The countries of Europe, having carried out modernization, received huge advantages compared to the rest of the world, which was based on the principles of traditionalism. This advantage also affected the military potential. Therefore, following the era of the Great geographical discoveries, associated mainly with reconnaissance expeditions, already in the 12th-13th centuries, the colonialist expansion of the most developed countries of Europe began. Traditional civilizations, due to the backwardness of their development, were not able to resist this expansion and turned into easy prey for their stronger opponents.
At the first stage of the colonization of traditional societies, Spain and Portugal were in the lead. They managed to conquer most of South America. In the middle of the XVIII century, Spain and Portugal began to lag behind in economic development and, as maritime powers, were relegated to the background. Leadership in the colonial conquests passed to England. Beginning in 1757, the trading English East India Company for almost a hundred years captured almost the entire Hindustan. Since 1706, the active colonization of North America by the British began. In parallel, the development of Australia was going on, on the territory of which the British sent criminals convicted to hard labor. The Dutch East India Company took over Indonesia. France established colonial rule in the West Indies, as well as in the New World (Canada).
However, in the late 18th and early 19th centuries, North and South America won independence, and the colonial interests of European powers concentrated in the East and Africa. It was there that colonialism reached its highest flourishing and power, it was there that the disintegration of the colonial system began and ended.
In the 40s. 19th century The British East India Company, after a bloody war, conquered the principality of Punjab and other still independent parts of India, thereby completing its complete subjugation. An active colonial development of the country began: the construction of railways, reforms of land tenure, land use and the tax system, which were aimed at adapting traditional ways of doing business and a way of life to the interests of England.
The subjugation of India opened the way for the British to the north and east, to Afghanistan and Burma. In Afghanistan, the colonial interests of England and Russia clashed. After the Anglo-Afghan wars of 1838-1842 and 1878-1881. the British established control over the foreign policy of this country, but they could not achieve its complete subordination.
As a result of the first (1824-1826) and second (1852-1853) Anglo-Burmese wars waged by the East India Company, its army, which consisted mainly of hired Indian sepoy soldiers under the command of English officers, occupied a large part of Burma. The so-called Upper Burma, which retained its independence, was cut off from the sea in the 60s. England imposed on her unequal treaties, and in the 80s. completely subjugated the entire country.
In the 19th century increased British expansion in Southeast Asia. In 1819, a naval base was founded in Singapore, which became the main stronghold of England in this part of the world. Less successfully for the British ended the long-standing rivalry with Holland in Indonesia, where they managed to establish themselves only in the north of Borneo and small islands.
In the middle of the XIX century. France captured South Vietnam and made it its colony in the 80s. ousted a weakening China from North Vietnam and established a protectorate over it. At the end of the XIX century. The French created the so-called Indochinese Union, which included Vietnam, Cambodia and Laos. The French governor-general was placed at the head of the union.
In the 19th century completed the colonization of Australia. On the territory of New South Wales, the colonies of Tasmania, Victoria (named after the Dutch traveler Tasman and the English Queen Victoria) and Queensland stood out, and new independent settlements of Western and South Australia were formed. The influx of free settlers increased. In the middle of the XIX century. they achieved an end to the deportation of convicts to Australia. In the 50s. gold was discovered in New South Wales and Victoria. This attracted to Australia not only new thousands of colonists, but also capital. Moving into the interior of the continent, the settlers subjugated or mercilessly destroyed the local population. As a result, a century later, in the 30s. In the 20th century, out of approximately 7.8 million inhabitants of Australia, 7.2 million were Europeans and only 600 thousand were its indigenous inhabitants.
In the second half of the XIX century. all the colonies in Australia achieved self-government, at the beginning of the 20th century. they united in the Commonwealth of Australia, which received the rights of a dominion. At the same time, the colonization of New Zealand and other nearby islands took place. In 1840, New Zealand became a colony, and in 1907, another white dominion of England.
In the 19th century most of Africa was subjugated. The methods of subjugation were different - from direct military seizures to economic and financial enslavement and the imposition of unequal treaties. Control over the countries of North Africa and Egypt gave the colonial powers huge economic benefits, dominance in the Mediterranean Sea, opened the way to the south of the continent and to the East. From the 16th century the countries of North Africa, with the exception of Morocco, and Egypt were part of the Ottoman Empire. At the end of the 18th century, when the military superiority of the Ottomans over Europe had already been lost, France tried to conquer Egypt and create a stronghold there for advancing to India, but Napoleon's Egyptian expedition of 1798-1801. was defeated. In 1830, France invaded Algeria and by 1848 completely conquered it. Tunisia was subjugated "peacefully" in a sharp competitive struggle between England, France and Italy, which in 1869 established united financial control over Tunisia. Gradually, the French ousted competitors from Tunisia and in 1881 proclaimed their protectorate over it.
In the 70s. it was the turn of Egypt, which, remaining part of the Ottoman Empire, sought to pursue an independent policy. The construction of the Suez Canal (1859-1869) brought huge benefits to Europe (the shortest route from the Mediterranean to the Indian Ocean was opened) and devastated the Egyptian treasury. Egypt found itself in financial bondage with France and England, which established over it in 1876-1882. so-called dual control. The country was robbed in the most merciless way, more than two-thirds of state revenues went to pay off external debts. About dual control, the Egyptians bitterly joked: "Have you ever seen a dog and a cat taking a mouse for a walk together?" In 1882, Egypt was occupied by British troops, and in 1914 England established its own protectorate over it. In 1922, the protectorate was abolished, Egypt was proclaimed an independent and sovereign state, but this was independence on paper, since England completely controlled the economic, foreign policy and military spheres of his life.
