Essay #1

[1]Dictatorship: a country, government, or the form of government in which absolute power is exercised by a dictator.
[2]Dictator: a person exercising absolute power, esp. a ruler who has absolute, unrestricted control in a government without hereditary succession.

Dictators almost always come into power during the needs of an emergency. After being elected, they would then rule with an iron fist, letting no emotions barricade them from their goals. Also after gaining the position of power would the dictator’s true motives be shown since now there is no one else capable of overthrowing them once they have assented to that power.

[3]Roman and ancient dictators usually came into power by being elected by a consul during times of a crisis. [4]Although then they only had a limit of 6 months to rule, Lucius Cornelius Sulla and Julius Caesar had abolished those rules and ruled to their content. Only after Caesar’s murder did the Romans finally abolish dictatorship.

[5]Modern dictators such as the infamous Hitler would come into power by the use of propaganda. During the hard times of 1920s and 1930s in Germany, Hitler grew from being an overlooked person of power to being the leader of the biggest and strongest political party in Germany. During election times, Hitler tried the “politician’s” way of getting into power, by the use of propaganda, speeches, etc. He later began using his own force, aka The Nazis, in exterminating his enemy parties. Even with this disorder, Hitler still failed to win the elections of 1933. A little while after the elections, Hitler proposed the Enabling Bill which would grant himself the powers of a dictator. The bill was passed when Hitler offered a deal to the Catholic Centre Party; vote for the bill and the rights of the Catholic Church would be guaranteed. Hitler finally became the dictator of Germany. This is when Hitler’s true motives were shown. He had been longing for the chance of creating genocide of the Jewish and non-Aryan community. He almost succeeded in his attempt killing off more then 10 million Jews of the world. Hitler then died from suicide rather then surrendering when he had lost the World War to the Ally Powers.

[6]Another powerful dictator of the time and one that had deeply influenced Hitler was Benito Mussolini. His achievements in being able to conquer other countries in Africa and such caused the spark of interest in Hitler when he came into power. Mussolini and Hitler then formed a full defensive alliance ([7]The Pact of Steel). He and Hitler then fought together in World War II but was then defeated.

[8]An unknown dictator of sorts to most of the world is the infamous Saloth Sar or better known as Pol Pot was the ruler of the Khmer Rouge and the Prime Minister was able to kill off a third of the population of Cambodia (Democratic Kampuchea during his rule). This massive genocide was supposed to be a means extermination of intellectuals and other "bourgeois enemies", so that the people of Cambodia could take a step forward.
His regime was decimated once he went into war with Vietnam in 1979. As an account from a witness of the war:
[9]“Friends of mine would go off into the war and come back with stories of how disheveled Kampuchea would be and about the toture camps. Of how the people in the country who were informed were deathly afraid of their own government. The amount of violence in the country was unbearable. There would be giant holes in the ground where live burials would take place. Anybody that was not liked by Pol Pot would be beheaded. They taught the children to be loyal to Pol Pot, otherwise their whole family would be killed. Children at the age of 11-13 would be drafted into the military.”


[1] http://dictionary.reference.com/search?q=dictatorship
[2] http://dictionary.reference.com/search?q=dictator&x=33&y=23
[3] http://www.roman-empire.net/republic/rep-offices.html
[4] http://www.livius.org/caa-can/caesar/caesar08.html#problems
[5] http://www.spartacus.schoolnet.co.uk/GERhitler.htm
[6] http://www.spartacus.schoolnet.co.uk/2WWmussolini.htm
[7] http://wings.buffalo.edu/litgloss/mussolini/about.shtml
[8] http://www.moreorless.au.com/killers/pot.html
[9] Mother’s Account