Franco-Prussian War

ND – MPE: 0.3

The Wikipedia-article called “Franco-Prussian War” cites an expert estimate, which claims 0.25 million civilian deaths from 1870 to 1871. This number includes deaths from a smallpox epidemic. But according to other estimates smallpox took about 0.26 million lives on both sides.

White cites estimates for the total number of civilian deaths, which range from 0.5 to 0.79 million. But these numbers also include the smallpox victims.

After the capture of Emperor Napoleon III most of the French soldiers and irregular fighters fought for the democratic Third French Republic, which was established after the war. Here I largely ignore this fact, because France is ranked as a nondemocratic regime for the duration of the war. I do subtract 0.08 million for the nondemocracies from my estimates, because of the unclear goals of many French fighters.

Plausible estimates for the number of civilians killed by nondemocratic forces in the war range from 0.1 to 0.53 million. I choose 0.30 million as the most plausible estimate.