Superfact 93 : Around 20 to 30 million people died in the Taiping Rebellion, 1850 to 1864. It is the deadliest civil war in known history, the deadliest war in the 19th century, and the second deadliest war in all of known history. World War II was the deadliest.
The Taiping rebellion is estimated to have caused the deaths of 20-30 million people. However, some estimates estimate that as many as 70 million people might have died in the Taiping rebellion. The Mongol invasions and conquests cost 30-60 million lives, but they comprised many wars and took place during a time period of 162 years (1206 – 1368). Therefore, you typically don’t count that as one war. Also note that the estimate for deaths caused by World War I does not include the Spanish flu.
I consider this a super fact because it is true, an important history fact and despite the enormous losses in the Taiping rebellion, a lot of people have never heard of it.
Deadliest Wars
- Taiping rebellion, China, 1850 to 1864 – estimated deaths 20 to 30 million people.
- Second World War 1939 to 1945 – estimated deaths 70 to 85 million.
- The Mongol invasions and conquests, multiple wars – estimated 30 to 60 million dead.
- The Three Kingdoms War 184–280 AD in China – estimated to have resulted in 36 to 40 million deaths. Note this war consisted of multiple wars.
- Manchu Conquest of China (1618-1683) – estimated deaths 25 million.
- First World War 1914 to 1918 – estimated deaths 15 to 22 million.
- Conquests of Timur (1369-1405) – estimated deaths 15 to 22 million.
- An Lushan rebellion (754-763) – estimated deaths 13 million.
- Spanish conquest of Mexico (1519–1530) – estimated deaths 10.5 million.
- Russian civil war 1917 to 1922 – estimated 10 million deaths.
- Spanish conquest of the Inca Empire (1533–1572) – estimated deaths 7.7 million.
- The Chinese Civil War (1927-1950) – estimated deaths 7 million.
- Reconquista (718–1492), multiple wars – estimated deaths 7 million.
- Crusades (1095–1291), multiple wars – estimated deaths 1 to 9 million.
- The 30 years’ war – estimated 4.5 to 8 million deaths.
- Napoleonic wars – estimated 5 million deaths (or 3,250,000 to 6,500,000).
- The Second Congo War 1996 to 2007 – estimated 3 to 5.4 million deaths.
- Vietnam War 1954 to 1975 – estimated 1.4 to 3.4 million deaths.
- Korean War 1950 to 1953 – at least 2.5 million deaths.
- Biafra war 1967 to 1970 – an estimated 500,000 to 3 million deaths
- Second Sudanese civil war 1983 to 2005 – an estimated –1 million to 2 million deaths.
- Algerian war of independence 1954 to 1962 – an estimated 500,000 to 1,500,000 deaths.
- First Sudanese civil war 1955 to 1972 – an estimated 500,000 to one million deaths.
- Somalia civil war 1988-1990 – an estimated 350,000–1,000,000.
- American Civil War – an estimated 700,000 deaths.
The links above are from Encyclopedia Britannica and from Wikipedia. Also note that after the Napoleonic Wars entry I only listed wars that happened after World War II and resulted in around a million deaths. The exception is the American Civil War. The list would be too long otherwise.
The Taiping Rebellion
The Taiping Rebellion was a civil war in China between the Qing dynasty and the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom. The Taiping Heavenly Kingdom was a theocratic monarchy that tried to overthrow the Qing dynasty. It was led by Hong Xiuquan, a religious leader who believed he was Jesus younger brother. In the end the Qing dynasty prevailed but at a great cost.
To read a related post of mine with a different perspective see “We are living in relatively peaceful times“.
To see the other Super Facts click here
Super Facts 
All those wars. Sad, very tragic but true. And we humans seemingly haven’t done much growing up where it’s concerned, either.
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Still, that is just a short list of the worst. Well the top half of the list is the worst. The second half is the worst of the more recent wars. There’s been thousands of wars claiming several hundreds of millions of lives throughout history. The worst war in this century was the Congo Civil War.
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Yes, I know. The number of wars throughout recorded history are mind-numbing.
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Yes, at least 1,500 wars just since 1800
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I must admit, I don’t know that much about Chinese history. I know more about Japan because of James Clavell’s books and my visit to Japan. This is very interesting.
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Thank you Robbie. My impression is that most people have not heard of the Taiping rebellion despite it being the worst civil war in known history, and despite it killing 35 times more people than the American Civil War. That’s why I picked it as a super fact.
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Yes, I understood that and I know it is true. Western nations don’t know much about other countries and their history.
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Yes you are right Robbie. If I stated the same fact in China I guess most people would know, but not in the US or Europe.
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Exactly. I think the Chinese and Japanese know a lot about European history. They tour Europe a lot. I don’t know if they tour America as much.
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What a horrifying Super Fact, Thomas. Your graphic is a heart-wrenching one. I knew nothing about the Taiping War, but looking at the image, I realize how little I know about all these wars. Thank you for sharing this research. If only, if only … we humans could learn from our mistakes and grow in diplomacy.
