One narrator told us that the war never changes, but it has proven to be very flexible in aspects like size and location. Human nature gave rise to an impressive number of conflicts around the globe, and thanks to projects like Wikipedia, Wikidata, and DBpedia, we can now visualize them on an interactive map. This "Geography of Violence" covers more than 4,500 years and will help you detect which historical battles were closest to your home.
Is war a universal and indivisible aspect of humanity, or the product of other circumstances? Experts cannot agree, but one thing is certain: We are increasingly brutal and effective at killing. The book "Understanding International Law" by Conway W. Henderson mentions the development of 14,500 wars between the year 3500 BC and the second half of the twentieth century, with more than 3.5 billion deaths. Other analyses offer much lower numbers... but we are still talking about billions of people.
"Geography of Violence": Global Map of Historical Battles and Combats
Logically, our information is incomplete. How many conflicts were erased by time? How many lives vanished without record or memory? How many errors have accumulated in 'official' documents and texts? The best we can do is work with what we have... and that is not a little. This is demonstrated in "Geography of Violence", an interactive map of historical battles formed with all the data processed from "Military Conflicts" using Wikidata and DBpedia.
In its standard configuration, the map presents more than 4,500 years of combats scattered around the world. From small isolated skirmishes (so much so that they don't even have a name) to the bloodiest operations in both World Wars, we are facing a chilling number of entries. At the bottom we see a series of controls that allow us to adjust the period, and the number of years the animation should jump. I recommend a value between 25 and 50 years at the beginning, and reduce it to one year from 1914 onward.
If you want to find the battles closest to your current location, "Geography of Violence" will be very useful. I admit it's difficult to place the cursor over the points at first, but I imagine the people responsible can fix that detail later.
Official site: Click here
