Despite how bad this seems, it's a good thing that barely anyone is dying from war. Even adding up the highest possible estimates, we're doing a hell of a lot better than the 20th century was.
Indeed, the casualties should not be measured in terms of nationality. A death is "the end".. bye bye.. sayonara.. all the politics, culture, social.. etc doesn't matter once death arrives.
May the Almighty be with us all, and help us stop casualties everywhere, no matter the cause.
It is another example of the new form war takes when it comes to casualties: highly asymmetric. It has recently been in the news, thus on my mind. No other reason I bring it up.
Civilians have always faired poorly in wars, ancient, modern or recent. Rome killed everyone in Carthage and salted the earth. The Mongols sacked Damascus killing everyone, then returning a week later to kill those who had escaped and returned. When the Soviets invaded Germany at the end of WWII 1.4 million women are estimated to have been raped, many dozens of times. Estimates of deaths resulting from rape reach 250,000.
We have seen somewhat of an erosion in the Geneva conventions, which did do something to curtail civilian harm.
The erosion of Geneva convention standards is partly due to a reaction to them. The effectiveness of asymmetric warfare is partly caused by a strategic use of "rules of war" by the weaker belligerent. Basically bringing the war into the civilian sphere restrains the stronger belligerent. Hamas can't fight an open battle against Israel and Iraqi paramilitaries could not fight that way against the US. This forces the stronger belligerent to either forfeit their advantage by using small arms in urban settings and accept soldier casualty rates, shell urban area causing civilian casualties or allow a status quo.
This strategy is completely ineffective against ISIS, for example because they are not restrained by these rules of war.
Rules of war evolve and erode partly with these dynamics. The Geneva conventions are just a modern version this institution and probably somewhere in the middle in terms of effectiveness.
The bloody status quo in Gaza is grafted on to modern rules of war. Israel cannot "win" by applying its full force to subdue or even depopulate Gaza in the way warfare has often been conducted in the past. Gazans cannot fight in the open.
Wars are a bloody affair. The idea that wars should be fought honorably between warriors and leave civilians in peace is not new. Civilians have usually suffered in wars nonetheless. We have never had any kind of deliberate attempt to stop that succeed. We have succeeded in minimizing wars though. The number of casualties from violence is in steep decline. The post WWII period is the least violent in perhaps all of human history.
Chinese Govt vs Bai Lang (White Wolf) Rebels 1914 - 1914 5,000
2nd Balkan War 1913 - 1913 60,500
Kuomintang vs Chinese Army 1913 - 1913 5,000
Moro Rebellion 1913 - 1913 15,050
1st Balkan War 1912 - 1913 82,000 [1]
Paraguay Coups 1911 - 1912 5,000
Italo-Turkish War 1911 - 1912 20,000
First Sino-Tibetan War 1911 - 1912 2,000
Cuba vs Partido Independiente de Color 1911 - 1911 1,050
Chinese Revolution 1911 - 1911 1,000 [2]
Asir-Yemen Revolt 1910 - 1911 9,000
French Conquest of Wadai Sultanate 1909 - 1911 12,000
The second Rif War 1909 - 1910 10,000
Portugese war against Dembos 1907 - 1910 5,100
Ma al-’Aynayn’s Anti-Colonial Insurgency 1907 - 1910 3,150
Korean guerilla war against Japanese occupation 1907 - 1910 17,736
Iranian Constitution War 1908 - 1909 1,100
Morocco unrest 1907 - 1908 1,400
Romanian Peasant Revolt 1907 - 1907 2,000
4th Central American war 1907 - 1907 1,000
Dutch-Achinese War 1904 - 1907 24,200
Sokoto and UK vs Mahdist Revolt 1906 - 1906 2,080
Zulu Rebellion 1906 - 1906 2,356
Third Central American war 1906 - 1906 1,000
Russian Revolution 1905 1905 - 1906 1,500
Maji Maji revolt 1905 - 1906 8,840
Russo-Japanese war 1904 - 1905 151,831 [1]
Southwest African Revolt 1904 - 1905 12,800 [1]
Uruguay Civil War 1904 - 1904 1,000
Second Yemen Rebellion 1904 - 1904 30,000
Uprisings in Colonial Angola 1902 - 1904 2,000
Ilinden Uprising 1903 - 1903 6,330
The War of a Thousand Days 1899 - 1903 100,000
Philippine insurrection 1899 - 1902 20,500
Second Boer war 1899 - 1902 30,800
The Boxer Rebellion 1900 - 1900 3,003
Sino-Russian War 1900 - 1900 4,000
EDIT: I'm on mobile. Sorry for the awful formating.
Casualties/war/violence did not start with the arrival of the Dutch as you are implying. Casualties/war/violence is part of human nature. For example there is clear evidence that the Bantus violently drove the Khoisan out of much of South Africa some 4000 years ago.
The long term trend is however that South Africa (and the rest of the world) is become less violent and more humane. For example slavery was abolished here in 1834.
Now we're in the 21st century. The 20th included two major world wars, as well as numerous smaller conflicts, including all the wars of colonial independence.
Pretty sure that "right about now" meant "about as far through the 20th century as we are currently through the 21st", i.e. December 1914, about 5 months into WW1.
