Question: What was the deadliest war in the 20th century?

List of wars by death toll
















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This list of wars by death toll includes death toll estimates of all deaths that are either directly or indirectly caused by war. These numbers usually include the deaths of military personnel which are the direct results of battle or other military wartime actions, as well as the wartime/war-related deaths of soldiers, which are the results of war-induced epidemics, famines, atrocities, genocide, etc.
Pre-Modern
Ancient wars



Medieval wars


Note: the identity of a single "war" cannot be reliably given in some cases, and some "wars" can be taken to last over more than a human lifetime,  e.g.
"Reconquista" (711–1492, 781 years)
"Muslim conquests in India" (12th to 16th c., 500 years)
"Crusades" (ten or more campaigns during the period 1095–1291, 196 years),
"Mongol conquests" (1206–1368, 162 years),
"early Muslim conquests" (622–750, 128 years),
"Hundred Years' War" (1337–1453, 115 years).

Modern
Modern wars with greater than 25,000 deaths by death toll


Modern wars with fewer than 25,000 deaths by death toll

22,000+ – Dominican Restoration War – One estimate placed total Spanish deaths from all causes at 18,000. The fatal losses among the Dominican insurgents were estimated at 4,000.[27]
21,000+ – Six-Day War[117]
20,000+ – Yaqui Wars[20]
20,000+ – War of the Quadruple Alliance[27]
20,000+ – Ragamuffin War[118]
20,000+ – Italo-Turkish War[20]
19,619+ – Rhodesian Bush War
19,000+ – Mexican–American War[20]
18,069–20,069 – First Opium War[119]
17,294+ – 1940–44 insurgency in Chechnya
17,200+ – First Anglo-Afghan War[120]
16,765–17,065 – Balochistan conflict[121][122][123]
16,000+ – War of the Pacific
16,000+ – Nepalese Civil War
16,000+ – Spanish–American War[20]
15,200–15,300 – Peasants' War (1798) – Part of the French Revolutionary Wars
15,000+ – Nigerian Sharia conflict[124][125][126]
14,460–14,922 – South African Border War
14,077–22,077 – Mau Mau Uprising
13,929+ – Republic of the Congo Civil War (1997-99)[98]
13,812+ – Naxalite-Maoist insurgency[127][128]
13,583–15,970 - Croatian War of Independence
13,100–34,000 – Kurdish separatism in Iran[117]
13,073-26,373 - 1948 Arab–Israeli War (1948-1949)[129]
11,500–12,843 – Indo-Pakistani War of 1971 – Part of the Bangladesh Liberation War
10,000+ - Assam separatist movements (1979–present)
10,000+ – Malayan Emergency[130]
10,000+ – War in Donbass[131] – Part of the Russian military intervention in Ukraine (2014–present)
10,000+ – Rwandan Civil War
10,000+ – First Italo-Ethiopian War[20]
10,000+ – Second Melillan campaign[20]
10,000+ – Hispano-Moroccan War (1859–60)[20]
10,000+ – Spanish conquest of Tripoli[132]
9,400+ – Libyan Civil War (2011) (2011)[133]
8,136+ – Iraqi insurgency (post-U.S. withdrawal) (2011–2014)[134]
7,500–21,741 – War of 1812 (1812–1815)[20][135]
7,400–16,200 – Yemeni Civil War (2015–present) (2015–present)
7,050+ - Portuguese conquest of Goa (1510)[136]
7,104+ – Indo-Pakistani War of 1947 (1947–1949)[137]
7,000+ – Chadian Civil War (2005–10) (2005–2010)[138]
6,800–13,459 – Indo-Pakistani War of 1965 (1965)
6,543+ – South Thailand insurgency (2004–present)[139]
6,295+ – Central African Republic conflict (2012–present)
5,641+ – Sudanese nomadic conflicts (2009–present)[140][141]
5,100+ – Gaza–Israel conflict (2006–present) – Part of the Arab–Israeli conflict
5,000+ – Casamance conflict (1982–2014)[142]
5,000+ – Chilean Civil War of 1891 (1891)[143]
5,000+ - Cuban Revolution (1959)[144]
4,715+ – Libyan Civil War (2014–present) (2014–present)
4,000–10,000 – Conflict in the Niger Delta (2004–present)[145]
3,699+ – Al-Qaeda insurgency in Yemen (1992–present)[98]
3,552+ – First Schleswig War (1848–1852)
3,529+ – The Northern Ireland Troubles (1966–1998)[146]
3,366+ – Insurgency in the North Caucasus (2009–2017)[147]
3,270+ – Second Schleswig War (1864)
3,222–3,722 – Hungarian Revolution of 1956 (1956)
3,144+ – Allied Democratic Forces insurgency (1996–present)
3,114+ – 1947–48 Civil War in Mandatory Palestine (1947–1948) –  Part of the 1948 Palestine war
3,007+ – War of the Golden Stool (1900)
3,000–6,000 – Negro Rebellion (1912)[148][149]
3,000-5,000 - Croatian-Slovene Peasant Revolt (1573) [150]
3,000+ – Second Ivorian Civil War (2010–2011)[151]
3,000+ – Banana Wars (1914–1933)[46]
2,944+ – Insurgency in the Maghreb (2004–present)
