Talk:Napoleonic Wars casualties

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Might be a good idea to model it after the World War II casualties and World War I casualties entries. Tfine80 29 June 2005 03:38 (UTC)

Good idea. And how about population comparisons between Napoleonic and the World Wars as well? E.g. France lost 1m (3.7%) out of a population of 29.4m in the Napoleonic Wars, compared with 1.4m (3.4%) out of 41.4m in 1911, and 562k (1.35%) out of 41.5m in 1936 (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Demographics_of_France, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Napoleonic_Wars_casualties), and given that Napoleonic Wars casualty estimates are somewhat conservative, and if this follows for all nations, it could mean that the Napoleonic Wars actually wrought more devastation than WWI and possibly even WWII in terms of cost in human lives. Although Germany suffered some 17% in WWII (10m of 60m [?]). Admittedly the Napoleonic Wars were more protracted (12 years vs. 4 years vs. 5 years), but then the weaponry was far less advanced in the 1800's. This in turn demonstrates the efficiency of industrialised warfare in WWI and WWII, since almost as many people were killed in each respective conflict, in a third of the time or less. In addition, it shows the effect on the populations of the combatants involved. Relational perspective, in other words.

Grant 02 March 2006 23.00 GMT

[edit] German dead

It's not correct to summarize the German dead under "Contries against the French Empire". A high percentage of German states have been for a long time (some also all time) allies of Napoleon and suffered a high number of dead soldiers. For example Confederation of the Rhine. Saxony for example lost a third of it's territory

after the war for that reason. Thatswhy the number of the French is maybe much to high because it includes many Germans or the number of dead Germans "against the French Empire" is much to high or even both. Also this list not shows the fact, that the French not fought alone the most time and had some more or less importend allies.

What about Portugal?

According to Simao Jose da Luz Soriano's Historia da Guerra Civil....Guerra da Peninsula, Vol. 3 (Lisbon 1874)the total number of Portuguese dead and missing civilians came to a staggering 200,000. The French treatment of non combatants in the Iberian peninsula, particularly in Portugal, was nothing less than wholesale and indescriminate murder. Napoleon himself was angered by this shameful behavior which he rightly concluded as the reason why his forces encountered such fierce resistence among the general populace.