The 10 most bloody wars in the history of mankind. Part 1

The history of mankind is the history of wars. The Swiss Jean-Jacques Babel estimated that in the whole history from 3500 BC. and to this day mankind peacefully lived only 292 years.

But the wars also happened different. Often, the number of deaths in the war is difficult to assess, but if you take the minimum estimates of losses, the picture is this.

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10. The Napoleonic Wars (1799-1815)

The wars that Napoleon Bonaparte waged with the various states of Europe between 1799 and 1815 are usually called the Napoleonic Wars. To the redistribution of the political map of Europe, the gifted commander proceeded even earlier than the 18th Brumaire coup and became the First Consul. The Hannover campaign, the Third Coalition war or the Russian-Austro-French war of 1805, the war of the Fourth Coalition, or the Russo-Prussian-French war of 1806-1807, culminating in the famous Peace of Tilsit, the war of the Fifth Coalition, or the Austro-French War of 1809, the war of 1812 and the war of the Sixth Coalition of European Powers against Napoleon, and, finally, the campaign of the "hundred days" era, which ended in the defeat of Napoleon at Waterloo, claimed the lives of at least 3.5 million people. Many historians increase this figure by half.

9. The Civil War in Russia (1917-1923)

In the civil war that followed the 1917 revolution in Russia, more people died than in all the Napoleonic wars: at least 5.5 million people, and more courageous estimates and all 9 million. And although these losses amounted to less than half the percentage of the world's population, for our country the war between the Reds and Whites had the most serious consequences. It was not for nothing that Anton Ivanovich Denikin canceled all awards in his army - what are the rewards in the fratricidal war? And, by the way, they think that the Civil War ended in 1920 with the Crimean evacuation and the fall of the White Crimea. In fact, the last centers of resistance in the Primorye to the Bolsheviks were suppressed only in June 1923, and the struggle against basmachi in Central Asia dragged on until the early forties.

8. The Dungan Insurrection (1862)

In 1862, the so-called Dungan uprising against the Qing Empire began in the north-west of China. Chinese and non-Chinese Muslim national minorities-the Dungans, Uighurs, Salars-rebelled, according to the Great Soviet Encyclopedia, against the national oppression of the Chinese-Manchu feudal lords and the Qing dynasty. English-speaking historians do not fully agree with this and see the origins of the uprising in racial and class antagonism and in the economy, but not in religious quarrels and riots against the ruling dynasty. Be that as it may, but started in May 1862 in Weinan County, Shaanxi Province, the insurrection spread to Gansu and Xinjiang provinces. The united headquarters of the insurrection was not, and in the war of all with all, according to different estimates, from 8 to 12 million people suffered. The uprising was brutally suppressed, and the surviving rebels were sheltered by the Russian Empire. Their descendants now also live in Kyrgyzstan, southern Kazakhstan and Uzbekistan.

7. Uprising Ai Lushan (8th century AD)

The era of the Tang dynasty is traditionally considered in China the period of the country's highest power, when China was far ahead of the modern countries of the world. And the civil war at that time was a match for the country - a grandiose one. In world historiography, it is called the Ai Lushan rebellion. Thanks to the location of the Emperor Xuanzong and his beloved concubine, Jan Guifei, the Turk (or Sogdian) in the Chinese service, Ai Lushan concentrated in his hands a huge power in the army - under his command were 3 of the 10 border provinces of the Tang Empire. In 755, Ai Lushan raised a rebellion and the following year proclaimed himself emperor of the new Yang dynasty. And although already in 757 the sleeping leader of the uprising was stabbed by his trusted eunuch, the rebellion was suppressed only by February 763. The number of victims is staggering: according to the smallest account, 13 million people died. And if you believe the pessimists and admit that the population of China declined by 36 million at that time, then you will have to admit that the mutiny of Ai Lushan reduced the then population of the world by more than 15%. In this case, if counted by the number of victims, this was the largest armed conflict in the history of mankind up to the Second World War.

6. The First World War (1914-1918)

The hero of the novel by Francis Scott Fitzgerald "The Great Gatsby" called it "the belated migration of the Teutonic tribes." This was called the war against war, the Great War, the European war. The name with which she remained to live in history was invented by the Times columnist Col. Charles Repington: The First World War.

The starting shot of the world meat grinder was a shot in Sarajevo on June 28, 1914. From this day until the truce on November 11, 1918, 15 million people died at the most modest level. If you meet the number of 65 million - do not be scared: it included more and all the dead of the Spanish - the most massive flu pandemic in the history of mankind. In addition to the mass of victims, the result of the First World War was the abolition of four empires: the Russian, the Ottoman, the German and the Austro-Hungarian.

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This topic is quite voluminous, so I decided to divide it into 2 parts