Rebellion and Civil War Across Civilizations

Compares An Lushan, Taiping and the Inca civil war/conquest context; also COW civil-war battle-death totals.

Details

| case | civilization | period | outcome | note |

|---|---|---|---|---|

| An Lushan | Sinitic | 755-763 | Tang survives, weakened | casualties not quantified |

| Taiping | Sinitic | 1850-64 | Qing victory | 20-30 million (estimate) |

| Inca civil war and Spanish conquest | Andean | 1530s | Spanish victory | numbers low-confidence |

| COW civil wars (all) | world | 1816-2007 | - | see intrastate data series |

Only Sinitic cases are strongly represented: editor should commission Roman, Islamic and Mesoamerican civil-war records.

Citations

• fearon2003-ethnicity-insurgency [formal] James D. Fearon, David D. Laitin (2003). Ethnicity, Insurgency, and Civil War. American Political Science Review 97(1). DOI 10.1017/S0003055403000534 (Crossref-verified). Verified 2026-10-11 (resolves).
• collier2004-greed-grievance [formal] Paul Collier, Anke Hoeffler (2004). Greed and Grievance in Civil War. Oxford Economic Papers 56(4). DOI 10.1093/oep/gpf064 (Crossref-verified). Verified 2026-10-11 (resolves).
• platt2012-autumn-heavenly-kingdom [formal] Stephen R. Platt (2012). Autumn in the Heavenly Kingdom: China, the West, and the Epic Story of the Taiping Civil War. Alfred A. Knopf. https://openlibrary.org/works/OL16142499W. Verified 2026-10-11 (Open Library record found; edition exists, page-level not checked).

Review status

SOFT draft; not Official.