By the beginning of the XX century. over 90% of the territory of Africa belonged to the largest colonial powers: England, France, Germany, Belgium, Italy, Portugal, Spain
By the middle of the 19th century, the Ottoman Empire was subjected to strong pressure from the developed countries of Europe. The countries of the Levant (Iraq, Syria, Lebanon, Palestine), which were officially considered part of the Ottoman Empire during this period, became a zone of active penetration of Western powers - France, England, Germany. During the same period, Iran lost not only economic but also political independence. At the end of the 19th century, its territory was divided into spheres of influence between England and Russia. Thus, in the 19th century, practically all the countries of the East fell into one form or another of dependence on the most powerful capitalist countries, turning into colonies or semi-colonies. For Western countries, the colonies were a source of raw materials, financial resources, labor, as well as markets. The exploitation of the colonies by the Western metropolises was of the most cruel, predatory nature. At the cost of ruthless exploitation and robbery, the wealth of the western metropolises was created, a relatively high standard of living of their population was maintained.
It should be noted that in the first three quarters of the 19th century, the continental countries did not particularly bother about acquiring colonies. By the way, in the middle of the last century, as already mentioned, the doctrine of freedom of international trade dominated, which was indifferent to the question of colonies, but when, after the Franco-German war of 1870-1871, the continental powers returned to protectionism in trade policy, the desire to acquire colonies. By the way, Germany and Italy wished to have them, which, being politically fragmented until the sixties and seventies of the XIX century, were deprived of the actual opportunity to start their colonies in other parts of the world. The aggravation of protectionist aspirations and the appearance on the historical stage of the German Empire and the Kingdom of Italy led to the fact that by the end of the 19th century the policy of the major European powers acquired an imperialist character. Between the great powers began rivalry in the acquisition of overseas territories. England only continued its former conquests, but in France, in the ministry of Jules Ferry, the task was first set, and the implementation of this task began: the transformation of this state into a large colonial empire. By the same time, the beginning of the colonial policy of Germany, as well as Italy, dates back. Even the United States, at the very end of the century, took a position among the colonial powers, taking from Spain many of the islands that belonged to it in the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans, which was the end of the colonial power of Spain.
On the basis of colonial relations, conflicts arose between some European powers, especially with England, both with France and with Russia, which in the mid-sixties began to make conquests in Central Asia towards the British possessions in India. England did not come to military clashes either with France or with Russia, and at the beginning of the 20th century. between the latter, on the one hand, and the first two, on the other, special agreements were even concluded on their colonial possessions. In general, the entire colonial policy of the late 19th century was constantly settled by international agreements. In this era, a real "partition of Africa" was even carried out. At the end of 1884 and at the beginning of 1885, a conference of representatives of fourteen states met in Berlin, which created the "independent state of the Congo" in Africa, which later became the property of Belgium. The Berlin conference was followed by a number of other, already private agreements between individual states on colonial affairs. At the very end of the 19th century, events took place (the Sino-Japanese and American-Spanish wars, and the uprising of the Chinese against the Europeans), which made the Far East and the Great Ocean the center of political attention. To the six great powers in Europe in international politics, two new ones were added outside of it: Japan and the United States, and international politics took on a literally world character. The weakness of China, which was revealed at that time, entailed something like its division between the European powers, which, in turn, caused an uprising in China against the Europeans and the intervention of a united Europe in Chinese affairs, when the military contingent of different states made a trip to the capital of Bogdykhan under the command of the German field marshal (1901). This campaign was only thirteen years before the outbreak of the World War, one of the main reasons for which, as is well known, lay in the sharply imperialist character that European foreign policy assumed in those years.
For the great European powers of the late 19th century, colonial expansion was an economic necessity. The ever growing industry demanded overseas raw materials (cotton, rubber), the invention of internal combustion engines caused an enormous demand for oil and a struggle for its limited natural sources. Finally, victorious capitalism, by its nature incapable of being satisfied with internal markets, starts chasing after external ones. Political domination becomes the form, instrument and armor of economic exploitation. The old colonial Empires of England and Holland are waking up from their age-old slumber for new feverish work. The peoples who arrived late are hastily building their new empires across the sea: France, Belgium, Italy, Germany. However, sero venientibus ossa. For Germany, there was no longer a “place under the sun” of Africa and Asia that was sufficiently profitable, and she turned the main axis of her expansion to the Middle East. Here she penetrated into the imperialist zone of forces of England and Russia, which was one of the main causes of the first great war.
Throughout the 19th century The largest powers of Europe continued to seize lands located in different parts of the world by force of arms and enslave the peoples inhabiting them. In these wars, the almost unarmed indigenous population stubbornly resisted the well-armed European colonialists and suffered huge losses in the process.
For the past century, England and France have completed the division of the world. At the end of the century, Germany and Italy joined this colonial robbery.
“Peace reigned in Europe,” Lenin wrote, “but it was maintained because the domination of the European peoples over hundreds of millions of inhabitants of the colonies was carried out only by constant, uninterrupted, never-ending wars, which we Europeans do not consider wars, because they too often they were not like wars, but like the most brutal beating, the extermination of unarmed peoples.
Consider the losses in colonial wars for individual colonial powers.
