Term Paper
on The Dictators
Man,
according to Hobbes, is by nature selfish, nasty and brutish. He always wants to
exercise his power and authority for his own selfish motives and subjugates the
weaker. This lust for power turns him into a cold-blooded, insensitive and
ruthless beast. The recorded history reveals that man has exercised his
totalitarian rule of dictatorship whenever he has found the opportunity. The
history witnesses the number of dictators who have dominated and exploited
mankind during different time period. The 20th century has proved to be the most
destructive in the world’s history. It is characterized by two great wars, a
number of bloody revolutions, epidemics, famines and the most horrible events
which can be termed as the basis of all other political mishaps was the rise of
totalitarian states in Europe and Far East. A comparative analysis of five
dictators has been cited below.
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Adolf Hitler
Adolf Hitler was the German dictator during the World War II. Hitler appeared on
the screen of German politics when the National Socialism or Nazism was
introduced in 1920 by the National Socialist German Workers' Party (National
Sozialistische Deutsche Arbeiter Partei, or NSDAP), commonly called the Nazi
Party. In a decade time he established himself in the party and finally on
January 30th, 1933, Hitler took over as a Chancellor of Germany and quickly
established himself as dictator. After assumption of power he went ahead with
his plans of conquering Europe and finally the world. He forced the president to
issue an emergency act that abolished the freedom of speech and the freedom of
assembly. All contemporary parties were disqualified, unions were abolished,
books were burned, intellectuals were banned and modern art and education was
prohibited. Many people joined the Nazi party at their own will but lots were
forced to join as well. Although Hitler concentrated mainly on public works
program like building of highways, buildings and creating new job opportunities
for the people, but only for pure Germans, non-German were deprived of
everything. He was a racist and strongly against non-Germans. The most notorious
“Holocaust” was carried out on the instructions of Hitler. “The Jews of Germany,
Poland, and the Soviet Union were most numerous among the victims; in
German-occupied Europe between 5,000,000 and 6,000,000 had been killed by the
end of the war as the only solution in Hitler's view of the Jewish "problem."
The sufferings of other races were only less when measured in numbers killed”.
His planning of war initially seemed to be very careful and resulted in
victories. Later on, however, due to his over-confident planning he lost all he
achieved during the starting years. Moreover, he concentrated at multiple issues
that got him distracted from the path. “In the Soviet Union his continued
unreadiness to concentrate on a single objective probably forfeited the
opportunity to capture Stalingrad while it was still lightly defended”. One of
his major characteristics was that he always went back from his promises and
pacts he concluded with the governments of other countries as he did in case of
Stalin and Mussolini.
Benito Mussolini
Mussolini was the contemporary of Hitler and the Prime Minister of Italy during
the World War II. Like Hitler’s Nazism, Mussolini was the founder of Fascism in
Italy. He came into power in 1922 and established his totalitarian rule. He
brought peace and stability in Italy and a very famous reform brought by him was
that he made the trains run on time-by immediately shooting ones who didn’t.
Like Hitler, Mussolini was also very ambitious and dreamed of Italy’s rule over
Europe. In order to accomplish his motive he ignored all the social, political
and moral values. “His 1935 invasion of Ethiopia was carried out with a ruthless
disregard for world opinion, including the use of poison gas”. Like every
dictator, Mussolini operated according to his own will and in over-confidence,
made crucial political mistakes. After spending a large part of national budget
on military training and equipment, his forces turned to be a failure on almost
all fronts during the World War II. By 1926 the Fascist leader had transformed
the country into a single-party, totalitarian regime. In his new “corporative
state,” employers and workers were organized into party-controlled groups
representing different sectors of the economy. The system preserved capitalism
and expanded social services, but abolished free trade unions and the right to
strike.
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Fidel Castro
Fidel Castro was a leader of Communist Cuba in the post World War time. He
contested an election to the Cuban House of Representatives in the democratic
Cuban government in 1952 but before his election the then government was
overthrown and a military dictatorship was established. The military ruler
Fulgencio Batista was backed by the United States’ government. Castro planned a
revolution against the regime in 1953 and as a result of a failed attempt Castro
was imprisoned for 15 years but was later on released in 1955. Afterward he went
into exile in Mexico. There he reorganized his forces with the help of an
Argentine revolutionary, Ernesto Che Guevara and invaded Cuba in 1956.
Eventually in 1959, Castro ousted Batista and took control in Cuba.
