User:David Kernow/List of massacres involving thousands of people
User:David Kernow/List of massacres involving thousands of people/Preface to lists of massacres
Ancient and Middle Ages (to 1500)
[edit]Date | Name | Deaths | Location | Summary |
---|---|---|---|---|
334 BCE | Destruction of Thebes | c.6,000 to 8,000 | Greece |
Alexander the Great slaughters the population of the city following a revolt. (Subsequently Alexander massacres at least a quarter of a million city dwellers at Sindimana, Gaza and other locations.) |
260 BCE | Battle of Changping | 400,000 | Jincheng, China |
The State of Qin defeats the State of Zhao, killing 400,000 Zhao people. The battle becomes a decisive victory in the establishment of the Qin Dynasty. |
150 BCE | Lusitanian Massacres | c.8,000 | Spain |
Roman troops under Galba massacre Lusitani citizens after convincing them to surrender. |
71 BCE | Third Servile War | c.6,000 | Roman Republic |
Surrendering slaves are crucified along the Via Appia. |
532 | Nika riots | c.30,000 | Byzantine Empire |
After a sports rivalry turns into a full-scale riot, Emperor Justinian I locks the rioters in the Hippodrome and has them killed. |
650 | Mesopotamian massacres | 10,000 | Mesopotamia |
Arabs conquer Mesopotamia and kill 10,000 Assyrians and other Christians. All others flee to the Iraq's mountains or convert to Islam. |
782 | Bloody Verdict of Verden | 4,500 | Verden, Germany |
Massacre of non-Christian Saxons by Charlemagne; actual scale subject to debate. |
1096 | German Crusade | c.10,000 | Rhine River |
The "People's Crusade" prior to the First Crusade results in the deaths of thousands of Jews living beside or near the river Rhine (see also Emicho). |
1098 | Siege of Antioch | c.20,000 | Antioch, Syria |
Almost all Muslim inhabitants slaughtered after the fall of the city to the Crusaders. |
1099 | First Crusade | c.70,000 | Jerusalem |
Almost all Muslim and Jewish inhabitants slaughtered after the fall of the city to the Crusaders. |
1191 | Siege of Acre (Akko) | 2,750 | Akko |
Richard the Lionheart slaughters Muslim prisoners taken during the siege. |
1209 | Albigensian Crusade | 20,000 to 100,000 | Beziers, France |
Crusaders slaughter the Cathars. Other civilian slaughters occur in Toulouse and Saint-Nazaire. |
1220 | Samarkand massacre | c.75,000 | Samarkand, Khwarezm[1] |
After the city's surrender, the Mongols under Genghis Khan they drive out and slaughter its population. Over 75,000 men, women and children perish. |
1221 | Herat massacre | 600,000 | Herat |
Genghis Khan's Mongols destroy the city and massacre the population. |
1268 | Siege of Antioch | 40,000 | Antioch, Syria |
Baibars' army destroys the city and massacres the population. |
1282 | Sicilian Vespers | thousands | Italy |
French citizens of Sicily killed during a revolt. |
1289 | Siege of Tripoli | c.10,000 | Palestine |
Muslim conquest of Crusader state; virtually the whole population killed. |
1291 | Siege of Tyre | 10,000 | Tyre, Palestine |
Baibars' army destroys the city and massacres the population. |
1296 | Massacre of Berwick | 30,000 | Berwick, Scotland[2] |
As they invade Scotland, forces under the command of Edward I massacre the population of Berwick. |
1358 | Jacquerie Revolts | 8,000 | Meaux, France |
Peasants massacred in aftermath of revolt. |
1348 | Black Death Scapegoats | 6,000 to 16,000 | Germany |
Jews are blamed as the cause of the Black Death, leading to their massacre in Mainz (up to 12,000) and Strasbourg (4,000). |
1398 | Massacre of Delhi | 100,000 | Delhi, India |
