diff --git a/database/database.xml b/database/database.xml
index 277d03f..7a9d656 100644
--- a/database/database.xml
+++ b/database/database.xml
@@ -5,7 +5,7 @@
     <object name="GlobalOptions">
         <field name="owner" type="string" length="3071"/>
 
-        <field name="maxHistoryLength" type="integer"/>
+        <field name="maxHistoryLength" type="integer" default="20"/>
     </object>
 
     <object name="IrcServerOptions">
@@ -24,7 +24,7 @@
         <field name="encodingOut" type="string" default="ISO-8859-1"/>
         <field name="encodingIn"  type="string" default="ISO-8859-1"/>
 
-        <field name="maxHistoryLength" type="integer"/>
+        <field name="maxHistoryLength" type="integer" default="20"/>
 
         <index unique="true">
             <indexfield name="owner"/>
@@ -40,7 +40,7 @@
         <field name="encodingOut" type="string"/>
         <field name="encodingIn"  type="string"/>
 
-        <field name="maxHistoryLength" type="integer"/>
+        <field name="maxHistoryLength" type="integer" default="20"/>
 
         <index unique="true">
             <indexfield name="owner"/>