List of Dictatorships by Death Toll – The Top 10 Biggest Mass Killings in History 

List of Dictatorships by Death Toll – The Top 10 Biggest Mass Killings in History

Posted by Alcibiades | Jul 10, 2017

10. North Korean Crimes against humanity 1948-present

North Korea continues to be one of the most repressive governments in the world with the world’s lowest human rights record. Over 200,000 people are interned in concentrations camps for either being political dissidents or being related to political dissidents where they are subject to slavery, torture, starvation, shootings, gassing, and human experimentation. Estimations of death toll go up from 710,000 to 3,500,000.

9. Young Turk’s Ottoman Holocaust 1913-1922

A collective term to refer to the various genocides and Ethnic cleansings the Ottoman Empire committed under the administration of the Young Turks. Death toll is the combined death tolls of the Armenian Genocide (800,000 to 1,500,000), Assyrian Genocide (150,000 to 300,000), and Greek Genocide(289,000 to 750,000), and combined with the Great Famine of Mount Lebanon (200,000).

8. Khmer Rouge Holocaust 1975-1979

The Cambodian genocide  was carried out by the Khmer Rouge regime led by Pol Pot between 1975 and 1979 in which an estimated 1.5 to 3 million people died. The Cambodian Civil War resulted in the establishment of Democratic Kampuchea by the victorious Khmer Rouge, which planned to create a form of agrarian socialism founded on the ideals of Stalinism and Maoism. The subsequent policies caused forced relocation of the population from urban centers, torture, mass executions, use of forced labor, malnutrition, and disease which led to the deaths of an estimated 25 percent of the total population (around 2 million people). The genocide ended in 1979 following the Vietnamese invasion of Cambodia. As of 2009, 23,745 mass graves have been discovered.

7. Atrocities under Ranavalona I of Madagascar 1829-1842

Putting an end to most foreign trade relationships, Ranavalona I pursued a policy of self-reliance, made possible through frequent use of the long-standing tradition of fanompoana—forced labor in lieu of tax payments in money or goods. Ranavalona continued the wars of expansion conducted by her predecessor, Radama I, in an effort to extend her realm over the entire island, and imposed strict punishments on those who were judged as having acted in opposition to her will. Due in large part to loss of life throughout the years of military campaigns, high death rates among fanompoana workers, and harsh traditions of justice under her rule, the population of Madagascar is estimated to have declined from around 5 million to 2.5 million between 1833 and 1839, and from 750,000 to 130,000 between 1829 and 1842 in Imerina. These statistics have contributed to a strongly unfavorable view of Ranavalona’s rule in historical accounts.

6. Congo Free State Horrors 1885-1908

Private forces under the control of Leopold II of Belgium carried out mass murders, mutilations, and other crimes against the Congolese in order to encourage the gathering of valuable raw materials, principally rubber. Significant deaths also occurred due to major disease outbreaks and starvation, caused by population displacement and poor treatment. Estimates of the death toll vary considerably because of the lack of a formal census before 1924, but a commonly cited figure of 10 million deaths was obtained by estimating a 50% decline in the total population during the Congo Free State and applying it to the total population of 10 million in 1924.

5. Japanese War Holocaust 1895-1945

Japanese war crimes occurred in many Asian and Pacific countries during the period of Japanese imperialism, primarily during the Second Sino-Japanese War and World War II. These incidents have been described as an Asian Holocaust. Some war crimes were committed by military personnel from the Empire of Japan in the late 19th century, although most took place during the first part of the Shōwa Era, the name given to the reign of Emperor Hirohito, until the surrender of the Empire of Japan in 1945. Some historians and governments hold Japanese military forces, namely the Imperial Japanese Army, the Imperial Japanese Navy, and the Imperial Japanese family, especially under Emperor Hirohito, responsible for the deaths of millions, some estimate between 3 and 14 million civilians and prisoners of war through massacre, human experimentation, starvation, and forced labor that was either directly perpetrated or condoned by the Japanese military and government. Some Japanese soldiers have admitted to committing these crimes.

4. Mass killings under Chinese Nationalist Government 1928-1946

The Nationalist government of China has been accused of mass killings, as Rudolph Rummel estimates the Nationalist government of China is responsible for between 6 and 18.5 million deaths He attributes this death toll to a few major causes for example:

• 1 million Chinese civilians starved or killed in order to fend off communist advance
• Hundreds of thousands peasants and communist killed in political repression.
• 1.75 to 2.5 million Chinese starving to death due to grain being confiscated and sold to other peasants for the profit of Nationalist Government officials.
• 4.2 million Chinese perishing before even entering combat due starving to death or dying from disease during horrific conscription campaigns.
• 440,000 to 893,000 Chinese civilians perishing in a man made flood by the Nationalist to stop a Japanese advance.

3. Nazi Holocaust 1939-1945

Nazi Holocaust against Jews, Poles, Gypsies, Serbs, East Slavs, the disabled, homosexuals, Freemasons, POWs and Jehovah’s Witnesses. Jews were systematically murdered in a genocide, which was part of a larger event including the persecution and murder of other peoples in Europe. Under the coordination of the SS, with directions from the highest leadership of the Nazi Party, every arm of Germany’s bureaucracy was involved in both the logistics and the carrying out of the mass murder. Killings took place throughout German-occupied Europe, as well as within Nazi Germany, and across all territories controlled by its allies. Other victims of Nazi crimes included ethnic Poles, Ukrainians, and other Slavs; Soviet citizens and Soviet POWs; communists; homosexuals; Jehovah’s Witnesses; and others. Some 42,500 detention facilities were utilized in the concentration of victims for the purpose of committing gross violations of human rights. Over 200,000 people are estimated to have been Holocaust perpetrators. The persecution was carried out in stages, culminating in the policy of extermination which was termed the “Final Solution”. Best estimate at the number of people that were killed is 17 million.

2. Stalinist Crimes against humanity and genocide 1922-1953

The millions murdered by the regime of Joseph Stalin by famine, purges, labor camps, population transfer, deportations, and NKVD massacres. The minimum death toll (to the left) uses the minimum post-archive calculations from after the fall of the USSR of those not killed in famine which range from 4 to 10 million., plus the minimum of those killed in famine which range from 6 to 8 million. Robert Conquest writer of the book The Great Terror started with the estimate with 30 million, a few years later putting it down to 20 million and in his latest revision says no less than 15 million perished. Estimates before the release of the archives put those killed by Stalin as “low” as 3 million and as high as 60 million.

1. Mao Zedong Catastrophes 1946-1976

Critics of Mao Zedong have argued Mao’s China saw unprecedented losses of human life through inhuman economic policies such as the Great Leap Forward, slave labor through the Laogai, violent political purges such as the Cultural Revolution the Campaign to Suppress Counterrevolutionaries, and class extermination through land reform. Minimum death toll is the minimum estimate of famine dead (15 million) plus minimum estimate of land reform dead (0.8 million) plus minimum estimate for Counterrevolutionaries dead (712,000) plus minimum estimate for Cultural Revolution dead (400,000). Highest death toll estimates go up to 70 million.