Massacre of prisoners under Timur Lenk. (Total deaths from his conquests eventually exceed 20 million.) |
1415 | Agincourt | c.5,000 | Agincourt, France |
So that guards may join the fight, Henry V orders the deaths of 5,000 prisoners of war during the Battle of Agincourt. |
1480 | Sack of Otranto | 12,000 | Otranto, Italy |
Modern (from 1500)
[edit]1500 to World War II
[edit]Date | Name | Deaths | Location | Summary |
---|---|---|---|---|
1571 | Enryaku-ji | 3,000 | Mount Hiei, Japan | |
1572 | St. Bartholomew's Day massacre | 70,000 | France | |
1631 | Sack of Magdeburg | 20,000 | Magdeburg, Germany |
Troops of the Holy Roman Empire beseige then storm Magdeburg during the Thirty Years' War, massacring nearly all its inhabitants. |
1641 | Irish Rebellion of 1641 | 4,000 | Ulster, Ireland |
English Protestant planters killed by dispossessed Irish Catholics. |
1644 | Massacre of Bolton | 1,500 | Bolton, England | |
1648 | Khmelnytsky Uprising | tens of thousands | Poland |
Jews, Polish nobles and Uniates killed during a Cossack and peasant uprising led by Bohdan Khmelnytsky. |
1649 | Fall of Drogheda | at least 1,000 | Drogheda, Ireland |
Unarmed civilians massacred by Oliver Cromwell's New Model Army[3] |
1794 | Praga massacre | 10,000 to 20,000 | Praga, Warsaw, Poland | Kościuszko Uprising: Russian troops massacre civilians as they loot and burn Praga following their victory in battle. |
1822 | Chios Massacre | c.42,000 | Chios / Psara islands[4] |
Reprisals after the Greek Christian population rebel against the Ottoman Empire. |
1876 | Batak massacre | c.5,000 | Batak[5] |
As part of the reprisals following the April Uprising, bashi-bazouks (Ottoman army irregulars) massacre Bulgarian men, women and children barricaded in Batak's church. More than 7,000 others are massacred throughout Bulgaria. |
1895-1897 | Hamidian massacres | 80,000 to 300,000 | Ottoman Empire |
On the orders of Abdul Hamid II, Ottoman forces massacre Armenians living in Anatolia. |
1904 | Herero and Namaqua Genocide | c.65,000 | German South West Africa |
German colonial attempt to exterminate the Herero and Namaqua peoples, directed by General Adrian Dietrich Lothar von Trotha. |
1915-1917 | Armenian Genocide | c.400,000 to 1.5 million | Ottoman Empire |
Forced evacuation and mass killing of Anatolian Armenians during the Young Turks' government. |
1915-1918 | Assyrian Genocide | c.275,000 | Ottoman Empire |
The Assyrians of northern Mesopotamia forcibly relocated and massacred by Ottoman and Kurdish forces. |
1916-1919 | Pontian Greek Genocide | c.353,000 | Ottoman Empire |
Massacres of Pontic Greeks by the Young Turks' government. |
1918 | March Days | 3,000 to 12,000 | Baku, Azerbaijan |
Assuming them to be Ottoman Turks, Dashnak and Bolshevik forces massacre ethnic Azerbaijanis in revenge for the Armenian Genocide. |
1918 | September Days | 10,000 to 20,000 | Baku, Azerbaijan |
In retalisation for the March Days, Enver Pasha's Army of Islam supported by local Azerbaijani forces recaptures Baku and massacres ethnic Armenians. |
1923 | Kantō massacre | c.2,700 to 6,415 | Kantō region, Japan |
Korean and Okinawan immigrants blamed for looting and arson in the wake of the Great Kanto earthquake. |
1931-1945 | Japanese biological warfare program | 3,000 to 200,000[6] | East Asia |
An official program of medical experimentation on humans that resulted in thousands of deaths during the Second Sino-Japanese War and World War II.[7] |
1932 | La Matanza | c.30,000 | El Salvador |
Having crushed a peasants' rebellion, the military government sanctions the massacre of indigenous peoples. |