France. A few years after the restoration of the Bourbons, France began its penetration into the African continent. In 1819-1821. French troops fought with the Negro tribes of West Africa (in Senegal).
In 1830, France began the conquest of North Africa. The capture of Algeria did not require a large number of victims, but the Arab tribes did not want to submit to the French and, under the leadership of Abd-el-Qadir, raised an uprising that resulted in a major war with foreign invaders. During 1830-1847. in the war with the Algerian rebel army, the French lost an average of 146 people killed annually, and in total about 2 thousand French soldiers and officers were killed during this period. To suppress the uprising, the French colonialists needed to transfer a third of the entire army to Algeria.
In their expansion, the French imperialists were not limited to Africa. In the 50s of the XIX century. they made attempts to colonize China. In 1857, together with England, French troops occupied Canton, and in 1860 captured Beijing. Somewhat later, the French imperialists seized part of Indochina.
Using this advantage in military equipment, they inflicted great damage on the troops of Asian countries, while suffering relatively small losses. So, for example, an expedition to China in 1860-1861. cost the lives of 841 French soldiers and officers, of whom only 28 died in battle *;
from the expedition to Cochinchina in 1861-1862. 907 French died (including those who died of disease).
France's attempts to settle on the American continent also cost her victims. These were expeditions to Mexico in 1838 and 1839, to the Marquesas and Tahiti in 1844 and 1846, to Argentina and Uruguay in 1845. A few decades later, Napoleon III made an attempt to strengthen the influence of France in North America. To this end, in 1861 he undertook an expedition of 25,36,000 troops to Mexico. In 1863, French troops entered the capital of Mexico, destroyed the republican system in the country and established a monarchy. However, a few years later, the Mexican people threw off the yoke of the interventionists and expelled them from the country. In this war, French losses amounted to 1180 people killed and died of wounds.
In total for 1830-1870. the French colonial army lost 411 officers killed; taking into account the ratio between the losses of officers and soldiers, we get that about 10 thousand soldiers died.
During the period of the third republic, the colonial expansion of France did not stop; she captured Madagascar, Tonkin, Tunisia and Morocco and expanded her colonial possessions in Senegal and Cochin. In 1871, an uprising broke out again in Algeria, which resulted in 340 battles between the Algerians and the 86,000 French army. In total, according to Bodar's calculations, during the period of the third republic, 146 French officers were killed in colonial expeditions in Africa, which corresponded to approximately the loss of 3 thousand soldiers. Over 1,000 soldiers were killed in Tonkin during the war. The rest of the captures cost the French little casualties. For example, in 1895, during the capture of Madagascar, only 2 people were killed, in 1890, during an expedition to Dahomey -31, in 1892 - 77 soldiers and officers. General losses of France in colonial expeditions for the period 1815-1897. amounted to approximately 15 thousand killed.
England. Back in the 18th century England tried to penetrate the African continent, but her expeditions were not limited to
large areas and were accompanied by minor military operations. Only in the 19th century, when Portugal and Spain were already finally driven back, did England take active steps to seize a significant part of the African continent. British attempts to settle in 1824-1826 on the west coast of Africa, they encountered stubborn resistance from the Negro Ashanti tribes (occupying the current territory of the state of Ghana), and the British were forced to recognize their independence. Only in 1896 did the British finally subdue this part of Africa. Subsequent British military operations were more successful for them, and gradually they captured one part of Africa after another.
Throughout the 19th century the British had a large number of armed clashes with the indigenous population in Africa, but the British losses were insignificant, since the British had a large superiority in weapons. We do not have complete data on the number of soldiers and officers of the British colonial troops killed. But on the basis of materials on individual military operations, one can get an approximate idea of the final figures.
It is known, for example, that in one battle with the Ashanti tribes in 1824, 42 English soldiers and officers were killed; in the war against Egypt in 1840, the total number of killed and wounded English soldiers and officers did not exceed 100 people. The expedition to Egypt in 1882 was also not accompanied by significant losses (a total of 93 soldiers and officers died). In 1846-1853. the British waged war in Africa with the Kaffir tribes (the so-called war over the ax).
In 1868 the British tried to penetrate Abyssinia. In battles with the Abyssinians from the army in 3909 people, 2 officers and 28 soldiers were wounded. In 1873, during an expedition against the Ashanti tribe, only 10 Englishmen were killed. The British suffered much more damage in the war with the Kaffir and Zulu tribes. From August 1878 to October 3, 1879, 33 officers and 777 soldiers from the regular British army were killed during military operations.
The British also suffered losses in operations in eastern Sudan. To seize these lands, in 1898 they put up an army of 25,000, armed with the latest weapons. The insignificance of losses during other British military expeditions in Africa is also evidenced by data on the number of troops participating in them. So, for example, in the last wars with the Ashanti tribe in 1895-1896 and 1900. 1.5-2 thousand soldiers participated
and officers; in the first war with the Boers - 1.5 thousand; on an expedition to the Sudan in 1884-1885. - 13 thousand; in operations in East Africa and in Uganda in 1897-1901. - 600-1500 soldiers and officers, etc. The size of the English losses will be even smaller, given that England has always tried to fight by proxy. There were a significant number of Indians in the British troops. The British first used Indian troops in Africa during an expedition to the Sudan in 1884-1885, when an Indian brigade was formed.
In the wars with kaffirs in 1878-1879. the British lost more than 1 thousand people killed. In the rest of the wars in Africa, British losses were measured by only tens of people in each of them. On this basis, we can assume that the total number of British killed in the colonial wars in Africa for 1815-1897 probably did not exceed 2 thousand people.
