Historical Conflict Dataset (HCD)

The Historical Conflict Dataset (HCD) dataset merges multiple existing datasets on wars from 1816-1945 to create a comprehensive list of interstate, intrastate, and extrasystemic wars during this time period.

It uses an expanded definition of statehood from the International System(s) Dataset to reduce the Eurocentric bias in defining what constitutes a state. The ambition of this dataset is not to make methodological changes to how conflict is defined or measured, but rather to reclassify war based on a more inclusive definition of statehood and to create a dataset that increases ease of access to war data, particularly for scholars working with country-level historical data between 1816 to 1945.

The data is available in two formats: country-war and country-year. In the county-war datasets has a single case for each country participant and war. The country-year format contains binary variables on whether a country was involved in the different types of conflicts and has one case per country-year.

The full codebook is available here.

Suggested citation: Noonan, Joseph & Jan Teorell (2023), Historical Conflict Dataset (HCD) Dataset v1.0, available at https://www.su.se/english/research/research-projects/h-data.