Statistics of Wars, Oppressions and Atrocities of the Eighteenth Century
(the 1700s)
Alphabetical Index
Site Index
Over 1,000,000 killed
- 18th Century Slave Trade
- Seven Years War (1755-63) [make link]
- Gaston Bodart, Losses of Life in Modern Wars (1916)
- Austrian deaths:
- KIA: 32,622
- Dead of wounds + disease: 93,408
- MIA: 19,592
- TOTAL: 145,622
- Samuel Dumas, Losses of Life Caused By War (1923)
- Austrian:
- Killed: 32,000
- Dead of wounds or disease: 93,400
- TOTAL: 125,400
- Prussian:
- The Historians' History of the World by Henry Smith Williams, 1904, vol. 12, p. 352: “The Seven Years' War was a glorious means of personal aggrandisement to Frederick... yet it cost... 180,000 lives among his own partisans, a general diminution of Prussia's population by 500,000, and a grand total of 853,000 soldiers killed on all sides.”
- Clodfelter (v.1, pp.99-100): "The conflict was the bloodiest of the eighteenth century"
- "One estimate": 868,000 d., all causes
- "Another": 460,000 Austrians and allies, and 180,000 Prussians died.
- Urlanis:
- K. in Battle: 140,000 (p.45)
- Military. Killed and died: 550,000 (p.226)
- The civilian population of Austria declined from 5,739,000 to 4,890,000 -- a loss of 849,000. (p.282)
- Eckhardt: 550,000 civ. + 550,000 mil. = 1,100,000
- Levy: 992,000
- Sorokin (k+w):
- Austria: 400,000
- Prussia: 262,500
- France: 168,000
- Russia: 138,000
- England: 20,000
- Spain: 3,000
- Total Losses: 991,500 [K=1/4-1/3: 250-330,000]
- MEDIAN (interpolated & rounded)
- Military: 600,000
- Civilian: 700,000
- Total: 1,300,000
- French Revolutionary Wars (1792-1802) [make link]
- NOTE: The era of almost continuous warfare that followed the overthrow of the French monarchy is traditionally split into three parts:
- The Revolution itself (including all internal conflicts)
- The Revolutionary Wars during which France fought international wars as a Republic
- The Napoleonic Wars, during which France fought international wars as an Empire.
The numbers here generally refer only to the international wars of the Republican period, but not always.
- Clodfelter
- War of the 1st Coalition, 1792-97
- French: 100,000 combat d.
- Austrian: 94,700
- War of the 2nd Coalition, 1799-1801
- French: 75,000 KIA
- Austrian: 79,520 KIA
- Urlanis
- K. in Battle: 290,000
- Military. Killed and died: 1,100,000
- The Napoleonic Empire, 2d ed (1991, 2003) Geoffrey Ellis (citing Esdaile)
- KIA, Died of Wounds + Camp Disease, France Proper: 1,400,000 during the period 1792-1815, incl. 916,000 [65%] under the Empire. [Which would leave 484,000 dead (or 35%) under the Republic.]
- Total war dead among all Eur. armies: 3 million [35% or 1.05M under the Republic?]
