The hypothesis that the frequency of war in a given period is inversely related to its seriousness is operationalized and tested for the modern great power system beginning in 1500. All imperial wars, as well as interstate wars since 1500, are identified and several indicators of the seriousness of war are constructed. It is found that the correlations between the frequency and seriousness of wars are consistently in the predicted direction, of moderate strength, often statistically significant, stable over time, and consistent for a variety of temporal partitions, thus confirming the hypothesis.
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