On the Asian continent, the British invaders in the XIX century. consolidated and expanded their colonial possessions. The British suffered considerable losses in battles with the Indians, who bravely fought for their national independence.
Throughout most of the first half of the nineteenth century. The British did not stop seizing new lands. The war with Nepal lasted more than two years (1814-1816). Ten years later, the British started a war in Burma, which also lasted two years. In 1843, Sindh was conquered. In 1845-1846 and 1848-1849. there were wars with the Sikhs, as a result of which the British conquered the Punjab. By the middle of the last century, the capture of India by the British imperialists was completed, but the resistance of the Indian people was not broken. It found particularly vivid expression in the Indian national uprising of the sepoys, which began in 1857 and engulfed the millions of peasants who joined them. This uprising was put down by the British in 1859.
Despite the large number of military operations, the combat losses of the British due to the sharp superiority of their military equipment were small. So, for example, in the main battle during the conquest of Sindh, the British lost 275 people, while the Indians lost 6 thousand people].
In the war with the Sikhs, the British suffered much more damage. So, in one battle at Chilianwala in 1849, the British lost 2338 people killed and wounded 2. In the second half of the 19th century. British military operations in India were insignificant, but they brought heavy losses to the British. The English military historian Sheppard gives the following data on military operations on the northwestern borders
India. “It cannot be denied,” he writes, “that the cost of holding our northwestern borders in the period 1847-1913. was very high. During this period, there were 66 punitive expeditions - an average of one per year - which involved from a few soldiers to several thousand. In six cases, military formations equal to divisions took part in the battles, and in 1897 even an army corps was practically mobilized ... In total, about 300 thousand people participated in military campaigns during this period, of which 4,500 were killed and wounded "' .
Unfortunately, we do not have any data on British casualties during other military operations in India. Some idea of them can be obtained from the figures on the losses in individual battles and on the strength of the English army as a whole. So, for example, in the battle with the Indians on October 23, 1864, the British lost 847 people killed and wounded. In the largest battles, British losses were expressed in hundreds of dead. However, for the entire campaign, the total loss of the British did not exceed several thousand people killed. This is also evidenced by the total number of the British army in India: in 1821 it amounted to 20 thousand people, in 1854 - 30 thousand, in 1857 - 38 thousand people.
Based on the data presented, it can be assumed that the number of Englishmen killed in India during the period 1815-1897 is unlikely to have exceeded 10 thousand people.
The conquest of Burma, although accompanied by long wars, did not cost the British heavy losses. During the first war with Burma in 1824-1826. British losses amounted to 2ll people wounded. During the second war with Burma
h 1852-1853 only 500 British soldiers participated in the battles, and even then for three weeks. Finally, during the war of 1885-1886. The British lost 91 men killed in action. Thus, the capture of Burma cost the British only a few hundred people killed.
Attempts to capture Afghanistan cost England "more". The first Afghan war of 1838-1842, which ended with the complete expulsion of the British from Afghanistan, led to the death of a significant number of British soldiers. Thus, for example, the retreat of the English garrison in Kabul in 1842 was accompanied by its almost complete annihilation. On January 8, 1842, when passing through the Khurd-Kabul Gorge, the rebels met the English column with fierce fire, from which, according to
according to eyewitnesses, about 3 thousand people died. This number also included the Indian troops used by England in their colonial expeditions. In the second Anglo-Afghan war of 1878-1880. The British army lost 1,623 men, including 528 British. \
The Anglo-Chinese wars (the first opium war of 1839-1842, the second opium war of 1857-1860 together with France, the Yihetuan uprising of 1900) cost the British insignificant losses, as did the war between England and Persia in 1856-1857.
The British colonial troops suffered losses in the absence of wars in constant armed skirmishes with the indigenous population. So, for example, in 1830-1836. 79 British soldiers and officers died from wounds and injuries.
Based on the data presented, it can be assumed that the number of British killed during the colonial wars in Asia amounted to approximately 15 thousand people during the period under review.
During the same period, England waged long wars with the Maori tribes that inhabited New Zealand. Armed clashes began as early as 1845, when 70 British soldiers and officers were killed. In the first war with the Maori, which began in 1860, 42 English soldiers and officers were killed. During the second war with the Maori, in 1863-1866, over 200 Englishmen were killed. The third war with the Maori was in 1868-1870. In total, in the wars with the Maori, the British lost 560 people killed. Maori losses, according to official figures, amounted to 2 thousand people; in reality they were, of course, much larger. It is known that as a result of these wars, the indigenous population of New Zealand was almost completely exterminated.
The total number of British killed in the colonial wars of this period was approximately 18 thousand people.
Spain. The 19th century was the century of the final decline of the once great Spanish empire. By the end of the first quarter of the XIX century. after stubborn wars that lasted over 15 years, Spain lost all its possessions on the American continent. The loss of the Spaniards in these wars, according to Gausner, amounted to a thousand people killed and dead.
The liberation war of the South American peoples against Spanish colonial exploitation was very stubborn and
/>¦ was accompanied by quite significant battles. W. Foster notes that this war "was much more bloody than the revolutionary war for the independence of the United States", in which over 4 thousand American soldiers and officers were killed. over 2,000 Spaniards were killed in a major battle on the plain of Ayacucho in 1824. This battle is called the "Spanish Waterloo". Based on the Gausner figure, on the one hand, and Foster's instructions, on the other, we can assume that in these wars the Spaniards lost about 20 thousand people killed.
