Dictator
The word dictator or despot in modern times is used to describe an absolute ruler of a country (other than a king). A dictator uses force and fear to keep themself, their friends, and their allies in authority.
They can effectively make laws all by themself. A country that is ruled by a dictator is called a dictatorship.
History
The word "dictator" comes from the Roman Republic, where a man would be given absolute power for six to twelve months to handle an emergency. Julius Caesar was the last Roman Dictator.
Some dictators in history have gained political power through by violently taking over the existing government (for example, in a military coup, civil war or revolution). Others won an election, but once in power, they cancelled new elections or changed how they were run to make them unfair for opponents.
Mao Zedong, Joseph Stalin and Adolf Hitler are three of the deadliest dictators in history. Pol Pot was perhaps the deadliest: his Cambodian genocide killed nearly a quarter of the people under his rule.
A Comparison Of Monarchs and Dictators
Monarchs, often called kings, queens, and emperors are similar to dictators in quite a few ways, including the usage of force and fear too rule over a country. Both dictators and monarchs often start wars and/or kill millions to expand or gain power.
Often times these groups overlap, with many dictatorships having a monarchy structure where the next of kin will become the next dictator upon death of the current dictator.
Many monarchs throughout history fall under dictatorships as they rule with absolute power and authority with no regard for laws. Though this does not mean all monarchs are automatically dictators.
Dictatorships often also have little to no acceptance throughout history, whereas monarchs often are seen as okay as long as they're not ruling with absolute authority and attempting to help their people.
List of dictators
The most famous dictators in history include:
- Abdel Fattah El-Sisi (Egypt)
- Adolf Hitler (Nazi Germany, during WWII and the Holocaust)
- Alberto Fujimori (Peru)
- Alexander Lukashenko (Belarus)
- Ali Khamenei (Iran)
- Ante Pavelić (Croatia)
- Augusto Pinochet (Chile)
- Bashar Assad (Syria)
- Zine El Abidine Ben Ali (Tunisia)
- Benito Mussolini (Fascist Italy)
- Charles Taylor (Liberia)
- Chiang Kai-shek (China)
- Deng Xiaoping (China)
- Enver Pasha (Ottoman Empire)
- Enver Hoxha (Albania)
- Erich Honecker (East Germany)
- Ferdinand Marcos (Phillipines)
- Fidel Castro (Cuba)
- Francisco Macias Nguema (Equatorial Guinea)
- Fumimaro Konoe (Japan during WWII)
- Hafez al-Assad (Syria)
- Hibatullah Akhundzada (Afghanistan)
- Hideki Tōjō (Japan during WWII; convicted of war crimes)
- Ho Chi Minh (North Vietnam)
- Hosni Mubarak (Egypt)
- Ibrahim Traore (Burkina Faso)
- Idi Amin (Uganda)
- Ilham Aliyev (Azerbaijan)
- Ion Antonescu (Romania during WWII; executed for war crimes in 1946)
- Joseph Stalin (USSR)
- Jozef Tiso
- Josip Tito (Yugoslavia)
- Juan Perón (Argentina)
- Kim Il-Sung (North Korea)
- Kim Jong-il (North Korea)
- Kim Jong-un (North Korea)
- Konstantin Chernenko (USSR)
- Lee Kuan Yew (Singapore)
- Leonid Brezhnev (USSR)
- Leopoldo Galtieri (Argentina)
- Manuel Noriega (Panama)
Famous dictators in history. Row 1: Joseph Stalin, Adolf Hitler, Augusto Pinochet; Row 2: Mao Zedong, Benito Mussolini, and Kim Il-sung. - Mao Zedong (China)
- Mikhail Gorbachev (USSR)
- Miklós Horthy (Hungary)
- Mobotu Sese Seko (D.R. Congo)
- Muammar al-Gaddafi (Libya)
- Mustafa Kemal Ataturk (Turkey)
- Napoleon (France for five years, before he made himself Emperor)
- Ne Win (Burma)
- Nicolae Ceaușescu (Romania)
- Nicolas Maduro (Venezuela)
- Ngo Dinh Diem (South Vietnam)
- Nikita Khrushchev (USSR)
- Oliver Cromwell (England)
- Omar Al-Bashir (Sudan)
- Paul Biya (Cameroon)
- Paul Kagame (Rwanda)
- Pervez Musharraf (Pakistan)
- Pol Pot (Cambodia)
- Porfirio Díaz (Mexico)
- Raúl Castro (Cuba)
- Rhee Syng-man (South Korea)
- Robert Mugabe (Zimbabwe)
- Ruhollah Khomeini (Iran)
- Saddam Hussein (Iraq; executed)
- Slobodan Milošević (Yugoslavia)
Dictator Media
Julius Caesar outmaneuvered his opponents in ancient Rome to install himself as dictator for life.
Teodoro Obiang Nguema Mbasogo of Equatorial Guinea is Africa's longest serving dictator.
Under Syrian dictator Bashar al-Assad, Syrian military inflicted industrial-scale atrocities on civilian population during the Syrian civil war. These include hundreds of chemical attacks, such as the Ghouta chemical attack, the largest chemical attack in the 21st century.
Giuseppe Garibaldi, celebrated as one of the greatest generals of modern times and as the "Hero of the Two Worlds" because of his military enterprises in South America and Europe, who fought in many military campaigns that led to Italian unification. He proclaimed himself dictator of Sicily in 1860 during the Expedition of the Thousand
_(cropped).jpg)