- Levy: 663,000
- Eckhardt: 1,000,000 civ. + 1,030,000 mil. = 2,030,000
- Sorokin (k+w):
- TOTAL: 731,740 [K=1/4-1/3: 185-245,000]
- By Nation:
- France: 434,700
- Austria: 201,800
- Russia: 44,100
- England: 20,340
- Prussia: 9,000
- Sardinia: 7,700
- Spain: 7,500
- Holland: 6,600
- By Sub-war:
- First Coalition (1792-97): 330,800
- Vendee (1793-96): 58,000
- France v. England (1793-1802): 77,840
- Egyption Expedition (1795-1802): 11,200
- Second Coalition (1797-1801): 253,900
- see also: French Revolution, Napoleonic Wars
Between 100,000 and 1,000,000
- War of the Spanish Succession (1701-13) [make link]
- Gaston Bodart, Losses of Life in Modern Wars (1916)
- Austrian KIA + deaths from wounds: 35,000 to 40,000
- TOTAL, both sides: 400,000
- Clodfelter: ca. 400,000 d. (both sides) incl. 35,000 Austrians
- Urlanis
- K. in Battle: 235,000
- Military. Killed and died: 700,000
- Levy: 1,251,000
- Eckhardt: 1,251,000 military
- Sorokin (k+w):
- TOTAL: 1,324,300 [K=1/4-1/3: 330-440,000]
- MEDIAN: between 700,000 and 1,251,000 [ca. 1m]
- Population of France declined from 19m to between 16m and 17m. (John Bassett Moore, "International Law and Some Current Illusions", p.119, Proceedings of the Fifty-ninth convocation of the University of the State of New York, Oct. 18 and 19, 1923)
- Northern War (1700-21) [make link]
- Clodfelter
- Sweden (+Baltics + Finland) lost 350,000 d. of all causes.
- Cost to Russia, Poland, Denmark, Saxony unkn. but higher.
- Urlanis
- K. in Battle: 70,000
- Military. Killed and died: 300,000
- Levy: 64,000
- Sorokin (k+w)
- Russia: 315,000
- Poland: 55,040
- Prussia: 3,600
- England: 1,000
- TOTAL: 374,640 [K=1/4-1/3: 95-125,000]
- The population of Finland plunged from 400,000 to 330,000 (Tapio, “War and the Great Wrath,” Finnish American Reporter, Vol. 8 p. 23, February 28, 1995; Solsten, et al., Finland: A Country Study. GPO for the Library of Congress, 1988
- Persia (1720s)
- Trager, The People's Chronology
- Invasion by Mir Mahmoud of Kandahar (1722): 80,000 inhabs d. in siege of Isfahan
- Siege of Erevan (1723): 20,000 Turks die of disease + battle before taking city.
- Massacre at Kazbin by Mahmoud (1723): 3,000 guards, + unnumbered others.
- Invasion by Ottomans (1725): 30,000 Persians, 20,000 Turks k. in siege of Tabriz; 39 Safavid princes executed.
- (1727): Ottoman invasion repulsed w/ 12,000 dead.
- TOTAL: > 175,000
- Clodfelter (1722-27)
- Turks lost 20,000 k/wd/dis taking Erevan
- 2nd assault on Tabriz: 20,000 Tks + 30,000 Persians lost (casualties)
- Caspian Sea (1722-34)
- Angus Konstam, Russian Army of the Seven Years War: 130,000 Russian soldiers died of disease fighting in this region, 1722-34
- War of the Austrian Succession (1740-48) [make link]
- Clodfelter
- Habsburgs: 28,100 KIA (excl. mortally wounded)
- French: 140,000 killed & wounded
- Levy: 359,000
- Eckhardt: 359,000 military
- Reed S. Browning, The War of the Austrian Succession (1995) p.377: "to the 100000 men in arms who perished as a consequence of the war must be added an additional 400000 civilians.... The War of the Austrian Succession killed half a million people." The same numbers (100,000 + 400,000) appear in Armstrong Starkey's War in the Age of the Enlightenment, 1700-1789 (2003) p.6.