After the defeat on the American continent, the Spanish colonialists tried to secure their island possessions - Cuba, Puerto Rico and the Philippines. Keeping Cuba required a lot of military effort on the part of the mother country. Cubans rebelled in 1823, 1826, 1844, 1849, 1868-1878 and 1895. During the suppression of the uprising, the Spaniards lost tens of thousands of soldiers. The Spaniards suffered some losses in the war with Peru, Chile, Ecuador and Bolivia in 1865-1866.
Another major military operation of this period was the expedition to Morocco. During this expedition in 1859-1860. from an army of 33-43 thousand people, 786 soldiers and officers were killed and 366 died of wounds. The total number of Spaniards killed in the colonial wars of the XIX century. can be considered equal. 25 thousand people.
Italy. For a long time, the Italian colonialists have chosen Abyssinia (Ethiopia) as their object for capture and robbery. Back in 1885, having occupied Eritrea, Italian troops attempted to penetrate deep into Abyssinia. In 1887, the Italians suffered a serious defeat from the Abyssinians, who heroically defended their independence. After 7 years, Italy resumed its attempts to capture Abyssinia and at the end of 1894 began hostilities, having a well-armed 20,000-strong army. However, this did not save the Italians, and they were utterly defeated in the battle of Adua (11 thousand were killed and seriously wounded, 3.6 thousand were captured and only 2.5 thousand soldiers returned). Since almost half of the dead and seriously wounded were African troops in the Italian army, the number of Italians killed in the battle of Adua can be determined at 3 thousand people (385 Italian officers were killed). 4-5 thousand Abyssinians were killed. This battle, shameful for the Italian imperialists, ended in the 19th century. their attempts to conquer the brave Abyssinian people, attempts which they renewed 40 years later.
Given that even before the Battle of Adua, the second Italian infantry brigade lost a fourth of its strength, and the first infantry brigade - a sixth, and also given the losses during the war with the Bedouins after the capture of Libya, the total loss of Italians killed during the colonial wars in Africa can be take equal to 5 thousand people.
Netherlands. Prolonged wars were also waged by the Dutch colonialists, who penetrated into Indonesia at the end of the 16th century. In 1825, a Javanese uprising broke out, and it took the Dutch army 5 years to suppress it. During the hostilities, about 250 thousand Javanese were exterminated. In addition, the Dutch waged long wars for the capture of the island of Borneo. But the resistance of the inhabitants of the Sultanate of Atye (the northern part of the island of Sumatra) was especially stubborn. The war with Atye, which began in J873, ended only 30 years later. In this war, the Dutch army suffered no small losses. In just 20 days of the first expedition in 1873, which ended in the defeat of the colonialists, the Dutch lost 466 soldiers and officers killed and wounded. In the other expeditions that followed, losses also resulted in hundreds of soldiers and officers. In total, over the course of 15 years, the Dutch sent 60 thousand soldiers and officers to the islands. Given, on the one hand, that there were many Asians in the Dutch troops and, on the other hand, significant mortality from diseases, it can be assumed that the number of Dutch soldiers and officers killed in the colonial wars during the period under review did not exceed 10 thousand people.
Russia. Turning to the analysis of the losses of tsarist Russia in the wars for the annexation of the Caucasus and Central Asia, it should be noted that, despite the colonial policy of tsarism, this annexation played a positive role in introducing the peoples of the outskirts to the Russian economy and culture. This was noted by F. Engelsov back in 1851 in a letter to Marx: “Russia really plays a progressive role in relation to the East ... The domination of Russia plays a civilizing role for the Black and Caspian Seas and Central Azin, for the Bashkirs and Tatars ... »
The Caucasian wars required quite significant sacrifices. Highlanders, using the advantages of mountainous terrain, stubbornly resisted the tsarist troops. The history of the conquest of the Caucasus is the history of continuous skirmishes that brought significant damage to the Russian army. The number of Russian soldiers killed in the most important 10 military operations exceeds 4 thousand people. But, in addition to these major battles, the history of the Caucasian wars knows hundreds of small skirmishes, the losses in which were expressed in dozens of people killed.
To characterize the losses of Russian troops in the Caucasian wars, we will use monographs on the history of individual regiments. So, for example, in the Tengin regiment for 1820-1845, according to our calculations, made on the basis of lists, 429 soldiers were killed. "But the Tengins were not alone in military operations. In four military operations of which there is information, he was killed 21 Tengins with a total number of those killed in 114. If we assume that about a quarter of all losses fell on the Tengins, then this means that about 2 thousand people died in the military operations in which the Tengin regiment participated.
The Nizhny Novgorod Dragoon Regiment also took a significant part in the Caucasian wars. According to our calculations, made according to the regimental combat synodik, in the Caucasian wars for 1815-1864. 14 officers of the regiment were killed.
