ITT: Post the craziest rulers in history.
>>344566
Adolf Hitler was crazy, he had an irrational hatred towards jews and killed 6 millions of them.
>>344566
Caligula was a good leader and in no way crazy.
>>344591
I believe that Nazi genocidal ideology was rather a incredibly cynical cruelty rather than plain insanity. What was insane was the fact that the massive amount of resources were wasted for that genocide during wartime while the German economy was overwhelmed by that of the Allies.
I'd say at least half of all Sub-Saharan rulers after decolonization.
>>344619
great post
>>344566
>>344616
He was not crazy but I wouldn't say he was a good leader. Or he would have lasted longer and kept his family safe from brutal political murder.
But he was the leader Rome deserved.
Posting an obvious one.
>>344619
>wasted resources
>absorbed assets and reduced food costs
I have yet to look at any numbers during ww2 but i've always thought that they profited from the holocaust.
>>344908
They profited mostly on personal level. To the state the Holocaust was an enormous waste of workforce, mostly highly skilled workforce. Don't forget we are talking about wartime economy, where monetary assets are increasingly just meaningless numbers that can be inflated in any time. In wartime economy workforce and raw resources mattered.
>>344566
No way Caligula even makes the top 10. Hell he wasn't even the most retarded roman emperor, nevermind the most retarded historical ruler.
>>344591
>>344619
Hitler was hopped up on high doses of mixed amphetamines by his personal doctor, starting this new regimen of care leading up to Operation Barbosa. I have trouble believing that this had no impact on his ability to make good decisions.
>>344908
>>344918
What's incredible is how much gold they were able to smelt down just from the tooth fillings of dead prisoners alone. Near the beginning of the war the sudden influx of assets taken from wealthy Jews gave their economy a small boost.
>>344566
>>344923
>declared emperor
>orders a 3-mile long bridge to be built across important harbor from Baeiae to Puteoli
>astrologer told him he had to do this and dress up as Alexander the great, riding a horse across it otherwise he'll never be a true emperor
>closes down the harbor for 6 months, costing the empire a fuckton of money in lost trade
>insist's after doing this that he's Neptune incarnate
Inbreeding is a hell of a drug.
>>344633
Seriously though what is it sub saharan nations and putting Crazies in power?
>inb4 niggers
>>345047
Mostly because Crazy motherfuckers tend to go for the gold when it comes to power
with decolonization they were probably the ones who sounded like they knew how to run shit
Mswati III is one of the bigger assholes still kicking around today.
>>345047
The colonial power staffed their administration with retards who won't challenge their rule. When they left, they gave power to said retards, catapulting them upwards. Yesterday's sergeant became generals and former janitors became secretaries of state.
>>345047
Since you wrote
>inb4 niggers
I'll give you a real answer. The short answer is imperialism, but to understand that, you have to understand how that worked (this is also interesting to see why modern nationbuilding exercises fail).
Basically, the key to keeping control of Africa was to first make sure stuff DIDN'T work. Sure, Africa was, by the most part, horrifically poor and undeveloped in the 19th century. But it "worked" in the sense that most societies were both poor and functional: wealth and power was widely decentralized, because the standard of wealth was how many cows you, personally had. Trade happened along old, traditional paths, and basically things were, if shitty, all right at least.
The new European rulers found this to be a problem just as much as every African ruler did: If everyone is a self-sufficient dirt farmer, how do you extract wealth from them and know you're king?
The answer is lots of violence. And that special kind of violence that can only happen when you have zero stake in the country.
The other half of the equation is something very much like Soviet Communism. There's obviously the same dindu nuffin defense both employ ("We were the best thing to happen to the people we murdered!)
But there was also just a similar matter in how the big economic picture of these societies were constructed: You have an outsized capital, built around the needs of a bureaucratic mandarin class that sucks in wealth from the countryside, swallows it up and digests it, and occasionally shits out a development project it decides the rest of the country needs.
Farming was 'collectivized' in that areas of the country were under the collective responsibility for production under strongmen appointed by the capital. Cash economies had barely scratched the surface of Africa, so they had to extract wealth in kind
Under better conditions, this system gave us Stalin, and the world's biggest famine. Africa wouldn't be so lucky.
As
>>345137
pointed out, these imperial administrations held on to power as tightly as possible, and they certainly didn't want the locals getting involved (except for the Republic of Congo, but that's a story of mismanagement for another time).
