In summary, then (highest estimate of deaths):
..........WAR..........................LOCATION..PERIOD..DEATHS..RATIO
Three Kingdom Wars...........China...........184-280..40 million..0.27
An Shi Rebellion..................China............756-63....36 million..0.17
Mongol Conquests...............Asia/Europe.1207-79...60 million..0.15
Timor the Lame Conquests..Asia Major..1369-1405.20 million.0.056
Napoleonic Wars.................Europe........1804-15....16 million..0.016
Taiping Rebellion................China...........1851-64....50 million..0.04
American Civil War..........U.S..............1861-65.......1 million..0.0007
World War I.......................Europe........1914-18......66 million..0.04
World War II......................World.........1939-45......72 million..0.03
Korean War.....................Korea.........1950-53.....3.5 million..0.0014
Vietnam War...................Vietnam.....1945-75.........5 million..0.0017
Iraq War............................Iraq...........2003-08......1.3 million..0.0002
The RATIO represents maximum deaths divided by the approximate world population of that period, and you will note the rapid decline compared to those early wars.
Americans tend to get wrapped up in their own conflicts. No one outside of China remembers the Taiping Rebellion, a so-called Rebellion of Great Peace, a religious revolt against the Qing government, which occurred at the same time period as the American Civil War. The Chinese civil war killed 50 times more people, and the American 1 million is somewhat exaggerated, as the more accurate estimate is something under that figure. But even that Asian war is puny compared to the Mongol Conquests and the Three Kingdom Wars. Ominous, though, that all these truly great wars occurred in, or otherwise were caused by, China.
World War I is anomalous because most of those deaths were due to the Spanish Flu. However, you can see how relatively insignificant were the Korean, Vietnam and Iraq wars. The trend, as surmised in the opening paragraph, indeed, seems promising. Our major wars are killing fewer and fewer people, per capita. The trend is towards peace.
Korean War.....................Korea.........1950-53.....3.5 million..0.0014
Vietnam War...................Vietnam.....1945-75.........5 million..0.0017
Iraq War............................Iraq...........2003-08......1.3 million..0.0002
The RATIO represents maximum deaths divided by the approximate world population of that period, and you will note the rapid decline compared to those early wars.
Americans tend to get wrapped up in their own conflicts. No one outside of China remembers the Taiping Rebellion, a so-called Rebellion of Great Peace, a religious revolt against the Qing government, which occurred at the same time period as the American Civil War. The Chinese civil war killed 50 times more people, and the American 1 million is somewhat exaggerated, as the more accurate estimate is something under that figure. But even that Asian war is puny compared to the Mongol Conquests and the Three Kingdom Wars. Ominous, though, that all these truly great wars occurred in, or otherwise were caused by, China.
World War I is anomalous because most of those deaths were due to the Spanish Flu. However, you can see how relatively insignificant were the Korean, Vietnam and Iraq wars. The trend, as surmised in the opening paragraph, indeed, seems promising. Our major wars are killing fewer and fewer people, per capita. The trend is towards peace.
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The Dow Jones Industrials went pass 9000 today, but settled +299 (3.5%) at 8934. The stimulus was that Congress and the White House has settled on something on the order of $15 billion (from that already appropriated $25 billion for a Big 3 innovation fund) to be voted on as early as tomorrow for disbursal next week to tide the industry over until Obama comes into office. Ford is not expected to share in this bailout. That $60 billion to $110 billion estimated future need (from non-Detroit analysts) will be left to the new Congress and White House. World stock markets all shot up earlier today, about 8% for Hong Kong, France, Germany and the Netherlands.
Oil prices also increased, $3.34/barrel to $44.15. T. Boone Pickens, that wind/gas baron who a few months ago predicted oil wouldn't drop below $100/barrel, made another stab: oil prices are unlikely to fall below $40/barrel and could well be back up to $100/bbl in a year. He should be right this time.
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Whoops, gold went up $17/toz to $772. Obama is saying the worst is yet to come. Any bear market always has moments of exuberance. Maybe people are diversifying their portfolios by buying gold. Remember, though, that the all-time real (meaning in today's dollar) high price of gold was something in excess of $2272/toz (toz stands for troy ounce) soon after the second energy crisis.
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