The Kabardian infantry regiment took a particularly active part in the Caucasian wars. In the regimental garden in Khasav-Yurt (the former residence of the regiment in peacetime) there is a monument with the following inscription: "The Kabardian regiment in business with the highlanders in the Caucasus from 1839 to 1860 of all ranks killed 2131, wounded 3084." During the same period, 51 officers were killed and died of wounds, that is, there was 1 officer for about 40 soldiers. In 1816-1838. 6 officers were killed, which roughly corresponded to the death of 250 soldiers. Considering the losses since 1860 outside the Kuban, in Chechnya and Dagestan - during the suppression of the uprisings of the Caucasian peoples - we can assume that during the Caucasian wars, starting in 1815, the Kabardian regiment lost about 3 thousand people killed. The Kabardian regiment in a number of campaigns accounted for about 10% of all losses of Russian troops. So, in 1845, 53 officers were killed in battle, including 5 officers of the Kabardian regiment. In total, 1391 soldiers and officers were killed in the campaign of 1845 in the Caucasus, but this was a particularly difficult year. The historian of the Kabardian regiment speaks of it as a year that cost "enormous sacrifices", which "will be very memorable for the Caucasus."
The number of Russian losses in the Caucasian wars was established by Gisetti. In total for 1801-1864. 24946 soldiers and officers were killed, and minus losses in 1801-1815. - 23135 soldiers and
officers. Average annual losses killed for 1801-1864. were 361 people.
During the conquest of Central Asia, although it dragged on for decades, the losses could not be particularly large, since the number of all expeditionary troops was usually expressed in thousands of people. During the occupation of Tashkent, Russian losses amounted to only 125 people killed and wounded. During the capture of Khojent in 1866, 140 Russian soldiers and officers were killed, wounded and shell-shocked, and during the capture of Ura-Tyube and Dzhizak, 224 people were killed and wounded. In 1868, during the conquest of the Zeravshan district, 350 people were killed and wounded. This figure was considered very significant for the Central Asian expeditions, and the authors of the text immediately point out that "this year's campaign cost our troops dearly." Of the 350 killed and wounded, no more than 100 were killed. But there were expeditions with a large number of dead. So, during one assault on the Akhal-Teke expedition, the Russians lost 185 soldiers and officers killed. In total, in 1879-1881, according to Terentyev's estimates, 523 Russian soldiers and officers were killed.
The total number of those killed is, according to the materials presented, 1.5 thousand people. If we also take into account the rest of the operations not listed here, then we can assume that during the entire period of the Central Asian campaigns, starting from 1815, about a thousand Russian soldiers and officers were killed.
The total number of soldiers and officers of the European armies killed in the colonial wars for 1815-1897 amounted to 106 thousand people.
The number of those killed in colonial wars will be especially significant if one considers that the above figure of 106,000 killed pertains to only one side, that is, to the armies of the colonial powers. The losses of the other side are much greater, since the poorly armed indigenous population died by the thousands from the well-armed armies of the European "civilizers". For example, in 1898, in the Battle of Omdurman in Sudan, the troops of the indigenous population, against whom the British used Maxim machine guns, lost 20 thousand people killed, while the losses of the British themselves were negligible. “A wave of death swept away the advancing enemy before our eyes,” wrote an English correspondent about this battle. During the Afghan wars in the battle of Kandahar, the British lost 40 people killed, and the Afghans lost 1 thousand people.
The indigenous population of Africa suffered heavy losses in the struggle against the German imperialists. In 1904, during the suppression of the uprising of the Negro Herero tribe, the German colonialists showed cruelty that was completely unheard of until that time and exterminated about 30 thousand people, they themselves lost only 127 people killed.
The French colonialists also exterminated many people in Africa. In 1895, during the capture of the city of Marovei (on the island of Madagascar), the losses of the local Hovas tribe amounted to 600 people, while the French themselves lost only 6 people
Huge losses were suffered by the indigenous inhabitants of Latin America in the war for liberation from the yoke of the Spanish colonialists (1810-1826). During this period, the population of Venezuela decreased by 316 thousand people, New Granada - by 172 thousand, Ecuador - by 108 thousand, Mexico - by almost 200 thousand people.
After the examples cited, the fact can no longer be doubted that if the European armies lost 106 thousand people killed in the colonial wars of this period, then the number of those killed among the conquered peoples was measured in millions of people.
Those who died of wounds in the wars of the 19th century. For this period, there are data on deaths from wounds in most wars. We have summarized all these materials in the following table (see pp. 127-130).
The percentage of the number of deaths from wounds to the number of those killed fluctuated within fairly wide limits, depending on the degree of lethality from wounds. In most of the wars of the XIX century. the number of those who died from wounds was half and even three-quarters of the number of those killed. In four cases, the number of deaths from wounds even exceeded the number of those killed in battle. So it was in the Crimean War in three armies (French, Turkish, Piedmontese) and in the Italian War of 1859 in the French army.