- Urlanis:
- K. in Battle: 120,000 (p.45)
- Military. Killed and died: 450,000 (p.226)
- Sorokin: 381,470 (k+w) [K=1/4-1/3: 95-125,000]
- Austrian Succession (1741-48)
- France: 158,400
- Austria: 120,000
- England: 26,400
- Sardinia: 7,840
- Spain: 3,000
- Holland: 14,630
- TOTAL: 330,270 (k+w) [K=1/4-1/3: 80-110,000]
- 1st Silesian War (1740-42)
- Prussia: 13,500
- Austria: 9,900
- TOTAL: 23,400
- 2d Silesian War (1744-45)
- Austria: 18,200
- Prussia: 9,600
- TOTAL: 27,800
- China (1755-57) [make link]
- China vs Dzungars
- Eckhardt: 300,000 civ. + 300,000 mil. = 600,000
- John DeFrancis, In the footsteps of Genghis Khan, p.175: “By 1755, nine-tenths of the Dzungars and their allies, some six hundred thousand people, had been wiped out”
- Douglas Carruthers, Unknown Mongolia: a record of travel and exploration in north-west Mongolia and Dzungaria (1914) v.2 p.376: “When the Chinese invaded Dzungaria, they killed off her population to a man — of six hundred thousand inhabitants not one remained.”
- China (1771-76)
- Szechwan Revolt
- Eckhardt: 60,000 civ. + 60,000 mil. = 120,000
- French Revolution (1789-94) [make link]
- Encarta, "French Revolution"
- Reign of Terror
- Executed with Trial: 17,000
- Executed w/o Trial: 12,000
- Died in jail: "thousands"
- TOTAL: 40,000
- Vendee rebellion: 100,000
- Britannica: 17,000 executed and 10,000 died in jail during the Reign of Terror.
- James Trager, The People's Chronology (1992): 300-600,000 men, women, children k. in suppression of Vendée revolt. ("1793")
- Herbert Rowen, A History of Early Modern Europe: 1500-1815 (1960)
- September Massacres (Paris, 1792): >1,000
- Reign of Terror: 17,000 k. after trial and 20,000 "with less formality".
- M. de Jarjayes, A little bit of History [http://amarisee.tripod.com/FoR/Debate8.html]
- Executions: 13,800-18,613 with trial, 25-40,000 without trial
- Wars: 400,000 in Revolutionary Wars; 400-500,000 in civil wars
- Bell, First Total War, p.156: 250,000 dead in the Vendee.
- Spark Notes: 250,000 k. in 9 months of the Reign o'Terror [http://www.sparknotes.com/history/european/frenchrev/summary.html]
- Rummel: 263,000
- Clodfelter: 80-100,000 d. in Vendee in 1793
- Pitirim Sorokin, The Sociology of Revolution (1967): 1,400,000 "men perished", 1789-1801. This would include all those killed in the Revolutionary Wars as well.
- Saint-Domingue (1791-1803) [make link]
- Slave Revolt and Civil War
- Scheina, Latin America's Wars, v.2, p.18
- Haitians: 350,000 d.
- French
- soldiers: only 10,000 survived out of 55,131 sent
- sailors: 10,000 d.
- Dumas (citing Fröhlich):
- French: 60,000
- Whites: 50,000
- Colored: 50,000
- TOTAL: 160,000
- Rogozinski, A Brief History of the Caribbean (1994):
- More than one third of the 435,000 slaves died (i.e. >145,000)
- 1791: rebel slaves killed 2,000 whites
- 1793-98: 13,000 out of 20,000 British troops died, mostly of disease.
- 1802-1803: French lost 40,000 soldiers.
- James Trager, The People's Chronology (1992): 2,000 Whites and 10,000 Blacks and Mulattoes k (1791) (also, LC [http://lcweb2.loc.gov/frd/cs/httoc.html])
- China, White Lotus Rebellion (1796-1805)
- PGtH: 100,000 rebels killed
Between 10,000 and 100,000
- Hungarian Insurrection (1703-11)
- Sorokin (k+w):
- Austria: 43,200 [K=1/4-1/3: 11-14,000]
- Eckhardt: 43,000 military k.
