Bangladesh Liberation War

It was the worst natural catastrophe in recorded history.

And the fallout from it helped spark 1971's Bangladesh Liberation War, which led to the ethnic cleansing and genocide of Bengalis and up to 3 million deaths.

Now, for more on genocide, including recent events in Gaza, we have a genocidology episode with expert Dr. Dirk Moses, and it's linked in the show notes.

So again, that was from the two-part tempestology episode about hurricanes, which we'll link in the show notes.

Then there were spikes in the late 60s and early 70s.

Vietnam, the Bangladesh Liberation War.

The early 90s had a spike with the Rwandan Genocide and the Yugoslav Wars.

Today's death toll is high compared to the 2000s, but it's not historically unprecedented.