2,800+ – Northern Mali conflict (2012–present)
2,781+ – Iranian Revolution (1978–1979)[152]
2,751+ – Third Anglo-Afghan War (1919)[153]
2,557+ – Sudan internal conflict (2011–present) (2011–present)[154][155][156]
2,394+ – Sinai insurgency (2011–present)[157]
2,300+ – Conflict in the Niger Delta (2003–present) [158][159]
2,221–2,406 – 2014 Israel–Gaza conflict (2014) – Part of the Gaza–Israel conflict
2,150+ – Persian Expedition of 1796 (1796)
2,096+ – Aden Emergency (1963-1967)
2,054+ – South Yemen insurgency (2009–2015)
2,000+ – Costa Rican Civil War (1948)
2,000+ – Six-Day War (2000) (2000)[160]
2,000+ – 2010 South Kyrgyzstan ethnic clashes (2010)[161][162][163]
2,000 - Iran crisis of 1946 (1946)[164]
1,810+ – Anglo-Iraqi War (1941)  – Part of World War II
1,774+ – Lapland War (1944-1945)  – Part of World War II
1,643–2,237 – War of Transnistria (1992)[165][166][167][168]
1,449+ – M23 rebellion (2012-2013) – Part of the Kivu Conflict
1,300+ – Allied Democratic Forces insurgency (1996–present)[169]
1,295+ – Siachen conflict (1984–present)
1,229+ – Basque conflict (1959–2011)[170]
1,227–5,600 – Kargil War (1999)[171][172][173][174]
1,119+ – Post-coup unrest in Egypt (2013–2014) (2013–2014)[175]
1,043+ –  Burundian unrest (2015–present)
1,000–1,500 – Cabinda conflict (1994–present)[176]
1,000+ – Djiboutian Civil War (1991–1994)
1,000+ – 1991–92 South Ossetia War (1991–1992)[177]
1,000+ – Xinjiang conflict (1960–present)
1,000+ – Chincha Islands War (1864–1866)[20]
907 – Falklands War (1982)[178]
898 – Barbary Wars (1801–1815)
846 – 2011 Egyptian revolution (2011)[179]
820 – Syrian Civil War spillover in Lebanon (2011–2017) – Part of the Syrian Civil War
808 – Sino-Russian border conflicts (1652-1689)
803-1303 - Conflict in Najran, Jizan and Asir (2015-present) – Part of the Yemeni Civil War (2015-present)
789–1,874 – 2001–02 India–Pakistan standoff (2001–2002)
771 – Insurgency in Egypt (2013–present) (2013–present)
740 – Indonesia–Malaysia confrontation (1963–1966)[180][181]
722 – Kamwina Nsapu rebellion (2016–present)
700–800 – Anglo-Aro War (1901-1902)
659–2,496 – Russia–Georgia war (2008)[182][183][184][185][186]
643–1,500 – Sudanese conflict in South Kordofan and Blue Nile (2011–present)[156][155]
547 – Cyprus crisis (1955–64) (1955–1964)
542 – East Prigorodny Conflict (1992)
422 – Franco-Thai War (1940–1941)
339 – Turkey–ISIL conflict (2015–present)
327 – RENAMO insurgency (2013–present)
275–569 – Second Afar insurgency (1995–present) Part of the Eritrean–Ethiopian border conflict
236 – Batwa-Luba clashes (2013–present)
233 – Anglophone Crisis (2017–present)[lower-alpha 1]
213-523+ Jebel Akhdar War (1954-1959)[192]
206–345 – Arab separatism in Khuzestan (1922–present)
200 – 1935 Yazidi revolt (1935)
174–194 – United States occupation of Veracruz (1914)[193]
159 – ISIL insurgency in Tunisia (2015–present)
158 – Dissident Irish Republican campaign (1998–present)
126 – 2016 Kasese clashes (2016)[194][195]
115 – The Pool War (2016–present)
108 – Islamist insurgency in Mozambique (2017–present)[lower-alpha 2]
102–227 – India–Pakistan military confrontation (2016–present) (2016–present)
95 – 2013 Guinea clashes (2013)[207]
84–134 – Lahad Datu standoff (2013)[208][209]
82 – Quasi-War (1798-1800)
82 – North-West Rebellion (1885) [210]
71 – Paraguayan People's Army insurgency (2005–present)
63 – Ten-Day War (1991)
46 – Annexation of Dadra and Nagar Haveli (1954)
39-111 – India–Pakistan border skirmishes (2014–2015) (2014-2015)
37 – 2013 India–Pakistan border skirmishes (2013)
36 –  DHKP/C insurgency in Turkey (1990–present)
36 – 2016 Niger Delta conflict (2016–Present) [211] – Part of the Conflict in the Niger Delta
12–61 – 2017 Afghanistan–Pakistan border skirmish (2017) – Part of the Afghanistan–Pakistan skirmishes
11–30 – 2008 Kufra conflict (2008)
8 – 2011 India–Pakistan border skirmish (2011)
Charts and graphs

See also
Timeline of wars
List of wars and anthropogenic disasters by death toll
List of battles by casualties
List of number of conflicts per year
Lists of wars
List of ongoing armed conflicts
List of genocides by death toll
List of countries by refugee population
Notes



Works cited

Further reading
Steven Pinker (2011). The Better Angels of Our Nature: Why Violence Has Declined. Penguin Books. ISBN1101544643. pp.832. (see also: )
Levy, Jack S. (1983). . University Press of Kentucky, USA. ISBN081316365X.



. (2016). Published online at OurWorldInData.org.