User:Dwindrim~enwiki/Testaroonies!!!

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.

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 atrocity in the last millenium. 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 strategem which forces extreme values at the upper and lower ends of the data field to cancel each other out, resulting in a "best fit" value.

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 values are subject to the usual margins of error. They also include all varieties of atrocity: battle deaths, civilian casualties of war, democide, famine caused by the economic disruption, etc.