Philosophers and social scientists have frequently noted the propensity of humans to commit violent acts not only as individuals but as groups. The twentieth century is a legacy of the ability of humanity to engage willingly in acts of warfare and atrocity. These five broad types of question are not the only subjects of philosophical inquiry, and there are many overlaps between the categories which are subsumed within the discipline under the four major headings of Logic, Ontology, Epistemology, and Axiology. ... Terms like SOSE (Studies of Society & the Environment) not only refer to social sciences but also studies of the environment. ... Violence refers to acts —typically connotative with aggressive and criminal behaviour —which intend to cause or is causing of injury to persons, animals, or (in limited cases) property. ... (19th century - 20th century - 21st century - more centuries) Decades: 1900s 1910s 1920s 1930s 1940s 1950s 1960s 1970s 1980s 1990s The 20th century lasted from 1901 to 2000 in the Gregorian calendar (often from (1900 to 1999 in common usage). ... For other uses of War, see War (disambiguation). ... An atrocity (from the Latin atrox, atrocious, from Latin ater = matte black (as distinct from niger = shiny black)) is a term used to describe crimes ranging from an act committed against a single person to one committed against a population or ethnic group. ...

The study of mass killing

Since the 19th century various historians have investigated the number of deaths that could be attributed to warfare or ideology. In the 20th century Joel David Singer and Melvin Small analyzed conflicts and Singer argued in The Wages of War, that a conflict with a particular death toll is statistically related to time of events. In recent years there has been an increasing belief among those who study conflict and fatalities related to it, that civil wars in particular are related to measurable economic phenomenon, and the scale of conflict is related to the reach of these factors. A civil war is a war in which the competing parties within the same country or empire struggle for national control of state power. ...

Several researchers have adopted the term democide to refer to fatalities caused by government intention, calling it "murder by government", and they argue that wars should be included with genocide among totals of deaths caused by government action. Others, such as Gregory H. Stanton have adopted the term politicide. He argues that there are 8 distinct phases to genocide or other mass killing: Classification, Symbolization, Dehumanization, Organization, Polarization, Preparation, Extermination and Denial. What he labels "Stage 7" conflicts are those with active killing, but that conflicts can cycle through Polarization, Preparation and Extermination repeatedly. His organization tracks killings since 1945 [1]. Democide is a term coined by political scientist R.J. Rummel in his book Death by Government to describe the murder of any person or people by a government, including genocide, politicide, and mass murder.[1] For example, government-sponsored killings for political reasons would be considered democide. ... Genocide is defined by the JERRFGGHH and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide]] (CPPCG) article 2 as any of the following acts part, a national, ethnic, racial or religious group, as such: Killing members of the group; Causing serious bodily or mental harm to members of the group; Deliberately inflicting... Politicide is a punk band formed in the early 80s. ...

The field of Peace studies has been the source for continuing work on deaths because of conflict or other state decision. Marxist historian Eric Hobsbawm in The Age of Extremes: A History of the World, 1914– 1991 (1994) wrote that 187 million people died in the "short 20th century" because of what he termed "government decision". Robert McNamara published a 1991 paper entitled "The Post-Cold War World: Implications for Military Expenditure in the Developing Countries" which estimated 40 million deaths in the developing economies since World War II. Eric John Blair Hobsbawm (born June 9, 1917) is a British Marxist historian and author, once the leading theorist of the now defunct Communist Party of Great Britain. ... Robert McNamara in 1964 Robert Strange McNamara (born June 9, 1916) is an American business executive and a former United States Secretary of Defense. ...

Estimates of mass killings

Milton Leitenberg's estimate

Milton Leitenberg, of the Center for International and Security Studies, published a 2003 paper which focused on the post war era, and gave very detailed estimates for all major conflicts between 1945 and 2000. His estimate for the total century is based on the following numbers:

• World War I mortality, between 13 and 15 million.
• The Armenian Genocide of 1915, 1 million
• The Russian civil war of 1918–1922 and the Polish-Soviet conflict towards its end, deaths of over 12.5 million in Russia alone.
• The Chaco War, between Paraguay and Bolivia, 1928–1933, approximately 3 million deaths.
• The Spanish Civil War, 1936–1939, 600,000 deaths.
• Various colonial wars, approximately 1.5 million deaths.
• World War II, deaths of between 50 and 60 million.
• Wars/conflicts between 1945 and 2000, deaths of 40 million.
• Soviet collectivization and "dekulakization" 16 million to 50 million, though some included in World War II totals in these estimates.
• Deaths under Mao, between 16 million and 30 million.

Adding in a variety of other pogroms and civil wars, he comes to a final estimate of 216 million. This does not include what he calls "structural violence": deaths in under-developed nations because of crime, poverty, environmental degradation, disease, malnutrition not part of famine, contaminated water and lack of available medicine. He estimates that this reached 17 or 18 million per year by 2000.

Matthew White's estimate

Matthew White has conducted a study, based on figures quoted from a number of divergent and reliable sources to arrive at a conservative estimate of nearly 170 million lives lost to war and major atrocities in the last century. Because fatality statistics are subject to a great deal of uncertainty in turbulent times, White has opted to conservatism in his reporting of statistics. He also employs a commonly-used statistical strategem which forces extreme values at the upper and lower ends of the data field to cancel each other out, resulting in a value closer to the probable mean. An act of war - the atomic bombing of Nagasaki, Japan on August 9, 1945, effectively ending World War II. The bombs over Hiroshima (August 6) and Nagasaki immediately killed over 120,000 people. ... This page is about centuries as units of time. ... An example of statistics used in educational assessment. ...