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| 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 6 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | 10 |
| 8. | Austro-Sardinian | | | | | | | | G. Bodart, op. cit., p. 53. S. Chenu, Rapport au conseil de sante |
| | war | 1849 | Sardinian. . (French. . 1 English. . | 937 10 240 2 755 | 39 818 18 283 | 888 11 750 1 847 | 95 115 67 | 29 e 10 |
|
| 9. | Crimean War. | 1853-1856 | -( Piedmontese. I Turkish .... (Russian From French. . | 12 10 000 24 731 2 536 | 167 81 247 19 672 | 16 10 800 15 971 2 962 | 133 107 64 117 | 10 19 15 | des armees.., p. 579, 611, 614, 617; G. Morache, op. cit., p. 879; M. Mulhall, Dictionary of Statistics, London, 1903, p. 587; H. Stefanovsky and H. Solovyov, op. cit., p. 47. C. Chenu, Statistique |
| 10. 11. | Italian war Spanish expedition to Ma- | 1859 | | Sardinian. . 1 Austrian. . | 1 010 5 416 | 4 922 26 149 | 523 | 52 | 11 | medico-chirurgical de la campagne d'ltalie, t. II, p. 851, 853. |
| | | 1859-1860 | Spanish. . . | 786 | 4 994 | 366 | 46 | 7 | "Osterreichische militarische Zeitschrift" (S. Dumas, op.cit., p. 75). |
| 12. | civil howl | | />(Northerners. . . . | 67 058 | 318 187 | 43 012 | 64 | 13 | T. Livermore, op. cit., |
| 13. | on in the USA. . Expedition to Mek | 1861-1865 | t Southerners | 67 000 | 194 026 | 27 000 | 40 | 14 | p. 3, 9; as well as our calculations. |
| | siku | 1862-1866 | French. . | 1 180 | 2 559 | 549 | 47 | 21 | G. Morache, op. cit., p. 900. |
| 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 .. | 10 | |
| 14. | Austro-Prussian-Danish War | 1864 | Prussian .... Austrian. . | 422 227 | 1 705 812 | 316 | 75 | 18 | P. Myrdacz, Sanitats- geschichte der |
|
| Danish | 1 422 | 3 987 | 836 | 58 | 21 | Feldziige 1864 and 1866, S. 42; G. Bodart, op. |
||||
| At | Prussian.... | cit., p. 56. | ||||||||
| 2553 | 13 731 | 1 455 | 57 | 11 | G. Bodart, op. cit., | |||||
| Italian. . | 3 926 | 1,633 g | - | - | p. 59-62; P. Myr | |||||
| Austrian | 29 310 | 9 123 g | - | - | dacz, Sanitatsge- | |||||
| including: | Schichte der Feld- | |||||||||
| Austrian in Italy. . | 3 984 | 261 | 9 | ziige 1864 and 1866, S. 109, 125. | ||||||
| 15. | Austro-Prussian War | 1866 | The armies of the German states that fought in alliance with Austria including: | 5 430 | 1 147 g | |||||
| Saxon. . | 520 | 1 392 | 100 | 20 | 8 | |||||
| 16. | Franco-Prussian 6 | 1870-1871 | Prussian.... | 17 255 | 88 543 | 11 023 | 64 | 12 | J. Steiner, op. cit., S. 152. | |
| 17. | Russian-Turkish. | 1877-1878 | Russian | 15 567 | 56 652 | 6 824 | 44 | 12 | "Military medical report for the war with Turkey 1877-1878" Danube army, part 2, St. Petersburg, 1886, p. 513; Caucasian army, part 1, St. Petersburg, 1884, p. 19. |
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In the first war of the XX century. - Russian-Japanese - this ratio has changed significantly: the number of deaths from paradise was 4 times less than the number of those killed. This was the result of the wide application of the principles developed by Pirogov, Lister and Pasteur.
Speaking about the ratio of the number of deaths from wounds to the number of wounded, it should be noted that when those who died from wounds are included in the number of wounded, the figures given can be considered as a percentage of mortality from wounds. In those cases where this is not the case, the percentage of lethality can be determined if the number of deaths from rads is taken as a percentage of the sum of the wounded and those who died from wounds. As a result, the mortality rate will decrease slightly.
The ratios of the number of deaths from wounds to the number of wounded given in the table above can be represented as follows:
The percentage of deaths from wounds to the number of wounded fluctuates considerably. The best indicator is typical for the Russian army in the Russo-Japanese War, when the mortality rate was only 4%, the worst - for the French army in the Crimean War - 29% mortality. However, this high figure is very doubtful, and it is not known on the basis of what primary materials it is given. Morash. Even the fact that the number 29 is so sharply separated from all the other numbers in the series (the figures closest to it give only 21% of mortality) already raises doubts about its reality.
The median and mode of the series are 11-12% mortality, the arithmetic mean is 13%. If one questionable indicator (29%) is excluded, then the arithmetic mean will drop to 12%, and the mode and median will remain unchanged. On this basis, we can assume that for the wars of the XIX century. the average mortality rate of the wounded was 11-12%. The established level of lethality was used by us to calculate the number of deaths from wounds in the absence of direct data.
- - discoveries-conquests of Europeans in the early 15th - mid-17th century. in Africa, Asia, America and Oceania...
Geographic Encyclopedia
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Reference commercial dictionary
- - organisms that, during asexual reproduction, remain connected with the daughter and subsequent generations, forming b. m. a complex compound - a colony ...
Glossary of botanical terms
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Natural science. encyclopedic Dictionary
- - organisms in which, during asexual reproduction, the daughter and later generations remain associated with the original individual. O. to., consisting of homogeneous individuals, are called according to their functions - polymorphic ...
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- - this is the name of the raw products of the hot zone - coffee, sugar, tea, spices, mosquito products, rice, cotton, paints, some wood products used for handicrafts, etc.
Encyclopedic Dictionary of Brockhaus and Euphron
- - the banks of the imperialist states that dominated the colonial and dependent countries. They were used by the financial capital of the metropolises for the enslavement and colonial exploitation of the peoples of these countries ...
- - military formations and organizations of the armed forces of the capitalist states, serving to maintain the rule of the colonialists and suppress the national liberation movement in the colonies and ...
Great Soviet Encyclopedia
- - aquatic organisms that, during asexual reproduction, remain connected with the daughter and subsequent generations, forming a more or less complex association - a colony ...