So yeah, they stuck their administrations with 'agreeable' sorts, in very limited quantities. It wasn't just that they were yes men. It was that they were young guys who couldn't remember the way Africa used to function.
That's a thing to remember about these crazy shitlords. They're all young guys. Idi Amin was 37 when he was made supreme commander of the armed forces, he was made a lieutenant 4 years ealier. Gaddafi was 27 when he took power. Bokkasa went from lieutenant to commander of the armed forces in 10 years. Mobutu was 35 when he ruled a nation the size of western Europe.
These guys were given power in a semi-random fashion, by a bureaucracy that never made a serious plan for transition, tutored in a system that taught them to destroy any signs of an independently functioning nation as a threat to good governance.
And then you throw in the third factor: All of this was meant to integrate them into larger systems. I'm not even talking about the frequently observed point that these lines were drawn without regard for ethnic layouts. I don't think that matters much.
But the roads and railroads were built with the assumption that French Africa and British Africa are two completely different worlds, and shouldn't interact. And as I said before, these entire nations were built around capitals that were basing collection depots before being passed along the next step in the great chain of empire.
This is why foreign aid is and was so abused in Africa: because money being given to the capital so they can wreck shit is why they have a capital. The Europeans pulled out, but they kept paying for the system that they built to destroy societies.
>>345267
If Africa had been saddle with inept rulers, or just this system of despotism, it wouldn't have been so bad. Inept rulers would have been replaced when they fucked things up, or they'd have the kind of brutal development cycle you see when Gommies get power.
But these three things: The fact that they had an incredibly shitty system in place, the fact that it was staffed by people at random, and the fact that it was built to service other places, all came together.
Actually, these guys were selected worse than random. Because the purpose of colonial administrations was to wreck shit, not to help people, all the good, civic minded people stayed as far away from it as possible, which is a legacy that continues to this day in Africa.
If you're a reformer, and want to serve your country, you stay out of government, and you stay out of the military. Those are the bad guys.
>>344566
Not sure where to begin
>>344591
>>345319
Those were the days, my friend...
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y3KEhWTnWvE
>mf every time I hear that song
>>345375
>On Christmas Day 1975, the President of Equatorial Guinea, Francisco Macías Nguema, had 150 alleged coup plotters executed by soldiers dressed in Santa Claus costumes while Mary Hopkins cover of "Those Were the Days" was played over the PA system.
ayyy lmao
>>345319
And his immediate successor is still the dictator today. After 36 years in power.
Fuggin Africa.
>Elagabalus, barely fourteen years old, became emperor, initiating a reign remembered mainly for sexual scandal and religious controversy.
>Later historians suggest Elagabalus showed a disregard for Roman religious traditions and sexual taboos. He replaced the traditional head of the Roman pantheon, Jupiter, with the deity of whom he was high priest, Elagabal. He forced leading members of Rome's government to participate in religious rites celebrating this deity, over which he personally presided. Elagabalus was married as many as five times, lavished favours on male courtiers popularly thought to have been his lovers, and was reported to have prostituted himself in the imperial palace. His behavior estranged the Praetorian Guard, the Senate, and the common people alike.
>Amidst growing opposition, Elagabalus, just 18 years old, was assassinated and replaced by his cousin Alexander Severus on 11 March 222, in a plot formulated by his grandmother, Julia Maesa, and carried out by disaffected members of the Praetorian Guard.
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Elagabalus
Cassius Dio reports:
>Finally, he set aside a room in the palace and there committed his indecencies, always standing nude at the door of the room, as the harlots do, and shaking the curtain which hung from gold rings, while in a soft and melting voice he solicited the passers-by. There were, of course, men who had been specially instructed to play their part. For, as in other matters, so in this business, too, he had numerous agents who sought out those who could best please him by their foulness. He would collect money from his patrons and give himself airs over his gains; he would also dispute with his associates in this shameful occupation, claiming that he had more lovers than they and took in more money.
>>344616
dude wore small boots
>>345420
I dont know about you, but i totally would have paid to fuck a roman emperor.
Mansa Khalifa of Mali enjoyed shooting flaming arrows at passerby from the roof of his palace
What's that /his/? You'd like MORE CASTLES?!
