The greatest human tragedy of all time

[Dodge_272]

What, in your opinion, is the greatest human tragedy of all time?

[citedon]

I think the Black Death has to rank very close to the top of the list. It was global in scope, following the trade routes from the Orient to Europe. Approx. 30% of the world's population died.

[Bast]

The Holocaust.

[Plotinus]

The extinction of the Neanderthals.

[Mirc]

Originally Posted by Bast

The Holocaust.

Why not say the whole WW2 then? It includes the holocaust, and made more than 10 times more victims overall...

[TheLastOne36]

Originally Posted by Plotinus

The extinction of the Neanderthals.

i miss them

i wonder how the world would be like if they still existed though. I think i'll make a thread about it...

[Babbler]

Robert Sawyer, a Canadian science fiction author, wrote a series of books on the matter.

The World Wars are probably it.

[Maimonides]

Originally Posted by Bast

The Holocaust.

Originally Posted by Mirc

Why not say the whole WW2 then? It includes the holocaust, and made more than 10 times more victims overall...

I was thinking the same thing as Mirc. The Black Plague was huge, but WWII including the Holocaust must have had a higher death toll. 3rd place should probably go to the introduction of diseases into the New World by European contact.

Originally Posted by Plotinus

The extinction of the Neanderthals.

Yay! Plotinus shows his sense of humor! They did have bigger brains than us...

How do you know it was a human tragedy?

[Thorvald of Lym]

Originally Posted by Maimonides

How do you know it was a human tragedy?

Homo sapiens drove them to extinction through attrition.

[citedon]

Originally Posted by Mirc

Why not say the whole WW2 then? It includes the holocaust, and made more than 10 times more victims overall...

I had a hard time picking between the Black Death and the World Wars. I doubt if we want to see either repeated.

[bob bobato]

Originally Posted by Maimonides

The Black Plague was huge, but WWII including the Holocaust must have had a higher death toll.

Do you mean that the Holocaust had a higher death toll, as a percentage of the total European Jewish population (67%), or do you simply mean that more people died(about 6,000,000) than in the black death (about 75,000,000 worldwide, 25,000,000-50,000,000 in Europe)?

Originally Posted by citedon

I doubt if we want to see [The Black death and WWII] repeated.

And yet we have WWII re-enactors...

[Mirc]

Originally Posted by bob bobato

Do you mean that the Holocaust had a higher death toll, as a percentage of the total European Jewish population (67%), or do you simply mean that more people died(about 6,000,000) than in the black death (about 75,000,000 worldwide, 25,000,000-50,000,000 in Europe)?

No, he means all the victims of the whole WW2, that includes the holocaust victims. That's about 72 million but still smaller than the black plague, and certainly smaller in percentage of the world population. Thus I would put it after the Black Plague, but it still takes the prize for the biggest human-induced tragedy of all time.

[Jazzmail]

On the whole I think history turned out pretty well. I wouldn't have been here if history had gone differently.
The biggest tragedy is prolly still to come.

[Eran of Arcadia]

Originally Posted by Thorvald of Lym

Homo sapiens drove them to extinction through attrition.

Really? What I heard was that H. sapiens was now thought to have contributed little. People just seem to assume that it was us.

Anyways, I would put the spread of infectious diseases to the New World as a major one. Severely reduced the population and made the survivors much much easier to exploit.

[Taras Bulba]

I'd say the invention of weapons.....

weapons have killed the most humans in all of history than anything else (or so I would assume)

[Bugfatty300]

Originally Posted by Taras Bulba

weapons have killed the most humans in all of history than anything else (or so I would assume)

You mean people with weapons?

I don't believe there are sentient/animate weapons just yet.

[Taras Bulba]

Originally Posted by Bugfatty300

You mean people with weapons?

I don't believe there are sentient/animate weapons just yet.

you know what I mean!

of course just WEAPONS!

[citedon]

Originally Posted by Taras Bulba

I'd say the invention of weapons.....

weapons have killed the most humans in all of history than anything else (or so I would assume)

If weapons were never invented we would have become extinct a long time ago. We would have been prey instead of predators.

[Taras Bulba]

Originally Posted by citedon

If weapons were never invented we would have become extinct a long time ago. We would have been prey instead of predators.

prey to what?

this isn't 10,000 BC...

most weapons were invented for hunting.... and I think if weapons weren't invented, we would've just gone agricultural (like what happened to Nomads that crossed the Bering Land Bridge)

[Bugfatty300]

Originally Posted by Taras Bulba

prey to what?

To other humans.

most weapons were invented for hunting.... and I think if weapons weren't invented, we would've just gone agricultural (like what happened to Nomads that crossed the Bering Land Bridge)

It's kind of hard to think of a realistic scenario where weapons would not have been developed by humans and still be as advanced. If we hadn't hunted and became predators we would still be living in trees.

Protein from meat helped advance our brains.
Hunting tactics theoretically led to language.
Weapons accelerated technological advances.