1937 | Addis Ababa massacre | 3,000 | Addis Ababa, Ethiopia | Massacre by Italian soldiers. |
1937-1938 | Nanjing Massacre[8] | 100,000 to 300,000 | Nanjing, China |
Massacre of citizens and prisoners committed by the Japanese army following the Battle of Nanking. Estimates of fatalities vary widely. |
1937-1938 | Great Purge | 680,000 to 1.3 million | Soviet Union |
Stalinist purges aimed at ethnic minorities and perceived dissidents. |
World War II
[edit]Date | Name | Deaths | Location | Summary |
---|---|---|---|---|
1939 | Bromberg Bloody Sunday | up to 8,000 | Bydgoszcz, Poland |
A combination of the 350 to 5,000 ethnic Germans killed during the Polish Defensive War and the subsequent massacre of c.3,000 Polish civilians in reprisal. |
1939-1940 | Palmiry massacre | c.2,000 | Poland |
Systematic murder by the Gestapo of Poles deemed to be dissident, including politicians, sportspeople and members of the intelligentsia. |
1940 | Katyn massacre | 14,000 to 28,000 | Poland |
Massacre of Polish POWs, reserve officers and members of the intelligentsia by Soviet forces. |
1941 | Białystok Massacre | 2,200 | Poland |
In one of the first massacres of Jews during World War II, the German reserve Police Battalion 309 herd the Jews of Białystok into the city's central synagogue and set fire to it. Those trying to flee are shot. |
Jedwabne Pogrom | 380 to 1,600 | Poland |
Jewish residents of Jedwabane and its environs are marched into the center of the village, where they are beaten and killed by a number of their fellow townsmen. Some sources suggest German police and/or military involvement. | |
Babi Yar | 33,771 | Ukraine |
As reprisal for acts of sabotage they did not commit, the Jewish population of Kiev was marched in small groups to a ditch at Babi Yar and machine-gunned. | |
Ponaren | c.100,000 | Lithuania |
Jewish and Polish citizens of Vilnius marched to Ponary Woods and shot by Lithuanian police units (the "Ponary Rifles") under German supervision. 40,000 were killed in 1941 alone. | |
Dnipropetrovsk | 12,000 | Ukraine |
Most of the remaining Jews in the city are marched to a ravine and massacred by Einsatzkommando 6. | |
Odessa massacre | 36,000 | Ukraine |
Mass shootings of the Jews of Odessa. | |
Ninth Fort | 9,000 | Lithuania |
Those Jews of Kaunas unable to work – including women and children – are marched to the Ninth Fort and shot. (Over 40,000 Jews will eventually be killed there.) | |
Rumbula Forest | 25,000 | Latvia |
Over the course of a week, the Jews of Riga are taken to Rumbula Forest and shot. | |
Simferopol | 10,000 | Crimea |
Mass shooting of Jews. Thereafter, Jews in the region are transported to extermination camps rather than shot. | |
Kragujevac massacre | 4,000 | Kragujevac, Serbia |
Reprisal killings by German forces following the death of ten soldiers at the hands of partisans. | |
1942-1944 | Warsaw Concentration Camp | 200,000 | Warsaw, Poland |
Non-Jewish population of Warsaw systematically shot or gassed in provisional gas chambers. |
1942 | Pinsk | 16,000 | Belarus |
Mass executions of Jews. |
Sook Ching massacre | c.50,000 to 100,000[9] | Malaya and Singapore |
Japanese troops execute ethnic Chinese Malayans and Singaporeans suspected of resistance. | |
Bataan Death March | 5,650 | Philippines | American and Philippine POWs are marched to prison camps. Any that fall behind are killed. | |
1943 | Massacres of Poles in Volhynia | c.100,000 | Volhynia, Ukraine |
Ukrainian nationalists massacre Poles. |
1943-1947 | Foiba massacre | 5,000 to 10,000 | Istria and Dalmatia |
Communist troops commanded by Josip Tito purge Italian fascists and colloborators. |
