The Statistics Of Deadly Quarrels by Lewis Fry Richardson (1960) is one of the earlier attempts at quantification of historical conflict behavior.
The data set contains 779 dyadic deadly quarrels that cover a time period from 1809 to 1949. A quarrel consists of one pair of belligerents, and is identified by its beginning date and magnitude (log 10 of the number of deaths). Neither actor in a quarrel is identified by name.
Because Richardson took a dyad of belligerents as his unit, a given war, such as World War I or World War II comprises multiple observations, for all pairs of belligerents. For example, there are forty-four pairs of belligerents coded for World War I.
For each quarrel, the nominal variables include the type of quarrel, as well as political, cultural, and economic similarities and dissimilarities between the pair of combatants.
data(Quarrels)A data frame with 779 observations on the following 84 variables.
ID V84: Id sequence
year V1: Begin date of quarrel
international V2: Nation vs nation
colonial V3: Nation vs colony
revolution V4: Revolution or civil war
nat.grp V5: Nation vs gp in other nation
grp.grpSame V6: Grp vs grp (same nation)
grp.grpDif V7: Grp vs grp (between nations)
numGroups V8: Number groups against which fighting
months V9: Number months fighting
pairs V10: Number pairs in whole matrix
monthsPairs V11: Num mons for all in matrix
logDeaths V12: Log (killed) matrix
deaths V13: Total killed for matrix
exchangeGoods V14: Gp sent goods to other
obstacleGoods V15: Gp puts obstacles to goods
intermarriageOK V16: Present intermarriages
intermarriageBan V17: Intermarriages banned
simBody V18: Similar body characteristics
difBody V19: Difference in body characteristics
simDress V20: Similarity of customs (dress)
difDress V21: Difference of customs (dress)
eqWealth V22: Common level of wealth
difWealth V23: Difference in wealth
simMariagCust V24: Similar marriage cusomst
difMariagCust V25: Different marriage customs
simRelig V26: Similar religion or philosophy of life
difRelig V27: Religion or philsophy felt different
philanthropy V28: General philanthropy
restrictMigration V29: Restricted immigrations
sameLanguage V30: Common mother tongue
difLanguage V31: Different languages
simArtSci V32: Similar science, arts
travel V33: Travel
ignorance V34: Ignorant of other/both
simPersLiberty V35: Personal liberty similar
difPersLiberty V36: More personal liberty
sameGov V37: Common government
sameGovYrs V38: Years since common govt established
prevConflict V39: Belligerents fought previously
prevConflictYrs V40: Years since belligerents fought
chronicFighting V41: Chronic figthing between belligerents
persFriendship V42: Autocrats personal friends
persResentment V43: Leaders personal resentment
difLegal V44: Annoyingly different legal systems
nonintervention V45: Policy of nonintervention
thirdParty V46: Led by 3rd group to conflict
supportEnemy V47: Supported others enemy
attackAlly V48: Attacked ally of other
rivalsLand V49: Rivals territory concess
rivalsTrade V50: Rivals trade
churchPower V51: Church civil power
noExtension V52: Policy not extending ter
territory V53: Desired territory
habitation V54: Wanted habitation
minerals V55: Desired minerals
StrongHold V56: Wanted strategic stronghold
taxation V57: Taxed other
loot V58: Wanted loot
objectedWar V59: Objected to war
enjoyFight V60: Enjoyed fighting
pride V61: Elated by strong pride
overpopulated V62: Insufficient land for population
fightForPay V63: Fought only for pay
joinWinner V64: Desired to join winners
otherDesiredWar V65: Quarrel desired by other
propaganda3rd V66: Issued of propaganda to third parties
protection V67: Offered protection
sympathy V68: Sympathized under control
debt V69: Owed money to others
prevAllies V70: Had fought as allies
yearsAllies V71: Years since fought as allies
intermingled V72: Had intermingled on territory
interbreeding V73: Interbreeding between groups
propadanda V74: Issued propaganda to other group
orderedObey V75: Ordered other to obey
commerceOther V76: Commercial enterprises
feltStronger V77: Felt stronger
competeIntellect V78: Competed successfully intellectual occ
insecureGovt V79: Government insecure
prepWar V80: Preparations for war
RegionalError V81: Regional error measure
CasualtyError V82: Casualty error measure
Auxiliaries V83: Auxiliaries in service of nation at war
In the original data set obtained from ICPSR, variables were
named V1-V84. These were renamed to make them more
meaningful. V84, renamed ID was moved to the first position,
but otherwise the order of variables is the same.
In many of the factor variables, 0 is used to indicate
"irrelevant to quarrel". This refers to those relations that
Richardson found absent or irrelevant to the particular
quarrel, and did not subsequently mention.
See the original codebook at http://www.icpsr.umich.edu/cgi-bin/file?comp=none&study=5407&ds=1&file_id=652814 for details not contained here.
Lewis F. Richardson, (1960). The Statistics Of Deadly Quarrels. (Edited by Q. Wright and C. C. Lienau). Pittsburgh: Boxwood Press.
Rummel, Rudolph J. (1967), "Dimensions of Dyadic War, 1820-1952." Journal of Conflict Resolution. 11, (2), 176 - 183.
# NOT RUN {
data(Quarrels)
str(Quarrels)
# }
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