I don’t think war was a gentleman’s sport, or at least not many people felt like one. In antiquity wars were already so deadly that one wondered if civilizations could rise again. The Second Punic War, for example, or even the conquest of Caesar can be seen as total wars. During the Middle Ages or the Renaissance, the Battle of Azincourt or Marignan are also examples of the violence and fierceness with which fighting took place. But while it is true that the number of deaths is not comparable, the effects on the parties involved are.
For my part, this question has to be qualified: in my opinion, the deadliest war will remain the Second World War for a very long time. The reason for this is that the war has changed shape, it is no longer a question of battlefields for contemporary wars, but of strategic points, targeted bombings, strategic assassinations. Wars are now more or less explicit cold wars, precisely because fighting on the ground has become too murderous.
I don’t think war was a gentleman’s sport, or at least not many people felt like one. In antiquity wars were already so deadly that one wondered if civilizations could rise again. The Second Punic War, for example, or even the conquest of Caesar can be seen as total wars. During the Middle Ages or the Renaissance, the Battle of Azincourt or Marignan are also examples of the violence and fierceness with which fighting took place. But while it is true that the number of deaths is not comparable, the effects on the parties involved are.
For my part, this question has to be qualified: in my opinion, the deadliest war will remain the Second World War for a very long time. The reason for this is that the war has changed shape, it is no longer a question of battlefields for contemporary wars, but of strategic points, targeted bombings, strategic assassinations. Wars are now more or less explicit cold wars, precisely because fighting on the ground has become too murderous.