Historical events that brought the greatest losses to humanity

Historically, humanity suffered the greatest damage from its own actions. Neither deadly epidemics nor natural disasters have brought as many deaths as the thirst for power and profit. We have chosen the deadliest events for the human population in the known history of the world.

The first black slaves crossed the Atlantic Ocean in the middle of the XVI century. The heyday of the slave trade in the colonies of North and South America occurred at the end of the XVII-XVIII century, and in the XIX century this kind of inhuman business gradually came to naught.

The passengers of the slave ship

The colonizers' need for the cheapest possible force for settlements in the New World was enormous. People on the Black Continent were loaded into the holds of sailboats like firewood, and on the way no one cared about their health and nutrition. In case of problems, black slaves were thrown overboard along with the cargo, right with shackles and chains. But even without such force majeure, 1-2 out of 5 people survived on a transatlantic journey.

The founder of the Chinese Yuan dynasty in 1260 was Kublai, the grandson of the great conqueror Genghis Khan. It was the shortest dynasty in the history of the Middle Kingdom — it was interrupted in 1368, having existed for a little more than a century. The last few years of the reign of Kublai's descendants were terrible — bloody uprisings, wars with neighbors, diseases and famine.

Khan Kublai's campaign against Japan. XIII century 

The once flourishing provinces of China turned into deserts inhabited only by wild animals and dashing robbers. With the coming to power of the Ming Dynasty, order gradually returned to the empire, but by that time the population of China was missing 30 million people.

Another historical event that brought huge losses to China was the rebellion of An Lushan, the imperial commander of the Tang Dynasty. The commander led an uprising against the emperor in 755, declaring himself the new monarch and founder of the Yan Dynasty.

An Lushan

The rebellion was suppressed only 8 years later, in 763. The number of victims in this ruthless massacre was so significant even on the scale of a huge empire that the Tang Dynasty could not cope with the shock, and its decline soon followed.

And again, China is ruthless towards its residents. The uprising, which began in 1850 and was led by Hong Xiuquan, who declared himself a descendant of... Jesus Christ, lasted 14 years. The Heavenly State of Great Prosperity (Taiping Tiango) proclaimed by the impostor gave the name to this disastrous event for millions of Chinese.

Fighters from the Taiping Army

The beginning of the rebellion coincided with the economic crisis and the opium wars, so millions of people who died of hunger and disease were added to the violent deaths. Also, unfortunately for the inhabitants of the empire, it was at this time that a number of destructive natural disasters occurred in the country, which contributed to the general devastation.

Once again China, but this time the enlightened and humane XX century. The so-called Big Leap that took place from 1958 to 1961 was undertaken by the communist pariah in order to bring the country out of the number of underdeveloped agrarian countries into industrial powers.

A starving family in a rural area in northern China

As we can see, everything worked out. But the breakthrough cost the lives of 43 million residents of the country, as the government's call to briefly "tighten the belt" in the name of a bright idea coincided with three years of floods, crop failures and repression. Whole villages were dying of hunger, and there was no one to bury the dead.

One of the largest states in the history of mankind was the Horde. During the heyday of the Mongol Empire, under Genghis Khan, it occupied 16% of the entire earth's land! To keep entire peoples in subjection for more than 200 years, the Mongols had to act with maximum cruelty and cynicism.

Fortunately, the invasion stopped on the approaches to densely populated Central Europe. If the Mongol-Tatar army had been able to move on, the losses could have been twice as much.

As has happened more than once, the cause of the war was the imperial ambitions of states that became cramped in a small Europe. Having broken into formidable alliances, they clashed with each other, gradually dragging almost the entire planet into the slaughter.

Wounded British soldiers are waiting to be transported to the rear. Western Front

There have been longer wars in the history of mankind, but the planet has never known such a large-scale conflict. The terrible novelty of this war has become toxic gases, which account for hundreds of thousands of dead and maimed.

After a relatively short break, the world was shaken by a new military catastrophe, the causes of which, as last time, was the cutting of the European "pie". Beginning in 1939, the war broke the world into two camps - the Axis and the Anti-Hitler Coalition.

Fighting in Africa

In this war, the most deadly mechanisms and technologies were used, and on a huge scale, which only automatic weapons are worth. In addition, in this military conflict, which became the bloodiest in the history of mankind, a lot of civilians were killed, both because of the Holocaust and other genocides, and because of mass strategic bombing.

No war in the history of mankind has brought as many deaths as the European colonization of the New World. As a result of the "development" of overseas territories, two continents were practically devastated. The Spaniards, who found paradise on earth in the XV century, were disappointed that it turned out to be densely populated.

Spaniards vs. Aztecs

But the Hidalgo were not used to succumb to difficulties and began to liberate the lands from the aborigines who had settled on them. As a result, entire civilizations that had a thousand-year history and had a fairly high level of development fell. Later, the British, French, Portuguese got involved in colonization, and the Indians of the two Americas simply could not find a place on their native land. Diseases and alcohol, generously "donated" by overseas guests, completed the work.