Well, I guess after four years, I'll be the first to respond.
This is a pretty subjective question if you really think about it, because even if we just restrict this question to death toll, there's a lot we don't and can't know. Estimates for the numbers of dead in various wars have all been modified in one way or another, and only recent history has more accurate measurements. That more recent history tends to have higher numbers as well.
But then, it depends on what we correct for. Do we just select on the basis of who has the most deaths associated with their country's actions over their entire history, or do we correct for duration of existence? Countries like the U.S. and Germany would quickly become negligibly important if we're talking about the span of human existence, but if we're comparing for the most deaths over the same period of time, they gain a lot in the charts.
Should we correct for population figures? More people exist on the planet today than at any other time in human history, so while the numbers killed may have changed, the proportions could be far closer.
Also, should we correct for technology? Alexander the Great may very well have killed many hundreds of thousands more than he did if he had access to guns and bombs, but his death toll is relatively meager by comparison to those civilizations that did. Even the Mongolian Empire could only kill people so quickly with what they had.
So my best answer would be an ambiguous shrug, but I'll try to do a little more. If I do absolutely no correction, then the prize goes to either China or India, since they're two of the longest-lived nations, and have been killing themselves and others for far longer than anyone else on the planet. If I correct for duration of existence, it's a tough call between Germany and the U.S., both of which have quite a bit of blood on their hands despite their relatively short existence as nations. If I just chose which one, based on its worst historical accounts, had caused the most harm in the shortest period of time, correcting for everything on this list, it would be Mongolia. If the accounts are true (highly disputed), then they leveled some of the most populous cities in their era, and spread their empire further than any other civilization in history.
This is a pretty subjective question if you really think about it, because even if we just restrict this question to death toll, there's a lot we don't and can't know. Estimates for the numbers of dead in various wars have all been modified in one way or another, and only recent history has more accurate measurements. That more recent history tends to have higher numbers as well.
But then, it depends on what we correct for. Do we just select on the basis of who has the most deaths associated with their country's actions over their entire history, or do we correct for duration of existence? Countries like the U.S. and Germany would quickly become negligibly important if we're talking about the span of human existence, but if we're comparing for the most deaths over the same period of time, they gain a lot in the charts.
Should we correct for population figures? More people exist on the planet today than at any other time in human history, so while the numbers killed may have changed, the proportions could be far closer.
Also, should we correct for technology? Alexander the Great may very well have killed many hundreds of thousands more than he did if he had access to guns and bombs, but his death toll is relatively meager by comparison to those civilizations that did. Even the Mongolian Empire could only kill people so quickly with what they had.
So my best answer would be an ambiguous shrug, but I'll try to do a little more. If I do absolutely no correction, then the prize goes to either China or India, since they're two of the longest-lived nations, and have been killing themselves and others for far longer than anyone else on the planet. If I correct for duration of existence, it's a tough call between Germany and the U.S., both of which have quite a bit of blood on their hands despite their relatively short existence as nations. If I just chose which one, based on its worst historical accounts, had caused the most harm in the shortest period of time, correcting for everything on this list, it would be Mongolia. If the accounts are true (highly disputed), then they leveled some of the most populous cities in their era, and spread their empire further than any other civilization in history.
