10 Of The Most Cruel Rulers From Modern History
Human history has witnessed plethora of rulers whose deeds were beyond horrific. From mass massacres to atrocious tortures, their cruelty kept on setting new benchmarks. There are many records of people who wrote their stories mentioning the atrocities they went through and those stories are nothing but a nightmare. Time after other the world has witnessed such cruel rulers who etched their named in history.
Below is the list of such ten rulers from around the world:
1.Adolf Hitler
This democratic ally is world-wide famous of his ruthless rule in Germany. Fuhrer Hitler rose to power as a leader of the Nazi Party became Chancellor in January 1933. He was the one who initiated World War II in Europe by invading Poland on 1 September 1939. He was also responsible for military operations throughout the war. He was central to the perpetration of the Holocaust, the genocide of about six million Jews and millions of other victims. Hitler considered Jews to be the enemies of Germany. By January 1942, he ordered to kill Jews, Slavs and other deportees as they were considered undesirable. The General plan Ost (General Plan East) called for deporting the population of occupied Eastern Europe and the Soviet Union to West Siberia. They were used as slave labour or to be murdered; the conquered territories were to be colonized by German or “Germanized” settlers.
2.Mao Zedong
Mao Zedong also known as Chairman Mao was a Chinese communist revolutionary who was the founding father of the People’s Republic of China (PRC) in 1949 until his death in 1976. He followed nationalist and an anti-imperialist outlook early in his life, eventually fascinated by Xinhai Revolution of 1911 and May Fourth Movement of 1919. The “Great Leap Forward” (1958-1962) one of the most insane experiments in social engineering ever. Private plots were abolished and communal kitchens were introduced. It was a disaster. Production plummeted and the ensuing “Great Chinese Famine” cost the lives of up to 45 million people. Not having had enough, a few years later, the dictator launched the “Great Proletarian Cultural Revolution” in 1966. Millions of people were persecuted and suffered public humiliation, arbitrary imprisonment, torture, hard labor, and execution. When Mao died in 1976, the country’s per capita income was lower than Congo’s, and China had lost over 55 million lives. Not that Mao cared. Purity above everything else–his purity.
3.Joseph Stalin
Joseph Stalin rose to power in the 1920s after the death of Lenin. A succession of Five-Year programs industrialized the country but at unimaginable human costs. This, and forced collectivization of agriculture, to led to widespread famine, which costs the lives of countless millions. Then came the “Great Terror” involving purge after purge of the party apparatus and society. Millions were sent to forced labor camps, their death, or both, the death rate in the Gulags was horrific. He believed in the idea of “Socialism in One Country”, which was [resented as an orthodox Leninist perspective. His views clashed with already established Bolshevik ideas that socialism could not be bridged in one country but could only be achieved globally through the process of world revolution. Stalin wanted “cultural revolution”, entailing both creation of a culture for the “masses” and wider dissemination of previously elite culture.
4.Pol Pot
He seized power in Cambodia in 195 and set about to create a communist paradise on earth. He was the leader of the communist Khmer Rouge. His desperate urge for the paradise resulted in worse version of Dante’s Seventh Circle of Hell (violence). He wanted an agricultural society, as a result he relocated urban society and forced them to work on farms. Money was abolished and all citizens were forced to wear the same drab black clothing, which also made Mao costumes look fashionable. Intellectuals were murdered, this included people who wore glasses. His experiments costed about 25% of the entire population. All his deeds were vividly shown in a Hollywood movie Killing Fields. His ill-hearted government lost power after four years by invading Vietnamese forces.
5.Leopold II
The Belgian king Leopold II acquired Congo as his private property in 1885 in the Berlin Conference when much of Africa was divided among European powers. From the beginning, he was in it for the money, extracting maximum amount of wealth from this huge colony. Millions of Congolese inhabitants, including children, were mutilated, killed, or died from disease during his rule. Failure to meet rubber collection quotas was punishable by death. Forced labor was instituted to increase production. Around 10 million people died during his brutal regime in Congo. Not that he cared. Things got so bad that in 1908, he was forced to hand over the colony to the Belgian state.
6.Kim II-Sung
Kim II-Sung was the dictator of North Korea from 1949 till his death in 1994. Citizens of this country and with leadership passing from fathers to sons. Kim II-Sung invaded South Korea in 1970 and lost 3 million lives i.e., 12-15% of North Korea’s population. The war resulted in wide spread repression which in turn led to famine and poverty. A lot of people died due to the same. Kim Il-Sung’s birthday is a public holiday in North Korea called the “Day of the Sun”. In 1998, 4 years after his death, Kim Il-sung was declared “eternal President of the Republic”.
7.Saddam Hussein
Saddam Hussein was the president of Iraq from 1979 to 2003. He was a member of the revolutionary Arab Socialist Ba’ath Party, later, the Baghdad-based Ba’ath Party and its regional organization, the Iraqi Ba’ath Party which espoused Ba’athism, a mix of Arab nationalism and Arab socialism—Saddam played a key role in the 1968 coup (later referred to as the 17 July Revolution) that brought the party to power in Iraq. He never-ending desire for power costed thousand of innocent lives in the country. He noted using terror against his own people including mustard and nerve gas to subdue the Kurds. He attacked Iran and the war resulted in stalemate and one million deaths. Even after such a loss he invaded Kuwait, first Gulf War which caused another 80,000 deaths. Uprisings of the war costed deaths of 150,000 civilians. The list continued he was defeated by American and Allied forces and hanged in 2006.
8.Idi Amin
Often referred as “Butcher of Uganda” because his rule worsened the situations in the 1970s. He was dictator Uganda after launching a military coup in 1971. He expelled all Asians and handed over their businesses to his cronies, which led to a collapse of the economy. Yet, the Asians were “lucky” compared to his violent persecution of rival Uganda tribes, who were killed by the tens of thousands. The total death toll of his regime amounted to half a million out of a population of 10 million. He was feared for feeding victims alive to crocodiles. He boasted that he kept the decapitated heads of political enemies in his freezer, although he said that human flesh was generally “too salty” for his taste. His megalomania knew no limits. Among his titles were “Lord of All the Beasts of the Earth and Fishes of the Seas” and “Conqueror of the British Empire in Africa.” He was deposed in 1979 and fled to Saudi Arabia. He never expressed any remorse for his brutal deeds. He, too, was the subject of a Hollywood movie, Last King of Scotland.
9.Mengistu Haile Mariam
Mengistu Haile Mariam’s policies were to modernize Ethiopia’s economy along Leninist-Stalinist-Maoist lines. Banks, land, companies etc., were nationalized. Farmers were forced to join collectives. Independent markets were abolished. When people resisted all these, force and physical power was used to seize. Approximately 1.2 million to 2 million people were killed during his rule. He was alleged to have murdered opponents by garroting and shooting them. He fled the country after the collapse of the Soviet Union.
10.Josef Mengele
Josef Mengele was a prominent medical doctor at the Auschwitz death camp (concentration camp). He chose victims to be killed in the gas chambers. He used this opportunity to continue his research in heredity and genes. He was captivated with twins. His studies included amputation of limbs, for which he used to deliberately infect one twins. He used to inject chemicals in the eyes of living humans. All these deeds of his makes him a prototype of mad scientist.