Using existing data, White categorizes these twentieth century events according to most reliable fatality data. While "minor" atrocities and civil conflicts will add to the number, this table compiles those conflicts whose death tolls are close to or exceed half a million souls.

These figures are subject to the usual margins of error. They also include a number of collateral fatalities: civilian casualties of war, democide, famine, and other hardships caused by the social and economic disruption which results from large-scale conflict. For conflicts which began before 1900 or ended after 1999, only those deaths within the 20th century are included. Combatants Allied Powers Axis Powers Commanders {{{commander1}}} {{{commander2}}} Strength {{{strength1}}} {{{strength2}}} Casualties 17 million military deaths 7 million military deaths {{{notes}}} World War II, also known as the Second World War (sometimes WW2 or WWII or World War Two), was a mid-20th century conflict that engulfed much of the... The neutrality of this article is disputed. ... Iosif (usually anglicized as Joseph) Vissarionovich Stalin (Russian: Иосиф Виссарионович Сталин), original name Ioseb Jughashvili (Georgian: იოსებ ჯუღაშვილი; see Other names section) (December 21, 1879[1] – March 5, 1953) was a Bolshevik revolutionary and leader of the Soviet Union. ... Combatants Entente Powers Central Powers Commanders {{{commander1}}} {{{commander2}}} Strength {{{strength1}}} {{{strength2}}} Casualties > 5 million military deaths > 3 million military deaths {{{notes}}} World War I, also known as the First World War and (before 1939) the Great War, the War of the Nations, War to End All Wars was a world... The Russian Civil War was fought between 1918 and 1922. ... The Congo Free State was a kingdom privately and controversially owned by King Leopold II of Belgium that included the entire area now known as the Democratic Republic of the Congo. ... The Korean War, from June 25, 1950 to cease-fire on July 27, 1953 (the war has not ended officially), was a conflict between North Korea and South Korea. ... The Indochina War was an almost thirty year war in Vietnam between 1946 and 1975, affecting the three Indochinese nations, namely Vietnam, Cambodia and Laos. ... The Chinese Civil War (Traditional: 國共内戰; Simplified: 国共内战; Hanyu Pinyin: ; literally Nationalist-Communist Civil War) was a conflict in China between the Kuomintang (Chinese Nationalist Party; KMT) and the Communist Party of China (CCP). ... The expulsion of Germans after World War II was the mass deportation of people considered Germans (both Reichsdeutsche and Volksdeutsche) from Soviet-occupied areas outside the Soviet occupation zone of Germany, and is a major part of the German exodus from Eastern Europe after World War II. The process, which... Motto: Démocratie - Justice - Unité (French: Democracy - Justice - Unity) Anthem: Debout Congolais Capital Kinshasa Largest city Kinshasa Official language(s) French (Lingala, Kikongo, Swahili, Tshiluba are national languages) Government President Transitional government Joseph Kabila Independence  - Date From Belgium June 30, 1960 Area  â€¢ Total  â€¢ Water (%)   2,345,410 km² (12th) 3. ... Some of the Khmer Rouge leadership during their period in power. ... Mural by Diego Rivera at Palacio de Gobierno (Mexico City) The Mexican Revolution, sometimes called the Mexican Revolution of 1910, was a violent social and cultural movement, colored by socialist, nationalist, and anarchist tendencies, that began with the popular rejection of dictator Porfirio Díaz Mori in 1910 and continued... National motto: Peace, Unity, Freedom Official language Igbo, English Capital Enugu Largest city Port Harcourt Head of State Chukwuemeka Odumegwu Ojukwu Chief of General Staff (VP) Philip Effiong Area ?- Total ?- % water Population;- Total 13,500,000 (1967) Currency Biafran pound (BIAP) Created May 30, 1967 Dissolved January 15, 1970 National... Indochina, or the Indochinese Peninsula, is a large peninsula in Southeast Asia. ... Communism - Wikipedia /**/ @import /w/skins-1. ... A river in the Amazon rainforest The Amazon is a rainforest in South America. ... The Spanish Civil War (July 1936–April 1939) was a conflict in which the incumbent Second Spanish Republic and political left-wing groups fought against a right-wing nationalist insurrection led by General Francisco Franco, who eventually succeeded in ousting the Republican government and establishing a dictatorship. ... North Korea, officially the Democratic Peoples Republic of Korea (DPRK; Korean: Chosŏn Minjujuŭi Inmin Konghwaguk; Hangul: 조선민주주의인민공화국; Hanja: 朝鮮民主主義人民共和國), is a country in eastern Asia, covering the northern half of the peninsula of Korea. ...

See also List of wars and disasters by death toll. A death toll is the number of dead as a result of war, violence, accident, natural disaster, extreme weather, or disease. ...

External links

Twentieth Century Atlas - Top-ranked Atrocities [http://www.hawaii.edu/powerkills/ University of Hawaii, professor RJ Rummels page on Freedom, Democracy, Peace; Power,Democide, and War]