Editing Missing in action (section)

===Before the 20th century===
The numerous wars which have occurred over the centuries have created many MIAs. The list is long and includes most battles which have ever been fought by any nation. The usual problems of identification caused by rapid decomposition were exacerbated by the fact that it was common practice to loot the remains of the dead for any valuables e.g. personal items and clothing. This made the already difficult task of identification even harder. Thereafter the dead were routinely buried in [[mass grave]]s and scant official records were retained. Notable examples include such [[medieval]] battles as [[Battle of Towton|Towton]],<ref>{{cite web |author=Armin Schmidt |url=http://www.brad.ac.uk/acad/archsci/depart/resgrp/towton/ |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070907151242/http://www.brad.ac.uk/acad/archsci/depart/resgrp/towton/ |url-status=dead |archive-date=September 7, 2007 |title=brad.ac.uk |publisher=brad.ac.uk |date=April 8, 2010 |access-date=November 14, 2011 }}</ref> the [[Hundred Years' War]], The [[Battle of Alcácer Quibir]] where King [[Sebastian of Portugal]] disappeared, the later [[English Civil War]]s, and [[Napoleonic Wars]]<ref>{{cite news| url=http://uk.reuters.com/article/uk-waterloo-skeleton-idUKBRE85E0JM20120615 | archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160107063557/http://uk.reuters.com/article/uk-waterloo-skeleton-idUKBRE85E0JM20120615 | url-status=dead | archive-date=January 7, 2016 | work=Reuters | title=Rare remains of soldier found at Waterloo | date=June 15, 2012}}</ref><ref>{{cite news| url=https://www.theguardian.com/world/2002/sep/03/artsandhumanities.research |work=The Guardian |location=London  | title=After 190 years the bones of Boney's army are unearthed in a mass grave in Lithuania | first=Ian | last=Traynor | date=September 3, 2002 | access-date=May 12, 2010}}</ref> together with any battle taking place until around the middle of the 19th century. 

Starting around the time of the [[Crimean War]] (1853-1856), [[American Civil War]] (1861-1865), and [[Franco-Prussian War]] (1870-1871), it became more common to make formal efforts to identify individual soldiers. However, since there was no formal system of [[Dog tag (identifier)|ID tags]] at the time, this could be difficult during the process of battlefield clearance. Even so, there had been a notable shift in perceptions e.g. where the remains of a soldier in Confederate uniform were recovered from, say, the [[battle of Gettysburg|Gettysburg battlefield]], he would be interred in a single grave with a headstone which stated that he was an unknown [[Confederate soldier]]. This change in attitudes coincided with the [[Geneva Conventions]], the first of which was signed in 1864. Although the [[First Geneva Convention]] did not specifically address the issue of MIAs, the reasoning behind it (which specified the humane treatment of wounded enemy soldiers) was influential. The Geneva Convention was in part inspired by the experiences of [[Henri Dunant]] after the [[Battle of Solferino]] in 1859 where 40,000 wounded soldiers had lingered in agony for lack of care, facilities and logistics to ameliorate their condition. Dunant also founded the [[Red Cross]] (in 1863), an organization dedicated to reduce the suffering of wounded in war and to ensure humane treatment of POWs. Summary executions of POWs (or in the past their abduction into [[slavery]] or [[human sacrifice]]) are another common cause for casualties to become missing in action. The [[Hague Convention of 1899]] was the first piece of codified [[International law]] to explicitly outlaw such collective punishment as it banned "[[no quarter]]". Now any execution of POWs would require a formal [[court martial]] creating a paper trail — at least for armed forces that followed the [[Laws of War]]. Technology and logistics had also changed. Railroads were used during the Crimean War and played a decisive role in several battles of the American Civil War and – especially the quick mobilisation of Prussian and allied forces – at the beginning of the Franco-Prussian War. Where previously there were hardly any alternatives to bury the dead close to where they fell before their bodies decomposed, now they could – if logistics allowed – be transported elsewhere for identification and proper burial. Those killed in action at sea had previously simply been thrown overboard or their bodies pickled in distilled alcohol for preservation (as happened with [[Horatio Nelson]]). Now steamships allowed for much quicker transport than sailing or rowing vessels ever had.