>>345397
Not that the current president isn't one of the most corrupt people on the planet, but "successor" seems like too damning of a title for him given that he overthrew his uncle in a coup.
>>345506
Ludwig wasn't insane at all. Thats just slander from his personal enemies.
He used his personal revenue and nothing from the public treasury to fund all those castles, which is a huge public project that put tons of money into the economy. Everything he did was completely sound and benefitial to Bavaria.
Also Neuschwanstein is beautiful.
>>344566
After reading the OP, I immediately thought of when I read Shigurui or watched 13 Assassins, However, from what I've researched neither Shigurui's Tokugawa Tadanaga or 13's Matsudaira Naritsugu matched up to their depictions or at least I can't find any. The Japanese ruler I'd throw in could be Oda Nobunaga, who's a bit of a given, always depicted evil or cruel in some form or another. I definitely believe both depictions have real life inspirations. Can any other anon's weigh in on these two or any real life batshit emperor's, Shoguns or Daimyo's?
This is the face of a man who witnessed the Stalin's 5 year plan in action firsthand, decided that was a rip-roaring good idea, implemented it even MORE haphazardly when he was appointed minister of Japanese Manchuria, worked a milllion+ Chinese slaves to death, used his Yakuza friends to fund Imperial Japan's war efforts with opium dosh, got entire cities in occupied China hooked on the shit until they were OD'ing in numbers so large they took to burning all the corpses in mass pyres outside the city, all the while fucking hundreds of whores in wild orgies.
...AND lived to get a full pardon for all of it by the US.
...AND get elected as PM of post-war Japan not once but twice.
And to top it all off? He's Shinzo Abe's grandad.
>>344923
Name one thing he did with his power for the Empire that didn't involve incest, degeneracy, sociopathic sadism, or nutty delusions of grandeur.
>>347416
He lived the dream
He's not really a "ruler" so much as "chief of a small tribe" but this story has stuck with me because it somehow feels closer than historical tyrants.
When the story was told to me his name was just "Atu" which is not really a real name for us, just a nick name.
So Inuit are a very superstitious bunch and one of our myths is that there's a huge kingdom of spirits under the sea.
Atu believed he was favoured by these undersea spirits and began preparing his tribe to go live with them. If anybody didn't believe him, they kept their mouths shut I guess because soon everyone was excited about going to the undersea kingdom.
Children first, Atu held his people underwater until they died, one by one, before jumping in himself.
>>347416
>...AND lived to get a full pardon for all of it by the US.
>...AND get elected as PM of post-war Japan not once but twice.
>And to top it all off? He's Shinzo Abe's grandad.
Well done America.
USA USA USA
![Charles_II_(1670-80)[1].jpg](https://i.imgur.com/THA6b5t.jpg "Charles_II_(1670-80)[1].jpg")
> People posting guys that killed a lot of people
> These guys must be crazy
Not having a moral compass that aligns with everyone else doesn't make you a crazy.
>>347612
being retarded doesn't make you crazy, it just makes you retarded.
This guy was super into anal.
>>347569
If you think that's bad, google Unit 731m sort through the chinese propeganda, and look at how many japanese scientists got pardoned by the US for experimenting on human beings. They handed over their research in exchange for their freedom.
>>347687
Vlad was brutal and merciless, but not crazy. He proved to be a very effective leader.
![proxy[1].jpg](https://i.imgur.com/hENzM1f.jpg "proxy[1].jpg")
>>347707
I agree that he was an effective leader, but there has to be a screw loose when you have your army anally impale over 1,000 prisoners outside your castle, prop them upright, put out a dining set, and eat your dinner among a forest of your wailing enemies.
>>347714
He definitely looks the part
>>347772
It shows a good amount of pathology, but also calculation in sending a clear message to his subordinates.
>>345420
Take that with a grain of salt. Slandering people with scurrilous tales of sexual impropriety was de rigeur for hostile historians in the ancient world. And the medieval world. And the modern world. It's the go-to way to blacken someone's name.
Given that perfectly serviceable Emperor's were deposed by the dread Praetorian guard or the fickle legions, we should not read too much into the briefness of his reign as some indication that the nasty rumors were true. He might have simply not understood the importance of being outrageously generous to the Praetorians.
