These world leaders betrayed the trust of millions. Welcome to WatchMojo, and today we’re counting down political leaders who, whether overall or during specific historical periods, were the prime movers behind terrible events in their nations.
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00:00For us, it's about a new beginning. For us, it's about the end of the tyranny rule.
00:04Welcome to WatchMojo, and today we're counting down political leaders who,
00:09whether overall or during specific historical periods,
00:12were the prime movers behind terrible events in their nation.
00:22Number 10. Kim Jong-il, North Korea.
00:25Kim Jong-il played the crazy card and played it with his own peculiar style.
00:30While not officially taking power until 1997, Kim took over responsibility for North Korea
00:36after the passing of his father, Kim Il-sung, in 1994. Soon, the country fell into extreme
00:42famine. While the exact figure is unknown, it's speculated that over two million lost
00:47their lives to starvation by 1999. Reliant on diminishing sources of aid,
00:52the North Korean regime has reacted to the failed harvest by slashing food rations to just
00:58200 grams per person per day. This was a far cry from the economic
01:03situation North Korea experienced in the 1960s and 70s, when the country was doing better than
01:08South Korea. By 2006, reports of North Korea testing nuclear weaponry caused the world to
01:15be nervous as the secretive country escalated its arsenal. Especially given Kim's aggression
01:20towards South Korea, his luxurious lifestyle as his citizens struggled with poverty,
01:25and his authoritarianism. Number 9. Mir Jaffer, Bengal.
01:30Great Britain's colonial rule of India included various atrocities. It's estimated that millions
01:36of people perished from famine over the years by the Raj diverting resources to Britain.
01:41Infamously, as Bengal lost millions to starvation in the 1940s,
01:45Winston Churchill responded with insults against Indians.
01:57There was also the 1919 Amritsar massacre, where British soldiers fired upon peaceful protesters,
02:03taking the lives of up to 1,500 people.
02:06But none of this could have happened without Mir Jaffer's influence in creating the empire
02:19centuries earlier. In 1757, he was a commander in the Bengal army, and during the Battle of
02:25Plassey, he defected to the British East India Company, allowing them to win and get a foothold
02:31in the region. Number 8. Bashar al-Assad, Syria.
02:35But Bashar al-Assad soon picked up his father's habits and went back to a severe autocratic
02:39regime, tolerating little dissent. According to the Corruption Perceptions Index,
02:44between 2020 and 2023, Syria shared the title of the second most corrupt country in the world.
02:51Shortly after Sarraj became the nation's president in 2000, nepotism and corruption
02:56quickly began to run rampant as those with connections were given preference.
02:59He sent secret police agents to spy, abduct, and abuse his citizens as he cemented his
03:04dictatorship, causing enormous human rights violations.
03:15In 2011, the Syrian civil war erupted after citizens protested Assad's murderous reign,
03:20and he used soldiers to violently shut down demonstrations. To date, around hundreds of
03:26thousands have lost their lives, and millions have been displaced as the country's economy
03:31collapsed. Assad has even used chemical weapons during the war, violating international law.
03:37There were no internal demands for the president to depart. It's important for a president to leave,
03:41or to leave his responsibilities to be more precise, when the people demand it,
03:45not due to external interference or external wars.
03:49Number 7. Hugo Chavez, Venezuela.
03:52Yesterday, ladies and gentlemen, from this rostrum, the president of the United States,
04:00the gentleman to whom I refer as the devil, came here.
04:04After an unsuccessful attempt to take power with a coup in 1992, Chavez became president of
04:09Venezuela in 1999. He used the country's vast oil resources to fund many social programs to
04:15eradicate inequality. For a time, Venezuela was doing well. But the wheels fell off soon
04:21after the president began authoritarian methods, as the country became over-reliant on oil.
04:40Chavez instigated propaganda, suppressed the press, and arrested critics as corruption
04:46infected the nation. Under his regime in 2010, Venezuela's murder rate quadrupled.
04:51Chavez's policies and the fall of oil valuation led to a vast socioeconomic crisis in the country,
04:57as poverty, starvation, and disease began spiraling out of control,
05:01an effect that's still being experienced today.
05:05The basic food, milk, rice, soap, toothpaste, these things disappeared.
05:13Number 6. Augusto Pinochet, Chile. In 1973, as commander-in-chief of the army,
05:20Pinochet led a coup against the democratically elected Salvador Allende,
05:24installing a military junta. The dictator immediately targeted political opponents.
05:28It's believed upwards of 3,000 people were executed by Pinochet's regime,
05:33with tens of thousands persecuted and arrested. His tight hold on the country didn't stop Chile
05:38from suffering a massive economic crisis in 1982, while his personal bank accounts grew.
