Adolf Hitler
Mini-Bio: Hitler is synonmous with evil and the Holocaust. He was born in Austria, poor, and moved to Germany in 1913. His mustache is also a risky look, but he seemed to pull it off.
Years in Power: Was Chancellor (Dictator) of Germany from 1933 to 1945.
True Motives: Hitler killed a lot of Jews, as you all well know. His anti-semitism started in Vienna as a child, as Vienna was a hotbed for religious intolerance and racism at the time. Contrary to what most know, anti-Semitism and angst towards the Jewish people was already in high supply in Germany before Hitler came to power. It's just that no politician would say it--until Hitler. Hitler's popularity grew immensely and quickly. As the Great Depression hit, angst towards Jews hit a fever pitch, as the Jewish people ran most of the business that remained unaffected by the financial disaster that hit most of Germany's working class. With Hitler saying what the people were thinking, it was only a matter of time before Hitler had unlimited power and the Jewish people were being executed for the mere crime of just being alive.
Joseph Stalin
Mini-Bio: Stalin was born in Georgia, when it was still just a province in the Russian Empire. He is known for his careless quotes about genocide and having a very well-groomed mustache, as opposed to Hitler. Was studying to be a priest but was expelled for not being able to pay tuition.
Years in Power: Ruled over the Soviet Union from 1922-1953.
True Motives: After leaving the seminary, Stalin became a revolutionary whilst committing petty crimes like bank robbery, before moving up to murdering other revolutionaries. He was arrested and sent to Siberian exile SEVEN times, but escaped back to civilization every time. He met Lenin by overthrowing a newspaper editor and supporting the upheaval of the Tsar, then in power. He helped Lenin escape to Finland and was tight with him until he took power. Stalin was his 2nd-In-Command and when Lenin died, Stalin took power. He created a personality cult around him, tightened intelligence agencies, and started to arrest and deport citzens for the smallest suspicion of anti-government behavior. His forced crop collectivization caused a massive famine and nearly 15 million deaths. Stalin's rise and time in power needed no motivation--the man truly believed he was doing the right thing, at least for himself. Paranoia and ego was the only motivation he needed.
King Leopold II
Mini-Bio: Took over the throne upon his father's death and facilitated numerous building projects across Belgium through his mining and raping of the Congo Free State, now known as the Democratic Republic of the Congo.
Years in Power: Was King of Belgium from 1865-1909 and founder/owner of the Congo Free State.
True Motives: Leopold II was not the smartest man to ever take the Belgian crown. He believed it was essential to his legacy and his country's legacy to add overseas colonies to Belgium's rule. He established the Congo Free State, as it was rich in ivory and rubber, but the jungle terrain was unfamiliar and deadly. As it was already an expensive and debt-ridden venture, he ordered forced labor among the natives. Enslavement, torture, mutilation, and forced labor in the harsh jungle condition caused upwards of 5-15 million deaths among the natives, likely leaning towards the higher number. That was half the Congo Free State's population. His take over of the Congo Free State also influenced other countries such as France, Germany, and Portugal to mimic such tactics to rape and exploit other African lands. In other words, Leopold's drug was greed and the African people were the only ones to feel the negative effects, Leopold II dying comfortably and unpunished in Belgium years later.
Kim Il-Sung
Mini-Bio: There's little consensus as to the true origins of Kim Il-Sung (Father of now-batshit insane ruler of North Korea, Kim Jung-Il), he became president by being appointed by Stalin as a communist figurehead. He was "created out of nothing" by Stalin, so the North Korean people surely thank him for that.
Years in Power: President (Dictator) of North Korea from 1948-1994
True Motives: North Korea was poor at the end of the Korean War and Kim's hold on power was weak. He scared his people into fearing him by, like Stalin, purging some of its population and sending them to work camps or killing them, without even a dummy trial, which Stalin at least had the semi-decency to do. His purges of a large percentage of the population continued throughout his reign, to both quell the poverty/starvation overtaking his country and to prevent political dissidence. North Korea was/is isolated completely and without much help from it's allies, Kim Il-Sung used the little resources North Korea had to build up an army and live in luxury.
Pol Pot
Mini-Bio: Rose from a moderately wealthy upbringing to leader of the Khmer Rouge, the Cambodian Communist Party, due to his literal stupidity, as the group wanted to appeal to the uneducated.
Years in Power: Was Prime Minister of Democratic Kampuchea (modern day Cambodia) from 1976-1979
True Motives: Pol Pot was influenced by his time in France, where he joined numerous Communist organizations. He quickly rose in the Khmer Rouge when he returned to Cambodia and became it's leader. The group took over the government because of a disagreement over the price of rice. America's Vietnam campaign, which spilled over occasionally into Cambodia, gave Pol Pot increased support among the population. He evacuated entire urban cities to the countryside for forced labor to collect crops, as the country was sinking into poverty. It's said about 2 million people, or a quarter of the population, died in work camps under his reign. He forced large groups to literally dig their own mass graves. Pol Pot's motivation was to create a utopian society in which everyone was a peasant farmer, calling this "Year Zero" and his power was fragile, moving the educated, influential people from urban areas into labor camps, basically destroying the opposition. Paranoia and delusion were Pol Pot's drink(s) of choice.
Ismail Enver and The Three Pashas
Mini-Bio: Went to military school most of his life. Was a leader of a Turkish youth movement that successfully overtook power, as well as the leader of numerous military conquests thereafter.
Years in Power: Minister of War and Part of The Three Pashas, a three-way dictatorship in the Ottoman Empire until the end of the Ottoman Empire and his exile (1913-1918).
True Motives: Non-Muslim sentiment was widespread in the Ottoman Empire (Turkey), with Jews and Christians not even able to obtain equal rights. Under the military dictatorship, Armenians started to ask for autonomy and equal rights, and eventually unrest and massacres of Armenian civilians occurred all over the countries. And it was then that mass burnings, poisonings, and death marches were ordered with extermination camps set up to destroy the Armenian people. The motivation behind the killings were simply religious intolerance and ignorance, along with military strategy with Armenia sitting right between Russia and Ottoman Empire. Enver lived for military strategy and could care less about the lives of Christian Armenians that got in his way of Russia.
Mao Zedong
Mini-Bio: Mao was a poor Chinese peasant who rose gradually through the ranks until he became one of the most important people in the history of China and the 20th century.
Years in Power: Chairman of the Communist Party of China (Dictator) from 1943-1976
True Motives: Mao's motivations were the same as Stalin's: to create a country full of workers making the same amount of money and living equally. Mao had a much larger population to deal with, making it impossible to feed the hungry hard-working Chinese picking crops. Thus, famine ensued and millions upon millions died. Many assume that Mao used this to lower the ever-growing Chinese population and be able to feed, but it's impossible to know his true motivations. Like Stalin, Mao also had labor camps, detaining political dissidents, journalists, and anti-communists. Mao's case is the most interesting because, besides the 40-60 million that died under his reign, the more people that he killed, it's unknown as to why he became so paranoid. He gave his soldiers "death quotas" in addition to the mandatory killings he ordered. He formed a personality cult, with nobody being able to speak out with fear of death. Unlike other dictators, Mao truly believed he was helping the Chinese people create a better China. His true motivation was really to create a better China, and not for selfish reasons. Tragedy notwithstanding, Mao truly was one of the interesting politicians to ever live.
No comments:
Post a Comment