>>347772
Plenty of feted leaders in history have been absolutely ruthless and indulged in atrocities when it was expedient. And it was expedient; when liberally applied without restraint, atrocity can be a very effective tool. Richard the Lionhearted, for example, was fond of beating, mutilating and murdering Jews both personally, and instigating pogroms against them. He also committed atrocities in the holy land during his Crusade.
It's always dangerous judging people from the past by modern standards. They lacked the sophisticated tools of modern statehood, or even of later monarchies. What seems to be sadism might instead have just been the best or perhaps ONLY way of maintaining order or securing peace.
>>345019
there is some question as to whether that stunt really happened
This guy was deranged
>>345375
The fucked up thing is I could easily imagine this being played during an execution now.
>>345319
>sentenced to 101 death sentences
>>347558
One Inuit shaman was asked what they believed by a missionary.
He responded by saying "We do not believe...we fear"
>>347969
> Bokassa spent the equivalent of over 20 million United States dollars, a third of the country’s government annual income, on his coronation ceremony.
lad
>>347962
At least among my tribe our names are all really long so that evil spirits can't use them against us. As gruesome as they are, at least the old white people folk tales have lessons and morals to them. Ours are all "and then supernatural stuff killed everyone and they're going to kill you too and there's nothing you can do about it. Sleep tight, kid."
>>347612
Charles II was a literal drooling retard, not a crazy person.
Saparmuray Niyazov was probably the craziest leader in modern times.
>Banned lip-synching and all recorded music. Live performances only
>Banned dogs from the capital city
>Forced to quit smoking due to health problems, banned smoking for all citizens
>Demanded an ice palace be built so the citizens of Turkmenistan can learn how to ice skate
>Closed every hospital not located in the capital city, replaced the Hippocratic oath with an oath of allegiance to himself
>Renamed months and days of the week after himself and his relatives
>Closed all libraries, as the only books Turkmen should read are the Koran and the Ruhnama, a book that he wrote.
The Ruhnama (Which he also named a month after) is it's own bag of crazy:
>Any student that read the book 3 times would automatically get into Heaven
>Mosques were forced to consider it of equal importance to the Koran, or face demolition
>Anyone seeking a driver's license, pass education exams, or seek government employment will be asked to recite passages
>The Turkmenistan education system exists almost entirely to teach students about the Ruhnama
>A giant mechanical statue of the Ruhnama was built in the capital, and every night at 8 PM sharp it opens up and plays a recording and video presentation of various passages
Worth noting that Niyazov was believed to be largely illiterate.
>>345506
He looked like an autist.
Just put a fedora on him.
>>347687
>They handed over their research in exchange for their freedom
knowledge is power
my favorite story of that kind is about Henry Hudson's doomed expedition to north america. The purpose of the expedition was to find the northwest passage and natives in the area around modern day new york city told him stories about massive waterways to the distant northwest which were most likely the great lakes. He ended up going around the coast of Canada and charted the eastern half of Hudson bay. Not wanting to return to the netherlands empty handed he demanded his crew continue on, though they mutinied and left him and a handful of loyal men marooned on the coast in Northern Canada where they presumably died. On the way back to Amsterdam two members of the crew died and extensive journals were written by all the remaining crewmen that pinned them as the leaders of the mutiny. Despite that mutinying against a captain at sea was a capital crime all of the crewmen were found not guilty after giving full reports of the expedition to the Dutch government.
>>347969
>Bokassa attempted to justify his actions by claiming that creating a monarchy would help Central Africa “stand out” from the rest of the continent, and earn the world’s respect. Despite invitations, no foreign leaders attended the event.
>>348104
>banned dogs from the capital city
was this the first time a ruler took an official stance on dogs vs cats since ancient egypt?
>>345319
>banning use of the word "intellectual"
>"Grand Master of Education, Science,
>>345420
>Made emperor of the fucking Roman empire
>AT 14
I'd have fucked enough random people to get assassinated as well.
>>347772
He did what he had to do after his country was surrounded by worse savages.
>>344566
actually, its very likely that most stuff that was written about Caligula isnt actually true, and that it actually was just later trashtalking
Pic related killed cows so calves knew what it was like to lose a mother and could smell witches, the absolute madman.
>>347842
Yeah, it's way more likely he got deposed because he was a fucking teenager desu.
>>348391
I really do hope the story of him making his horse a senator is true. It wwas a big fuck you to the senate. Top quality bants tbqh.