- Russia, Bulavin's Revolt (1707-08)
- Clodfelter: 28,500 rebels k. by czarist armies
- Venetian-Austro-Turkish War (1714-18)
- Clodfelter
- Austria: 40,000 killed and wounded
- Venetian: "half that" [20,000 K&W]
- Turkish: "double the Habsburg" [80,000 K&W]
- [TOTAL: 140,000 K&W, maybe 35,000 K]
- Sorokin (Austro-Venetian War)
- War of the Quadruple Alliance (1718-20) [make link]
- Clofelter: 20,000 d. in combat
- Sorokin (k+w)
- Austria: 11,250
- England: 6,000
- Spain: 4,350
- France: 3,000
- Sardinia: 2,250
- Holland: 1,500
- TOTAL: 28,350
- Levy: 25,000
- War of the Polish Succession (1733-38)
- Sorokin (k+w)
- France: 50,400
- Austria: 32,000
- Sardinia: 7,200
- Russia: 3,000
- Spain: 3,000
- Prussia: 1,800
- Poland: 1,200
- TOTAL: 98,600
- Levy: 88,000
- Russo-Austro-Turkish War (1736-39)
- Sorokin (k+w)
- Austria: 22,400
- Russia: 15,960
- TOTAL: 38,360
- Levy: 38,000
- Delhi (1738)
- Invasion by Shah Nadir of Persia
- PGtH: 20,000 Indian soldiers k. in battle, 150,000 civilians massacred ("believed ... exaggerated")
- Clodfelter
- Battle of Karnal: 17,000 Moguls (Indians) + 2,500 Persians k.
- Delhi riot: first 900 Persians k; then 20,000 citizens k. in retaliation.
- Batavia (1740)
- 1911 Britannica "Batavia": 12,000 Chinese massacred by Dutch
- Russo-Swedish War (1741-43)
- Sorokin (k+w)
- Levy: 10,000
- French and Indian War, North American version of the 7 Years War (1754-63) [make link]
- Clodfelter: 1,512 UK KIA and 13,400 died of wounds and disease. Est. 3000 battle deaths (KIA+DOW, British side)
- Library Journal book review of Faragher, A Great and Noble Scheme: 10,000 Acadian (French) settlers died being deported from Nova Scotia of starvation, disease, warfare, exposure.
- Maratha-Afghan War (1760-61)
- Ripley and Dana, The American cyclopaedia: a popular dictionary of general knowledge, Volume 9, p.209: 200,000 Maratha soldiers k. at Battle of Panipat
- Clodfelter
- Maratha camp followers massacred by Afghans: 20,000
- Maratha soldiers k. at B. of Panipat: 20,000
- Burmese-Chinese War (1765-69)
- Clodfelter: 20,000 Chinese KIA
- Russo-Turkish War (1768-74)
- Sorokin (k+w)
- Russia: 28,000
- Poland: 11,500
- TOTAL: 39,500
- Levy: 14,000
- Annam, Tay Son Revolution (1772-1802)
- Clodefelter: 10,000 Chinese drowned in Red River after losing Hanoi
- Russia, Pugachov Revolt (1773-74)
- Clodfelter: 20,000 rebels k.
- Sorokin
- American War of Independence (1775-83) [make link]
- [Listed roughly in order of completeness.]
- Louis Duncan, Medical Men in the American Revolution (1931) Page 373
- US:
- KIA and mortally wounded: 7,000
- Disease: 63,000
- TOTAL: 70,000
- UK:
- KIA and mortally wounded: 4,000
- Disease: 27,000
- TOTAL: 31,000
- Hessians:
- KIA and mortally wounded: 1,800
- Disease: 6,000
- TOTAL: 7,800
- TOTAL: 108,800
- Clodfelter
- US dead, citing Peckham, The Toll of Independence
- KIA: 6,824, incl. naval
- POW deaths: 8,500
- Disease, etc.: 10,000
- [TOTAL: 25,324]
- British side: 15,000 KIA+DOW, incl...
- Lost at sea: 3,000
- Tories and Canadians: 3,000
- German mercenaries: 3,000
- NAm Indians: 500
- American allies:
- French: 10,000 battle dead, 75% at sea.
