What likely happened is that military powers have employed proxy wars, and numbers understated by media controlled by the rich to justify conflict.Civilian casualties in war or direct consequence of war are not up compared to history except in total numbers. The population of the world is so much larger now more do suffer in some conflicts
The number of civilians taken as slaves in history by nations and tribal peoples is much larger by percent of the total population.
Speaking of actual slaves how many Uighur Moslems are held in camps for forced labor, organ harvesting and forced breeding. Ironically in western China which till the 50’s was once part of Tibet.
That's also why the issue concerning Uyghurs involves Western vs. Chinese propaganda:
The scenario, then, involves a multifold increase in arms production and deployment worldwide and calibrated conflict brought about by media propaganda.
When seen in light of most of the points I raised in my first post, then one can only conclude that the points raised in the thread title are not unfounded.