The conservative estimate is recorded from 1975 to 1985, while the maximum estimate is recorded from 1965 to 1976. Also Includes those from the Moro conflict. |
Tiberius | 9500 | 9500 | 9500 | Ancient Rome | 14 | 37 | 23 years | |
Caligula | 9000 | 9000 | 9000 | Ancient Rome | 37 | 41 | 4 years | |
Johnny Paul Koroma | 6000 | 6000 | 6000 | Sierra Leone | 1997 | 1998 | 1 year | |
Nero | 5750 | 5750 | 5750 | Ancient Rome | 54 | 68 | 14 years | |
Jean-Bedel Bokassa | 100 | 90000 | 3000 | Central African Republic | 1966 | 1976 | 10 years | It was found that Bokassa personally oversaw the massacre of 100 school children. |
Claudius | 2935 | 2935 | 2935 | Ancient Rome | 41 | 54 | 13 years | |
Communist rule in East Germany, various leaders | 327 | 1500 | 929 | East Germany | 1949 | 1989 | 40 years | See also: Berlin Wall deaths |
Other lists organized by death toll
- List of accidents and disasters by death toll
- List of battles and other violent events by death toll
- List of events named massacres
- List of genocides by death toll
- List of murderers by number of victims
- List of natural disasters by death toll
- List of nuclear and radiation accidents by death toll
- List of ongoing conflicts
- List of school shootings in the United States
- List of disasters in Antarctica by death toll
- List of disasters in Australia by death toll
- List of disasters in Canada by death toll
- List of disasters in Croatia by death toll
- List of disasters in Great Britain and Ireland by death toll
- List of disasters in New Zealand by death toll
- List of disasters in Poland by death toll
- List of disasters in the United States by death toll
- List of wars by death toll
Other lists with similar topics
- List of unusual deaths
- List of accidents and incidents involving commercial aircraft
- List of battles
- Lists of disasters
- Lists of earthquakes
- List of famines
- List of historic fires
- List of invasions
- List of massacres
- List of notable tropical cyclones
- List of riots
- List of terrorist incidents
- List of wars
- Lists of rail accidents
Topics dealing with similar themes
- Anti-communist mass killings
- Casualties of the Iraq War
- Decommunization
- Democide
- Famine
- Genocide
- Genocide in history
- Infectious disease
- Mass killings under Communist regimes
- Mass murder
- Most lethal battles in world history
- United States casualties of war