Great Power Wars, 1495-1815 (ICPSR 9955)

Version Date: May 20, 1994

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Principal Investigator(s):
Jack S. Levy

https://doi.org/10.3886/ICPSR09955.v1

Version V1

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Summary

This study identifies "great power" wars, i.e., major-minor wars, or those involving at least one great power on each side. In order to exclude protracted conflicts with low levels of fighting, an annual average of 1,000 battle deaths was required for inclusion in this collection. Great powers are defined as countries or states that play a major role in international politics with respect to security-related issues. Such powers must have a high level of military capability relative to other states and be able to project military power beyond their borders with the option of using force, or the threat of force, to help shape their external environment. They play a large role in international organizations and politics and are perceived as great powers by other members of the international community. Variables in this collection include the duration of each war, its severity in terms of the number of battle-connected deaths, the extent of the war (defined as the number of great powers participating in the fighting), magnitude of the war (combining extent and duration indicators), and the concentration of war (the ratio of severity to magnitude).

Citation

Levy, Jack S. Great Power Wars, 1495-1815. [distributor], 1994-05-20. https://doi.org/10.3886/ICPSR09955.v1

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Funding

National Science Foundation (SES86-10567)

Subject Terms

Geographic Coverage

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Time Period(s)

1495 -- 1815

Date of Collection

1986 -- 1989
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Universe

All wars from 1495 to 1815 in which the sum of fatalities for all participants was at least 1,000.

Data Source

Monographs, encyclopedias, and journals. See the bibliography at the end of the codebook for full citations.

Data Type(s)

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Original Release Date

1994-05-20

Version History

2018-02-15 The citation of this study may have changed due to the new version control system that has been implemented. The previous citation was:
  • Levy, Jack S. GREAT POWER WARS, 1495-1815. New Brunswick, NJ and Houston, TX: Jack S. Levy and T. Clifton Morgan [producers], 1989. Ann Arbor, MI: Inter-university Consortium for Political and Social Research [distributor], 1994. http://doi.org/10.3886/ICPSR09955.v1

1994-05-20 ICPSR data undergo a confidentiality review and are altered when necessary to limit the risk of disclosure. ICPSR also routinely creates ready-to-go data files along with setups in the major statistical software formats as well as standard codebooks to accompany the data. In addition to these procedures, ICPSR performed the following processing steps for this data collection:

  • Standardized missing values.
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Notes