1944 | Manila massacre | at&least 100,000 | Philippines |
Retreating Japanese troops slaughter Filipino civilians and raze Manila. |
Wola massacre | up to 50,000 | Warsaw, Poland |
As the Warsaw Uprising takes root, German troops systematically slaughter most of the civilians living in the Warsaw borough of Wola. | |
Meligala massacre | 1,500 | Greece |
Communist ELAS fighters attack the village of Meligala and massacre many of its inhabitants. Many were known to have collaborated with the occupying German forces. | |
Vojvodina massacre | c.34,500 | Serbia |
Mass executions of Hungarian civilians by Serbian communist partisans. | |
1944-1945 | Chameria issue | c.2,000 | Chameria[10] |
Greek royalist militias battle Pro-German Muslims during the liberation from the Nazi German occupation. Over 25,000 Muslims flee to Albania. |
1945 | Sandakan Death March | 2,431 | Malaysia |
Australian POWs are forced to march great distances, combined with torture and forced labor. |
Bleiburg massacre | 55,000 to 300,000 | Yugoslavia |
Partisans retaliate against Ustashe, [[Domobrani] and Croat civilians. |
Contemporary (post-World War II)
[edit]Date | Name | Deaths | Location | Summary |
---|---|---|---|---|
Sétif massacre | up to 45,000[11] | Sétif, Algeria | ||
1947 | 228 Incident | 10,000 to 30,000 | Taiwan |
Kuomintang forces massacre Taiwanese civilians after an uprising. |
1950 | Capture of Seoul | c.100,000 | Seoul, Korea |
Communist forces summarily execute civilians after capturing Seoul during the Korean War. |
1962 | Oran massacre | c.2,000 to 3,500 | Algeria |
Arabs lynch European and Jewish civilians. |
1968 | Massacre at Huế | 2,500 | Huế, South Vietnam |
NVA and Việt Cộng forces summarily execute civilians in the city of Huế. |
1976 | Karantina Massacre | c.1,000 | Beirut, Lebanon |
Lebanese Christian militia massacre the inhabitants of Karantina district, Beirut (mostly Kurds and Armenians) during the Lebanese Civil War. |
1982 | Sabra and Shatila massacre | 800 to 3,000 | Beirut, Lebanon |
Lebanese Christian militia massacre Palestinian refugees. |
1984 | Anti-Sikh Riots[12] | c.2,733 to 4,000 | Delhi, India |
Mobs massacre Sikhs following the assassination of Prime Minister Indira Gandhi by her Sikh bodyguards. |
1993 | Sukhumi Massacre | c.1,200 | Abkhazia, Georgia |
After storming Sukhumi, Abkhaz separatists and their allies massacre the city's remaining Georgian population. |
1994 | Rwandan Genocide | 937,000 | Rwanda | |
1995 | Srebrenica massacre | 8,000 | Bosnia and Herzegovina |
Massacre of male Bosniaks primarily by the Army of Republika Srpska; the largest massacre in Europe since World War II. |
2001 | Dasht-i-Leili massacre | 250 to 3,000 | Afghanistan |
Taliban prisoners shot or suffocated while being transferred between prisons by Northern Alliance soldiers during the U.S. invasion of Afghanistan. |
2002 | Gujarat violence | c.800 to 2,000 | Gujarat, India |
Sectarian violence following a train fire in Godhra. |
2003 to date |
Darfur conflict | c.400,000 | Sudan |
Ongoing massacre and forced displacement of the Fur people of Western Sudan by government-sponsored Janjaweed militia. |
Footnotes
[edit]- ^ present-day Uzbekistan.
- ^ Now within England.
- ^ http://www.louthonline.com/html/oliver_cromwell.html
- ^ Then part of the Ottoman Empire; now part of Greece.
- ^ Then part of the Ottoman Empire; now in Bulgaria.
- ^ Chinese, Korean and Allied civilians and POWs.
- ^ See also Unit 731.
- ^ Also known as the Rape of Nanking.
- ^ Singapore alone.
- ^ Part of Greece.
- ^ including c.150 pied-noirs.
- ^ Also known as Black November.