Although civil wars occur largely in rural regions where peasants are the main actors, scholars have not given agrarian issues the empirical and quantitative attention they deserve in comparison with other determinants of civil war. This research approaches agrarian themes quantitatively with the aim of including agrarian indicators with other determinants of civil wars. The relevant questions dealt with in this work are: which kind of peasants participate in civil wars? What role do the concentration of land, rural demography, and level of agricultural productivity play in the onset of civil wars?
The statistical results of the study confirm that agrarian indicators are important to the onset of civil wars. However, the concentration of land did not achieve the expected outcome, due primarily to data problems. The other determinants were pertinent and significant. The author’s new research topic, as part of his post-doctorate, is the determinants of agrarian violence in Brazil, which has caused many injuries and deaths among Brazilian peasants in the countryside.