How many wars throughout history

The British Navigation acts, the closing of western lands, the restricting of the colonial currency, the Quartering Act, the Stamp Act, and The Townshend Acts enacted by the British Parliament contributed to the revolution of colonists. In , the British Parliament permitted the East India Company to sell tea in the colonies at very low prices, which resulted in the Boston tea party. The Revolutionary War began in The second Continental Congress was held in May, in Philadelphia.

In , the United States declared independence. In , by the Treaty of Paris, the independence of the 13th colonies was recognized by Great Britain, and the war ended. The United States declared war on Britain in British blockaded the American coast. After many battles, the war was ended in by the Treaty of Ghent, which was the Belgium of old. The previous two graphs showed absolute numbers, but as the world has seen rapid population growth see our entry on global population growth , it is more appropriate to look at relative numbers.

Here we show the battle death in state-based conflicts per , people per year. The figures are shown by type of conflict.

The stacked area chart here shows the number of ongoing conflicts each year has risen. This increase however only relates to civil conflicts within states. Conflicts related to the expansion or defence of colonial empires ended with decolonisation.

Conflicts between states have almost ceased to exist. For this reason, statistics on the number of wars need to be interpreted alongside data on the size of these conflicts. The increase in the number of wars is predominantly an increase of smaller and smaller conflicts. This follows from the previously shown facts that the number of war victims declined while the number of conflicts increased.

The decreasing deadliness of conflicts can be seen in the bar chart. To answer the question of how many people die in conflicts today, and how this has changed over time, we can turn to a number of different datasets. There are certainly similarities across the different sources. Overall they show a decline in conflict deaths into the s, followed by an increase this decade.

But there are also large differences. Most noticeably, there is a large jump in — marking the Rwandan genocide — which is present in some series, but absent from others. If you hover over the datapoints, you can see the exact figures: the highest figure for a given year is typically well more than double the lowest. Discrepancies between different sources of conflict deaths data are partly to do with the differences in how the underlying source information — for instance newswires, death registers, government or NGO reports, or indeed other conflict databases — are selected and interpreted.

Below we relate some of the differences visible in the chart above in terms of some key conceptual differences lying along three dimensions: Who , How and What.

The Correlates of War series aims to include only deaths of military personnel, whereas the other sources capture — at least to some extent — civilian deaths too. Blog - Latest News. This war spanned over a period of 5 years and caused the death of around 5. Although the genocides accounted for a large number of casualties, diseases and famine caused by the war were also partially responsible.

The Napoleonic Wars refers to a series of conflicts between the French Empire and the coalitions that fought it: the War of the Third Coalition, the Fourth, the Fifth, the Sixth and the Seventh and final coalition. During this period, it is estimated that around 3.

The conflicts eventually drew in the great powers of Europe, resulting in one of the longest, most destructive and deadliest conflicts in European history. It is estimated that the war was responsible for the deaths of 8 million civilians and military personnel alike. The short-fought war ended with no clear victor.

Yet, it did much for the pride of the young country and certainly gave a boost to its national identity. After fighting the Second Seminole War in Florida , American army officers were well-trained to handle their next conflict. It began when Texas gained independence from Mexico in and culminated with the U. By early , the first stage was set for battle and in May, U. President James K. Polk served — asked for a declaration of war. The battles stretched beyond the Texas borders, reaching all the way to the California coast.

In the end, the southern border of the United States was established with the Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo in The American Civil War would become known as one of the bloodiest and most divisive in history. At times, it literally pitted family members against each other as North and South fought hard battles.

In total, over , soldiers were killed from both sides, more than in all other U. The cause of the Civil War was the Confederate desire to secede from the Union. Behind this were many factors, including enslavement, state's rights, and political power.

It was a conflict that had been brewing for years, and despite best efforts, it could not be prevented. War broke out in and battles raged until General Robert E. Lee — surrendered to General Ulysses S. Grant — at Appomattox in The United States was preserved, but the war left scars on the nation that would take quite some time to heal.

It was fought over Cuba, because the U. The other cause was the sinking of the USS Maine, and though many battles took place on land, the Americans claimed many victories at sea. The result of this brief conflict was American control over the Philippines and Guam. It was the first display of U. While the previous century had a good deal of conflict, no one could predict what the 20th century had in store.

This became an era of global conflict and it started in with the outbreak of World War I. The assassination of Archduke Franz Ferdinand of Austria on June 28, , led to this war that lasted through In the beginning, it was two alliances of three countries each pitted against one another.

By war's end, more countries, including the U. The fighting spanned and devastated most of Europe, and over 15 million people were killed. Yet, this was only the beginning. World War I set the stage for further tensions and one of the most devastating wars in history.

It is hard to imagine the devastation that could take place in six short years. What would become known as World War II saw fighting on a scale like never before. As in the previous war, countries took sides and were divided into two groups. This war started due to numerous factors. A weakened global economy and the Great Depression, and Hitler and Mussolini's rise to power, were chief among them.