In order to know what powerful human beings are capable of, you must ask yourself the question who are the most hated and evil dictators of all time.
There is a saying that with great power comes great responsibility. But in the attempt to hold on to that power, leader often lose track of the responsibilities and commit heinous activities against their opponents. In a futile attempt to prolong their stay, they tarnish their names and leave behind a dark legacy.
Ethiopia’s Mengistu Haile Mariam was one such dictator who led a movement called Que Shibir or the Red Terror that saw hundreds of thousands of arrests and killings during his 17 year reign. Ottoman ruler Ismail Enver Pasha is another entrant of the list who was a horrible leader of the empire. His racist extermination policies resulted in the Armenian Genocide where 1.5 million Armenians were killed. More people were driven out of their homes too. Saddam Hussein of Iraq is another example of brutal dictatorship. During his reign he invaded Iran and then also started the Gulf War, both of which caused a lot of loss of life and property. Pol Pot of Cambodia and Hideki Tojo of Japan were extremely racist and divisive leaders who carried out killings and forced evacuation to create a country in their image. Leopold II’s inhumane reign as the king of Belgium and its colony Congo Free State included forced labor and torture. Many of the locals worked to their death in inhumane conditions and the total death is estimated to be in the millions. And you can never have the right words to explain the brutal reigns of Germany’s Adolf Hitler, Russia’s Joseph Stalin and China’s Mao Zedong.
The stories of these leaders are gruesome. But if you want to know more about their horrific atrocities, Insider Monkey has an informative piece titled 10 Most Evil and Hated Dictators of All Time which mentions the important details.