- Spain: 5,000
- Netherlands: 500
- [TOTAL: 37,324 battle dead, all sides, all theaters, plus 18,500 Americans dead of disease, which would give an overall total of 55,824 w/o Brtitish, French and Hessian disease deaths. It looks like about a third of the battle dead (ca. 11,500 French, US, UK) died in the war at sea.]
- Thomas Purvis, A Dictionary of American History (1995)
- US deaths:
- KIA on land: 6,090
- KIA at sea: 1,084
- Disease: 10,000
- Deaths among POWs: 8,000
- [TOTAL: 25,174]
- Oscar Reiss, Medicine and the American Revolution (1998)
- US deaths:
- KIA: 6,500
- Disease: 10,000
- Deaths among POWs: 8,500
- TOTAL: 25,000
- Official DoD: 4,435 US KIA
- The 1991 Information Please Almanac: 4,435 US KIA
- The World Almanac and Book of Facts (1985): 6,824 KIA + 18,500 other = 25,324 deaths
- Robin May, The British Army in North America 1775-1783 (1997): perhaps 12,000 Americans killed, not very different to the number of British killed.
- Edwin G. Burrows, Forgotten patriots: the untold story of American prisoners during the ...
- Rebels killed in combat: 6,824
- Loyalists (very rough est.)
- killed in combat: 1,700
- died in prison: 5,300
- TOTAL American deaths on both sides: 41,100
- Levy: 34,000
- Eckhardt: 20,000 military
- Elizabeth Fenn, Pox Americana: the great smallpox epidemic of 1775-82
- Estimated minimal mortality across North America, 1775-82: 130,658, incl. the following deaths associated with the Revolutionary War, as the armies spread the virus around the English colonies:
- Military
- Quebec: 538
- Retreat from Canada: 700
- Ethiopian Reg.: 480
- Alexandria: 20
- [TOTAL: ca. 1,738, probably incl. in all the military estimates above.]
- Civilian
- Boston: 287
- Nova Scotia: 153
- Iroquois: 170
- Hudson R.: 58
- NC Moravians: 13
- SC black loyalists: 2,000
- Wilmington NC: 5
- VA black loyalists: 3,500 of smallpox
- T Jefferson est.: of 30,000 Virginia slaves who joined the British, 27,000 died of smallpox and camp fever. [published in The writings of Thomas Jefferson, G.P.Putnam and Sons, 1895, vol. 5, p. 40]
- [TOTAL: ca. 6,186 war-related smallpox deaths, plus maybe (?) another 23,500 d. of "camp fever".]
- William Osborn: The Wild Frontier: atrocities during the American-Indian War from Jamestown Colony to Wounded Knee (2000)
- Deaths caused by specific settler atrocities (1775-83): 124
- Deaths caused by specific Indian atrocities (1775-83): 568
- Peru, Tupac Amaru rebellion (1780-83) [make link]
- Clodfelter
- Lives lost, all sides, all causes: 80,000
- Died in siege of La Paz: 60,000 k+dis.
- Korea (after 1784) [make link]
- 14 May 1984 Time: First Catholic converts in 1784. "[A]s many as 10,000 Catholics were executed in the next few decades."
- Russo-Austro-Turkish War (1787-91)
- Sorokin (k+w)
- Russia: 181,500
- Austria: 10,000
- Turkey: not included
- TOTAL: 191,500 [K=1/4-1/3: 48-64,000]
- Levy: 192,000 k
- Eckhardt: 192,000 military k
- Irish Uprising (1798) [make link]
- According to Dan Smith, 50,000 died.
- BBC: 40,000 k. in Wexford Reb., 1798 [http://www.bbc.co.uk/dna/h2g2/alabaster/A698862]
- R.F. Foster, Modern Ireland 1600-1972 (1988): 30,000 by summer 1798
Under 10,000
- Austro-Sardinian War (1701-03)
- Eckhardt: 7,000 military d.
- Sorokin (k+w)
- Austria: 6,000
- Sardinia: 1,200
- TOTAL: 7,200
- Camisard Insurrection, Languedoc (1702-06)
- Sorokin: 4,000, France (k+w)
- Eckhardt: 4,000 military d.
