Collateral damage before the ages of strategic bombing and artillery usually consisted of stuff like famine, fire, and exposure. Not that any of the militaries

Collateral damage before the ages of strategic bombing and artillery usually consisted of stuff like famine, fire, and exposure. Not that any of the militaries of the time really gave a flying fig. War back then was more along the lines of national scale murder rather than the extension of politics by force. Collateral damage is a new concept that originated during Vietnam. Before then it was just "War", "Burn the Heretic", and "Don't hurt the new slaves!"