Also he supposedly slept with their wives at dinner parties then had them describe the encounter in detail in front of their husbands when they got back to their meal. Why would they make that up? Just makes them look like giant cuks.
>>350229
he also forbid all agriculture
>>347714
>ungen stergberg never got to live his dream of establishing a new khanate in china
>he never got to see a monarch restored to the russian throne
>he never got to lead an unstoppable horde of mongols, khazakhs, tibetans, cossacks and russian loyalists across eurasia
>>344881
>He insisted that everything he did was for the greater good of the Cambodian people right up to the day he died.
Still, it shouldn't be forgotten that the Khmer Rouge wasn't only one man and that enough people shared his insane vision to make it a reality.
>>351233
...well done
>>345385
man's got style
>>347416
Sign me up for that guys life god damn.
>>347714
literally the sanest historical figure anon
>>345420
It wasn't considered gay as long as you were the dominant one back then right?
not crazy, just retarded
>>350647
or, you know... keking was such a huge insult that accusing another man of doing it also showed how he had no honour.
>>351576
Caligula was actually a pretty decent ruler for a lot of his reign, he did put in place decent policy. My belief is that somewhere along the way he just had reason to believe that people were trying to assassinate them and started to severely distrust people in general, also leading to madness and his issues with the latter half of his reign. A lot of the bad stuff we read about him is likely just propaganda, roman emperors, unless they were exceptionally good, seemed to gain a lot of hate in general
>muh elephants
>if i just waltz around rome without an adequate supply line or means to sack their cities i'll surely win xd
>elephants!
>lets march elephants halfway across the known world guys
>>350723
>implying Soviet bullets can keep Sternberg in his grave
Supposedly, his last words were something like "I will return."
I've seen enough shitty old movies to know that when you kill the evil sorcerer-king, he'll be back for the sequel.
>>350723
>>347714
>>351888
>German aristocrat living in Imperial Russia
>Fought the Japs and Chinese
>Joins the White Army.
>Over the course of his reign he amasses an enormous horde of Russians, Cossacks, Chinese, Japanese, Mongols, and Tibetans
>Pals with the Dalai Lama and the Khan of Mongolia
>Gets hooked on drugs
>Gets declared the reincarnation of Genghis Khan by the Dalai Lama
>Takes over a chunk of China, Tibet, Mongolia, and Russia
>"Takes over" is a very generous way of saying "Declares himself King-Czar-Khan of and has his goons run around collecting taxes".
>Dreams of a bizarre Second Coming of Christ where Jesus (Who is also Genghis Khan, Nicholas II, his nephew, and the Buddha) comes down from heaven, kills all the Jews/Communists, and establishes a global Christian absolute monarchy
>Gets given a yellow robe by the Dalai Lama.
>It, and a medal he won fighting the Japs, are the only clothes he wears near the high point of his reign.
>He also refused to cut or care for his hair or beard
>A wide eyed, drug crazed, half naked barbarian lord riding down the steppes robbing trains
>Rest of the White army only associates with him because he somehow has money and troops
>Would hold mass every Sunday in which he ranted to a motley mass of Christians, Muslims, Buddhists, and more than a few Mongolian/Chinese pagans about how they were all going to hell when Jesus-Buddha-Genghis-Nicholas came back.
>Steals a few trains from the Soviets, puts cannons on them, and drives around shooting peasant villages to keep them from joining the commies
>Gets caught by Soviets eventually and put on a show trial
>Soviets have a literal atheist Jewish Communist prosecute him just to piss him off.
He lived a magical life.
>>351972
Don't forget that he was balls-deep in a hot Manchurian princess during most of his crazy "I'm a living god" regime.
>>351972
>you will never be this alpha
>>344566
I can't believe nobody has mentioned this guy yet.
He was a proto-commie, SJW, AND military dictator...so basically completely bonkers.
Keep in mind, he did this in 19th century Paraguay, of all places:
>forced native Spaniards to marry native women or blacks (muh equality)
>honored prostitutes and gave them fancy gold combs
>officiated over literally every marriage in his country
>banned fiestas, abolished class distinctions
>>344566
>>345725
aww yiss
>>348185
>Bankrupt an already poor country by throwing a lavish coronation that no one asked for or wanted
>"Gee this must get people to respect me!"
Was Bokassa an autist?