- Pruth River Expedition (1711)
- Sorokin: 2,000. Russia (k+w)
- Eckhardt: 2,000 military d.
- Tarnograd Confederation (1715-17)
- Sorokin: 5,500. Poland (k+w)
- Eckhardt: 6,000 military d.
- Anglo-Swedish Naval War (1715-19)
- Great Britain, 3rd Jacobite Rebellion (1715-16)
- Clodfelter: 3,000 total fatalities
- Sorokin, Pretender War
- Khiva Expedition (1716-17)
- Russo-Persian War (1722-23)
- War of the Younger Pretender (1745-46)
- Sainte-Domingue, Macandal Rebellion (1751-58)
- LC : 6,000 [http://lcweb2.loc.gov/frd/cs/httoc.html]
- Clodfelter: 6,000 k. by Macandal
- Spanish-Portuguese War (1762)
- Anglo-Indian War (1763-65)
- Sepoy Mutiny (1764)
- Gaidamack Revolt (1768)
- First Mahratta War (1778-81)
- War of the Bavarian Succession (1778-79)
- Sorokin (k+w)
- Austria: 220
- Prussia: 120
- TOTAL: 340
- Levy: 300
- Eckhardt: 2,000 military
- Anglo-Dutch War (1780-1800)
- Sorokin (k+w)
- Holland: 5,000
- England: 3,750
- TOTAL: 8,750
- First Mysore War (1782-84)
- Austria v Holland (1784-85)
- Transylvanian Insurrection (1784-85)
- Russo-Swedish War (1788-90)
- Sorokin (k+w)
- Levy: 3,000
- Austrian Netherlands Insurrection (1789-90)
- Arabia, Wahhabi uprising (1790s-1800s)
- Tariq Ali, The Clash of Fundamentalisms: Crusades, Jihads and Modernity: 5,000 inhabitants of Karbala killed (1801). Population of Taif massacred (1802).
- Second Mysore War (1790-92)
- United States, Northwest Indian War (1790-95)
- Clodfelter: 1,000+ American soldiers K.
- Zong, slave ship, 1781
- 130-132 living slaves cast overboard to save food/water [http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/business/3581815.stm or http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/aia/part1/1h280.html or http://www.washingtonpost.com/ac2/wp-dyn/A25167-2005Jan20?language=printer]
- Polish Insurrection (1792-94)
- Sorokin (k+w)
- Poland: 27,000
- Russia: 4,080
- TOTAL: 31,080 [K=1/4-1/3: 8-10,000]
- Russo-Persian War (1796)
- England v Spain (1795-1801)
- EXTREMELY PRELIMINARY TOTAL:
- Adding all the events listed here gives a very, very (very) tentative total of 18 Million unnatural deaths during the 18th Century.
- Using "How Many People Have Ever Lived on Earth?" by Carl Haub [http://www.prb.org/Content/ContentGroups/PTarticle/0ct-Dec02/How_Many_People_Have_Ever_Lived_on_Earth_.htm]
- We can calculate the number of deaths between 1750 and 1850 as [1750_population] + [Births_1750-1850] - [1850_population] = [Deaths_1750-1850] = ca. 3576 million.
- We can calculate the number of deaths between 1650 and 1750 as [1650_population] + [Births_1650-1750] - [1750_population] = [Deaths_1650-1750] = ca. 2877 million.
- Adding half of [1] and half of [2] would give us some 3226 million deaths in the 19th Century.
- Eighteen million unnatural deaths would be 0.6% of 3.2 billion deaths (or 1 out of every 179). This is a lot lower than either the 19th or 20th Centuries death rates, but we shouldn't take this as proof that the 18th Century was more peaceful. With a childhood mortality rate far higher than later eras, fewer people would live long enough to get caught up in wars and tyranny.
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Last updated November 2010
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