Since the Cuban economy was dominated by American, Castro’s main aim was to
release it form these clutches. He introduced revolutionary reforms inn the
country including health and education facilities for the masses. Despite of
economic embargoes imposed by the US government, Castro continued with his
revolutionary practices. “The socialist nature of Castro’s government sent many
members of the elite and professional classes into exile. Government seizures of
properties and business holdings, the suspension of elections, the
militarization of society, control of the media, and the politicization of
education convinced conservatives and moderates to seek exile in Spain, Mexico,
France, and, primarily, in the United States.”
Napoleon Bonaparte
Napoleon Bonaparte is considered as one of the greatest military genius of the
19th century. He conquered most of Western Europe and Egypt and introduced
reforms in the conquered territories that guaranteed civil liberties and
improved standards of life. He assumed power in France in 1799 after a coup
d'etat. The French people were fed up of the aristocratic rulers and expected
Napoleon to preserve the rights of the middle class.
In 180o, Napoleon was made first Consul for life with the right to choose his
successor. On December 2, 1804, Napoleon crowned himself as Emperor of France
and established a strong centralized government. He appointed a large number of
army and civilian official and deputed them in villages, town and cities all
over the empire. These officials linked the country under a centralized
administration. Napoleon was in control of everything that happened insider his
jurisdiction. These officials collected taxes and provided the central army with
manpower.
Napoleon took control of the public opinion and suppressed his subjects by
various means. To achieve his expansionist desires and fulfill the lust for
ruling the world, he was ready to go to any extreme and at any cost. As he
himself said, "A man like me troubles himself little about the lives of a
million men." Instead of protecting the right of the workers he denied them of
the power of collective bargaining and trade unions were banned. Women faced
most serious problems during his reign. They were considered as the most
inferior creature and were deprived of any rights to property and children. They
were mere machines for producing and raising children and looking after the
needs of their husbands. Napoleon was of the opinion that, “the husband must
possess the absolute power and right to say to his wife: Madame, you shall not
go out, you shall not go to the theater, you shall not visit such and such a
person, for the children you bear, they shall be mine. Women, of course, were
excluded”. He was strongly against the education of women and termed "Marriage
is their whole destination”. Women according to him, did not need education, all
they needed was religion.
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Joseph Stalin
Stalin was Hitler’s contemporary in Russia. Joseph Stalin was the dictator of
the Soviet Union for nearly a quarter of a century. His rule is infamous for his
use of police terror and the frequent mass murders of his own people. Like his
contemporaries, he always dreamed of making the Soviet Union a major player on
the world stage. For this purpose Stalin started building up the Soviet's
economy and in modernizing the military. He utilized all the national income in
manufacturing tanks and guns at the expanse of food, housing, and consumer goods
for the people. Like Napoleon, Stalin has no regards for human life or moral
values. Throughout his years in power, he was indulged into mass killing and an
estimate reveals that about twelve million people were killed in wars while
other millions died from starvation and overwork. In the post war period Stalin
demanded back the soviet citizens held by Nazis for a trial. “ . . . These
"traitors" were sent back to the Soviet Union and they were shipped off to
forced-labor camps, no better than the camps that the Nazi's had in WWII. More
than 50 percent who went to these camps never came out.”
Comparison
The account of the above mentioned dictators show that almost all shared a
specific psychological bent of mind i.e., they were self-centered and arrogant
in their behavior and irrational in decision making. They thought of themselves
as wisest of all and imposed their personal will and required total submission
to themselves. They had uncontrolled expansionist desire and wanted the entire
world under their control. Whatever plea they took for their totalitarian rule,
in the roots laid their extremist nature. In the lust for power and authority,
they ruined both their country and themselves. A huge amount of money was spent
on militarization and the masses were deprived of basic rights. The policies of
Mussolini, Hitler and Stalin that called for a ban on public opinion and right
of assembly was purely unnatural. They turned their countries into police states
and used the state machinery for strengthening their own rule. Stalin built his
country on his people (not with). He was one of the most evil men ever. Many
millions of people disappeared or perished during his rule. “Like all dictators
- we think of Mussolini, Hitler and Stalin - Napoleon relied on public opinion
to prevent hostile criticism”. Fidel Castro on the other hand worked for the
betterment of his masses but adopted socialist ideology that ultimately failed,
as it was not meant for an agrarian society. His government weakened after the
fall of Soviet Union, which was his closest ally. Moreover, Castro isolated his
country by spoiling relations with the United States and other capitalist
countries. The dictators lived a life in ‘insecurity’ mainly because of their
own notorious deeds against mankind and always feared death that was awarded by
them to others so liberally.
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