That's not really how the Empire was established. India was largely through a series of deals with Maharajas. Its quite remarkable how small the deployed British army was to run basically half the world. The estimates are difficult, but the death toll from establishing the empire, over a roughly 400 year period, was 1-5 million. Over the same period, excess mortality due to colonial policies, about 10 million, but you could take it to 30 million, if you determine that famine and infectious disease outbreaks were due to British policy. About 87,000 deaths (tops) per year, with 12,000 directly attributed to Imperial violence. But the most important period for Empire expansion was the 1815-1870. During that period, the British Army numbered about 200-230,000 deployed globally. But you can double that if you include the local levees. Notably, conscription was never needed to raise these levee formations. The period before was mostly establishing North American and Caribbean colonies, Ireland, trading posts in India, and cementing military dominance in Europe. The most significant period was the defeat of the Sepoy mutineers in India. Before, India was basically run as a private concern by the East India Company; they established a system where pretty much all the civil servants, and senior administrators and judges were not British, but Anglo-Indians. The mutiny changed all that. The Crown took over, and the Anglo-Indians were no longer trusted, and most were dismissed, and replaced by the "old colonial hands" from London. One of the legacies of that period is that many roles on the Indian Railways are still dominated by Anglo-Indians, which is where they got jobs after the mutiny. The period 1870 to 1915 was the "New Imperialism" and produced another huge territorial expansion, especially in Africa, but much of the basic empire already existed. If we consider the period 1915-1914, considering all the wars, then Empire expansion cost about 2 million lives over a 100 year period, and there were a further 18 million arising due to colonial policy. So that's 20,000 a year due to war, fighting and pacification, 180,000 due to colonial policies. The best estimates for deaths due to US violence since 1945 is 3-5 million, about 45-65,000 deaths per year. Its when you dig into the indirect effects of US policy, things get a bit grim. Brown University estimates 3.6–3.8 million indirect deaths in Afghanistan, Pakistan, Iraq, Syria and Yemen from the effects of the GWOT. These include deaths associated with disease, malnutrition, destruction of healthcare and infrastructure, and other consequences of war. Then there are sanctions, which is tricky, because while the US sets sanctions, it looks to its allies, including the UK, which you obviously hate, to enforce. https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/40712610/ Over 500,000 deaths a year attributable to sanctions between 1971 and 2021. The time period 1946-2026 is interesting; 81 years isn't too far from the British expansionary period I analysed. The American numbers, on one level, look far worse, and arguably, you have less to show for it. You brought up the question of numbers, so don't whine like a berkshire hunt and say numbers don't tell the whole story.
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