Which rulers caused the highest and lowest number of losses of human lives for establishment of their empires?

Question

Aryans, Mauryans, Guptas, Greeks, Rajputs, Mangols, Moghuls, Britishers, Dutches, Portugese, Romans, French etc. etc.

Justification, if any, may also please be given to substantiate the reply.

The period covering nineteenth and twentieth centuries is almost known but the information regarding Stalin, Httler and others is really shocking. It seems from the replies that the modern period has witnessed maximum number of human losses as compared to medivial and ancient period. It would, however, be intresting to compile information in respect of diffrent rulers and their faulty life taking war methods for ancient , medievial and modern periods for important regions of the world.

Answer 1

Wow I never knew Stalin killed that many people.

Answer 2

This is a very hard question to answer because until fairly recent times there were no population censuses nor records of lives lost in warfare. Medieval records are not always reliable as there are often exaggerations in one direction or another depending upon the personal agenda and/or opinion of the person writing the annal.

Much also depends upon whether the empires were simply the result of deliberate conquest of lands and populations (such as the Roman or Mongol), trade-based (the recent British, Dutch and French empires) or religious zealotry, such as the various Islamic empires (which you did not mention) and the medieval Spanish empire.

The Soviet empire under Stalin alone is believed to have been responsible for the death of at least 40 million people and the Nazi empire probably took at least 20-25 million.

However, raw numbers can also be misleading, as populations are much larger today. For example, 5,000 people killed out of a population of 10,000 (which might have been the case in an ancient battle) is relatively more devastating to a nation than the loss of 25,000 out of a population of several million.

Answer 3

I believe Stalin is still number 1( wikipedia: estimates range from a low of 3 million to as high as 60 million,Pioneering researcher Robert Conquest,[41] meanwhile, has revised his original estimate of up to 30 million victims down to 20 million.

Followed closely by Hitler( 7 million Jews, 6 million Christians and other minorities).

Then I think would be Pol Pot(quotes include the CIA, Amnesty International, and Pol Pot himself, who quoted approx. 1 million)

Idi Amin Dada( 500,000-Wikepedia)would be third.

Answer 4

Your question does not lend itself to a simple count to arrive at an answer. You have to look at what was known as the "world" in terms of size and population during each period.Then with the use of statistics,extrapolate to get an idea of world population relative to each group before you can look at the numbers.As to justification, it is no different from the mindset that exists today:"we are better than you, superior to you ;stronger than you so we can do with you as we like."We also want what you have.

Answer 5

I would have to say the Mongols because by the establishment of their Empire, they brought the Balck Plague to Europe ad thereby eliminated half of the Population of said continent.

Answer 6

the germans, they wanted to get rid of all the jews
i meant Stalin, Hitler

Answer 7

No definite answer.