05:52After stepping down as president in 1990 and enjoying his senator-for-life role,
05:57Pinochet was arrested in 1998 for human rights violations, tax fraud, and many more charges.
06:03In 2020, Chile celebrated when its citizens overwhelmingly voted to rewrite the country's
06:09constitution written by Pinochet decades before and install reforms.
06:14But the majority of the population still sees Pinochet as a dictator,
06:18and that there were systematic violations of human rights.
06:21Number 5. Saddam Hussein, Iraq. Saddam will resort to violence yet again.
06:28But this time, it's an extreme kind of violence with a dual purpose.
06:32In 1979, when Hussein took formal control of Iraq, he quickly got to work in violently purging his
06:39Ba'ath party of opponents. Next, the country's economy took off due to the abundance of oil.
06:44But it didn't last, as international sanctions from controversial wars caused the price to
06:49drop significantly, and Hussein slashed public health funding massively.
06:54Saddam's strong-arm tactics have always served him well at home,
06:58but to the rest of the world, his armed aggression is a dangerous provocation.
07:03On top of the executions of citizens and innumerable human rights violations,
07:08Hussein persecuted the Kurdish community with the Anfal campaign.
07:12This led to the deployment of chemical weapons in Halabja in 1988,
07:16causing up to 5,000 to perish and up to 10,000 to be injured.
07:20Hussein's notorious reputation contributed to the U.S. and its allies invading in 2003,
07:26removing him from power.
07:28The U.N. inspectors are demanding to be allowed back in to carry on their search.
07:34If we refuse, there's no telling how the international community will respond.
07:38Number four, Robert Mugabe, Zimbabwe.
07:41And when Zimbabwe celebrated independence, Mugabe, the overwhelming winner of elections,
07:47was in power, and soon showing rival liberation fighters what he'd do to keep it.
07:53Coming into power as a revolutionary,
07:56freeing Zimbabwe from British colonialism in 1980 as prime minister and then president in 1987,
08:02Mugabe seemed like a leader of hope.
08:04After all, he promised to empower citizens as he grew the country's education system.
08:09However, his regime soon began arresting, executing, and abusing opponents.
08:13Mugabe was also responsible for the Guku Rahundi,
08:17a series of genocides that took the lives of over 20,000 Ndebele and Kalanga people.
08:35In 2000, people began occupying farms in Zimbabwe, which Mugabe encouraged.
08:40This, along with governmental overspending, caused hyperinflation in the country.
08:45In 2009, foreign currencies were used instead of Zimbabwe's own.
08:49A coup in 2017 removed Mugabe from power.
09:06Number three, Benito Mussolini, Italy.
09:09After World War I, the Italian journalist-turned-soldier Mussolini developed and
09:14spread fascist views. After the March on Rome in 1922, Mussolini was installed as prime minister.
09:21Soon, he began his reign of terror, turning the country into a police state.
09:25Over his reign, Mussolini committed multiple war crimes. He used concentration camps and
09:31chemical weapons in Libya and Ethiopia. When World War II got underway and Italy joined Germany,
09:37the atrocities increased as Italy invaded Yugoslavia, Albania, and Greece.
09:42After being removed from power and reinstated by Germany, Mussolini turned Italy into a puppet
09:48state. A civil war led to Mussolini's removal from power in 1945 and his execution.
09:55Number two, Pol Pot, Cambodia.
10:09Ruling Cambodia from 1975 to 1979, Pol Pot and the Khmer Rouge were responsible for a
10:15shocking body count. In less than half a decade, millions of people were killed.
10:20Mass graves were dug all over the land in what became known as the killing fields.
10:25Many others were sent to labor camps or prisons. Pol Pot wanted to change the class system of the
10:30country by emphasizing physical labor while targeting intellectuals and city inhabitants.
10:35As a result, education in Cambodia was decimated, as around 90% of schools were destroyed. Even
10:42after Pol Pot lost power and fought the government from the jungles, many children
10:47missed out on education due to the lack of resources.
10:50Number one, Adolf Hitler, Germany.
11:18After being elected as chancellor in 1933, in an election destabilized by violence and
11:23intimidation, Hitler soon ruled Germany as a dictator, installing himself as the nation's
11:29Führer with a totalitarian ideology and a deranged fixation with ostensible racial purity.
11:35In 1939, he started World War II, which eventually cost tens of millions of lives,
11:41including the millions of Jews and other targeted groups deliberately murdered in the Holocaust.
11:48In 1945, before losing the war, Hitler issued the Nero Decree, where he demanded the destruction
12:03of Germany's infrastructure to stop Allied forces from using it. His name has become
12:08synonymous with hate, terror, and destruction.
12:18What world leaders could also be listed here? King Leopold II? Mao Zedong? Nero? Let us know
12:28in the comments. Check out these other clips from WatchMojo, and be sure to subscribe and
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