Great Soviet Encyclopedia
- - COLONIAL banks - banks of metropolitan countries or their branches, which functioned in colonial and dependent countries. They were used for the export of capital and non-equivalent trade exchange between metropolises and colonies ...
- - 1) military formations in the colonies of the metropolitan states, which served to maintain their dominance 2) Troops formed in the colonies and participated in the battles in the 1st and 2nd world wars ...
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- - aquatic organisms in which, when reproducing asexually, the daughter generations remain connected with the mother organisms ...
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Dictionary of foreign words of the Russian language
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From the book Man of the Future author Burovsky Andrey MikhailovichColonial wars It can be shown by many examples that with the course of historical time, wars become less and less bloody. The principles of "knightly war" triumph, and the attitude towards the enemy is becoming more and more humane, regulated by more and more
Having agreed to grant independence to one part of the colonies, the Western powers tried to keep their other part by force of arms. Long colonial wars began, which the ruling circles of Holland, England and France waged in their former possessions: Indonesia, Malaya, Indochina.
Having verbally recognized the independence of Indonesia, the Dutch colonialists in the summer of 1947 presented her with an ultimatum, demanding the formation of a joint "federal" Dutch-Indonesian government, in which the Netherlands would play a decisive role, as well as the immediate return of previously nationalized enterprises. When Indonesia rejected the ultimatum, the Dutch troops stationed in Indonesia launched hostilities that lasted over two years. Only in November 1949, as a result of the mass opposition of the Indonesian people and the support of world public opinion, the Netherlands recognized Indonesia as an independent state, but until 1963 it continued to hold part of the Indonesian territory under its rule - West Irian (on the island of New Guinea).
In Malaya, British troops disarmed the people's anti-Japanese army and restored the rule of the colonialists. Having separated the largest port and city of Singapore from Malaya, the British proclaimed it an independent territorial unit, which since 1959 has become a self-governing state. Malay patriots began a guerrilla war against the colonialists. It continued intermittently until 1955. Only in the spring of 1956 did the British government declare that it was ready to recognize the independence of Malaya. The official declaration of independence followed in August 1957.
On June 25, 1950, the offensive of the troops of the Democratic People's Republic of Korea began a war between North and South Korea, which further aggravated the international situation. The US government accused the Democratic People's Republic of Korea of aggression and sent its armed forces to Korea, which took part in the fighting on the side of South Korea. The troops of England, France, Canada and some other US allies joined the American troops, although in small numbers. American diplomats passed a resolution at a meeting of the UN General Assembly condemning the Democratic People's Republic of Korea and declaring US troops and their allies operating in Korea as UN troops.
The Korean War lasted over three years. First, the People's Army of the DPRK established control over 90% of the territory of South Korea, but the American command landed a large landing force in Korea and went on the offensive. By October 1950, US troops occupied a significant part of the DPRK, occupied its capital, Pyongyang, and approached the borders of China. Then the military units of the People's Republic of China, officially acting as volunteers, came to the aid of the Democratic People's Republic of Korea. Together with the Korean People's Army, they drove their opponents back to the borders of the DPRK. The commander of the American forces in Korea, General MacArthur, suggested setting off an atomic bomb, but the US government rejected this proposal, which threatened the most dangerous consequences. In the summer of 1951, peace negotiations began, which two years later, on July 27, 1953, ended with the signing of an armistice. The forces of the belligerents remained on the front line, which took place in areas close to the 38th parallel, i.e. almost on the same lines from which the war began.
The longest and bloodiest of all the colonial wars of this period was the war of the French colonialists in Indochina, on whose territory Vietnam, Laos and Cambodia are located. It lasted almost 8 years, from 1946 to 1954. During this war, rightly called the "dirty war", the colonialists resorted to torture and murder of patriots, to mass repressions against the civilian population. At the same time, they made extensive use of political maneuvers, creating puppet governments of Vietnam, Laos and Cambodia under their control. In 1949, the French government announced the granting of independence within the framework of the French Union to South Vietnam, Laos and Cambodia. These states received the right to self-government, but the French troops remained on their territory, controlled the armed forces and foreign policy.
The war of the French colonialists against the Democratic Republic of Vietnam ended in their defeat. In March 1954, units of the Vietnamese People's Army surrounded the fortified area of Dien Bien Phu, where the main forces of the French Expeditionary Force were located. The US government, to which France turned for help, offered to drop an atomic bomb on Dien Bien Phu, but the French government refused such an offer, one of the immediate results of which would be the death of the French garrison. After a two-month siege, the Dien Bien Phu garrison capitulated.
In July 1954, at a meeting of the Ministers of Foreign Affairs of the USSR, the USA, Britain, France, the People's Republic of China and the Democratic Republic of Vietnam in Geneva, agreements were signed on the cessation of hostilities in Indochina. The territory of Vietnam was temporarily divided by a demarcation line along the 17th parallel: troops of the Democratic Republic of Vietnam were to be concentrated to the north of this line, and troops of the South Vietnamese government were to be concentrated to the south. Subsequently, free elections were to be held throughout Vietnam under the supervision of an international commission. However, the holding of free elections was disrupted, and the demarcation line turned into a border between the DRV and South Vietnam for a long time.
The Geneva Accords have not been fully implemented. However, they put an end to the war in Indochina and contributed to the independence of the countries of the Indochinese Peninsula. France finally recognized the independence of Vietnam, Laos, Cambodia and withdrew its troops from there.
