What was the deadliest war before WWI?

Stephen

Banned
I would also be sceptical of wold population estimates they are even more hazey than all those war estimates. They are infered from archeology but smaller cities does not necesarily mean smaller total populations they could just be more spread out. In fact more less civilised subsistance agriculture can be more intensive than more civilised land lord who will be more focused on production versus labour cost than total food production. They also tend to grow more fibre based cash crops and less food.
 
you have to distinguish between relative and absolute numbers. While early wars caused less absolute casualties (less people around to be killed) some wars caused huge relative casualties. I think number quoted for 30YW is something like 1/3 of "German" population (not sure if that is correct). also I remember reading about Paraguay or some other South American state suffering huge % of dead in late 19th century.
 
Only if you consider it biological warfare.

I was being ironic.

You have considered it biological warfare in an age when thinking in germs would have been seen as witchcraft, however it is not considered so when speaking/writing on the Spanish Conquest of the Americas.
 
I was being ironic.

You have considered it biological warfare in an age when thinking in germs would have been seen as witchcraft, however it is not considered so when speaking/writing on the Spanish Conquest of the Americas.

you don't have to know stuff about germs to understand that catapulting infected bodies into city under siege will cause outbreak of disease there. Knowing that it does is understanding enough
 
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