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Thank you Gwen. My impression is that most people have not heard of the Taiping rebellion despite it being the worst civil war in known history, and despite it killing 35 times more people than the American Civil War. I also just looked up the number of wars. At least 1,500 wars since 1800. Today it was a sad super fact.
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💔
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It’s mind boggling to try to imagine so many deaths.
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Yes at least 150 million people killed in wars, possibly more than a billion.
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Also worth mentioning: Spanish Civil War (1936-1939), Estimates for the total death toll of the Spanish Civil War commonly range from 500,000 to over 1 million, including combatants, civilians, and victims of political repression. Roughly 200,000 deaths were direct combat fatalities, while a significant portion resulted from systemic killings, malnutrition, and bombings. The conflict is considered a prelude to World War II; Nazi Germany and Fascist Italy supported the Nationalist rebels in their efforts to topple a democratically-elected Republic, while the Soviet Union supported the Republican side, which was ideologically sympathetic to Moscow at a time when Europe’s politics were dominated by the conflict between the far right (fascism) and the far left (Communism).
Several other pertinent points: Ken Burns’ The Civil War (about, of course, the American Civil War), briefly mentions the Taiping Civil War and its staggering death toll in one episode, It’s almost an aside, but Burns and Geoffrey C. Ward wanted the viewers to remember that there is a world beyond the United States, a world with bigger and deadlier “civil wars” than our own. And, finally, the Vietnam War did not end in 1974; direct U.S. military involvement in the Vietnam War ended on January 27, 1973, with all combat troops withdrawn from South Vietnam by spring of that year. The war ended with the fall of Saigon on April 30, 1975, after a surprisingly fast North Vietnamese military campaign which began in December 1974 and gained momentum when the South Vietnamese armed forces, now without American assistance, collapsed.
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Wikipedia lists the Spanish Civil War death toll as 0.35–0.47 million. But I certainly believe your number. When I made my short list I ignored everything below 5 million deaths (according to Wikipedia and Encyclopedia Brittanica) and then I listed conflicts after World War II that were close to a million deaths or above. The exception is the American Civil War, which I included for comparison. I also put the Taping Rebellion ahead of World War II but I tried to order everything else using the midpoint of death estimates. Anyway, that is why the Spanish Civil War is not on my list. There’s been an estimated 1,500 wars or more since 1800, so my list is a very short list.
However, the Spanish Civil War is certainly an important war, with it being a prelude to World War II. I can certainly understand that is of great interest to historians, like yourself. Ken Burns book sounds very interesting. I updated the Vietnam war years to say 1975. Thank you for that correction.
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Wow, how can I never have heard of the Taiping Rebellion? It seems crazy that we weren’t taught about it in history class at school! I also had no idea that that the estimate for deaths caused by World War I does not include the Spanish flu. I always learn so much here!
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The “Spanish flu” should be more aptly called the “American flu” or the “Fort Riley flu.” The origin of the pandemic was the area around Ft. Riley, KS, where thousands of American soldiers were trained by the Army before crossing the Atlantic and joining the Allied armies on the Western Front. The Allied governments censored reporting on the pandemic to conceal the origin point of the pandemic, and Spain, a neutral country, was the only major European country to publish reports about the deadly influenza. That association between the disease and the country disseminating uncensored reporting about it led to the unfortunate (and misleading) misnomer, “Spanish flu.”
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Thank you for the interesting information Alex.
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Thank you Ada. It seemed to me like most people have not heard of the Taiping rebellion despite it being the worst civil war in known history. I think everybody is saying that, which is why it makes for a good suoer fact. The sources I’ve seen typically considers Spanish flu as separate from World War I. However, you can argue, as I’ve also seen, that the Spanish flu was caused by World War I, so it is important to mention that you are not (or are) including it in your numbers.
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Wow. I have heard of the Taiping Rebellion and knew it was a slugfest, but didn’t realize how incredibly lethal it was. Just incredibly sad.
On a slightly related topic, I’ve read that V. Zelenskyy had claimed approx. 35.000 Russians were lost every day in March. I’ve been trying to confirm that. Even knowing there are a lot of Russians, 35,000 people a day is a lot to lose. They need to get the hell out of Ukraine like yesterday.
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Yes the Taiping rebellion was a major disaster in human history. It is great that you knew about it. 35,000 per day sounds like a lot. Wikipedia estimates the number of deaths in the Russo-Ukrainian War to be 0.35–0.48 million, which would be reached in less than two weeks with 35,000 dead per day. However, it is also important to distinguish casaulties and deaths. Casaulties include, in addition to deaths, injuries, psychological trauma, missing, or captured.
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I’ve never heard of it, that’s horrible!
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Yes that seems to be what most people are saying, which makes it a good super fact. A big surprising fact. Thank you Travel Spirit.
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Dreadful but really interesting, Thomas.
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Yes indeed dreadful. Thank you so much Chris.
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Java Bean: “Ayyy, it seems like nothing is quite as good at harming humans as other humans are. Well except maybe mosquitoes.”
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That is a very good observation Java Bean. If you go back in time humans killed several millions of humans every year but it is less now (despite the news), on average only 600,000 people per year, so you are right, now mosquitos allegedly kill more people per year than other humans.
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