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Power-hungry and delusional, these historical figures believed themselves to be gods among mortals. Join us as we count down our picks for the biggest megalomaniacs who reshaped history! From bunker-obsessed dictators to self-proclaimed deities, these leaders weren't just controlling—they demanded worship.
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00:00Adolf Hitler was a fanatical leader, a megalomaniac, who led his country and many others into the abyss.
00:07Welcome to WatchMojo. Today we're looking at people who saw themselves as saviors, emperors, or gods.
00:12These megalomaniacs believe themselves destined to reshape the world in their image, no matter the cost.
00:17While Silicon Valley has its contenders, you know who you are, we're focusing on political leaders.
00:22Execute those whom custom has condemned to death.
00:28Number 10. Enver Hoxha.
00:29When it came to paranoia and control, Albania's longtime dictator made Orwell look like an optimist.
00:34Enver Hoxha ruled with an iron fist for over 40 years.
00:37In that time, he turned the tiny Balkan nation into an isolated communist fortress.
00:41He cut ties with allies one by one, including the Soviets and even Maoist China.
00:45He believed only he could chart Albania's path.
00:47Obsessed with invasion, he ordered the construction of over 170,000 concrete bunkers.
00:52Throughout the 1970s, the Albanian population was ready to mobilize at a moment's notice.
00:58They were scattered across the countryside like concrete mushrooms.
01:02His cult of personality was so intense, children were taught to see him as a kind of father-god figure.
01:06Hoxha turned an entire isolated nation into his own private cult.
01:10It practically transformed Albania into what North Korea stands today to the world.
01:16Number 9. Empress Dowager Xiaoxi.
01:19From concubine to kingmaker, Empress Dowager Xiaoxi ruled China with iron resolve for nearly half a century.
01:24She handpicked her nephew as emperor, sidelined reformers, and steered China headfirst into the Boxer Rebellion.
01:29Desperate to preserve her grip on power, she declared war on several foreign nations.
01:33Despite blocking radical reforms, she eventually saw the writing on the wall.
01:37When it was too late, she embraced measured modernization through the new policies.
01:40She soon sabotaged her own belated attempt to stabilize a crumbling dynasty.
01:45The moment progress was inconvenient, she famously diverted navy funds to rebuild the Summer Palace's marble boat.
01:51In Xiaoxi's world, the people were just ungrateful peons.
01:54Number 8. Baron Roman von Ungern Sternberg.
01:57Baron von Ungern Sternberg isn't in most history textbooks, but the Mad Baron was so brutal he made Genghis Khan look downright restrained.
02:03A Baltic German noble and Tsarist diehard, Ungern Sternberg seized Ulaanbaatar in 1921.
02:09There he declared himself the reincarnated god of war.
02:12He ruled through mysticism, terror, and monarchist fantasy.
02:15The Mad Baron purged Bolsheviks, Jews, and even his own officers.
02:18His Asiatic cavalry enforced fear with fanatic loyalty, and rumors of his divine fate only fed the madness.
02:24But within a year, his reign collapsed.
02:26Captured and executed by Soviet forces, Ungern Sternberg remains a cautionary tale of what happens when power meets delusion.
02:32Number 7. The Kim Dynasty.
02:35North Korea frequently horrifies the world with nuclear saber rattling.
02:38The scariest thing is how little anyone can do about it.
02:40The Hermit Kingdom is a cult state armed with missiles.
02:43The Kim family dynasty has ruled it through iron-fisted mythology.
02:46Only three men, one family, have ruled this country and taken on the world.
02:57For over 70 years, three successive Kims, Kim Il-sung, Kim Jong-il, and Kim Jong-un, have styled themselves as living gods.
03:05Their portraits hang in every home.
03:06Children learn reverent hymns to the Kims before they can read.
03:09The state enforces the ten principles of the one ideology system, demanding absolute loyalty to the ruling bloodline.
03:15The sudden death of Kim Jong-il, the second man to lead the country, rocked the North Korean people.
03:21Propaganda is inescapable.
03:23The country's full of murals and monuments.
03:25There are even mandatory lapel pins now bearing Kim Jong-un's face.
03:28Kim wanted his people to buy into the new vision of a 21st century North Korea.
03:35Number 6. Mao Zedong.
03:36When Mao led the Communist Revolution, he tried to remake Chinese reality in his image.
03:40After proclaiming himself the Great Helmsman, he launched the Great Leap Forward.
03:52His government forced peasants to melt their tools and grow crops in backyards.
03:56When predictable famine followed, he refused to accept fault.
04:03Up to 45 million died while he dined on fresh fish delivered daily by a private supply chain.
04:08In the Cultural Revolution, he pitted students against teachers.
04:11His little red book was treated like scripture and his legend grew.
04:14Mao reportedly cleaned his teeth with tea and refused to bathe, believing his body cleaned itself.
04:19His face was everywhere, propaganda posters, statues, and billboards.
04:23For Mao, loyalty wasn't enough.
04:24He demanded adoration.
04:25It was exciting.
04:27We thought he was a god.
04:29Number 5.
04:30Joseph Stalin.
04:31To much of the Western world, the Man of Steel will always be Superman.
04:34In the Soviet Union, it was Joseph Stalin.
04:36The Soviet premier was no ordinary leader.
04:39Stalin remains one of the greatest villains of the 20th century.
04:44After crushing competitors like Lenin and Trotsky, he created a cult of personality powerful enough
04:49to bend history.
04:50His face loomed over parades and haunted textbooks.
04:52He even found his way into children's bedtime stories.
04:55Stalin's purges were legendary, filled with elaborate show trials.
04:58Stalin established an iron curtain from the Baltic to the Adriatic Sea.
05:03He sent millions to die in gulags.
05:05Under his reign, an estimated 6 to 9 million people perished through executions, famine,
05:09and forced labor.
05:10But to hear Soviet propaganda tell it, he was a wise, infallible father to his people.
05:14We don't know how many people died at his hand in his own country.
05:18Number 4.
05:19Saper Murat Niazov, a.k.a.
05:21Turkmenbashi.
05:22One common trait of self-absorbed leaders, they love slapping their names on everything.
05:26No one did it on a wilder scale than Saper Murat Niazov, better known as Turkmenbashi.
05:30After declaring himself president for life of Turkmenistan, he turned the country into
05:35a shrine to his ego.
05:37The country belongs to a notorious control freak, President Turkmenbashi.
05:43He renamed cities, airports, even the month of January after himself.
05:47The capital was dotted with golden statues, including one that rotated to face the sun.
05:51His spiritual political manifesto, the Ruk Nama, became required reading in schools
05:55and a holy text at mosques.
05:56He banned opera, lip-syncing, long hair, and even dogs in the capital.
06:00One reason why Ashgabat is so clean is because the president has banned dogs.
06:05In a final act of absurdity, he ordered a giant ice palace built in the desert.
06:09Why let physics get in the way of ego?
06:11A few years later, his title got upgraded to Bayek Turkmenbashi.
06:17Turkmenbashi the Great.
06:20Number 3.
06:21Adolf Hitler.
06:21History's most infamous dictator was also one of its most deluded.
06:24Adolf Hitler didn't just want to conquer nations, he wanted to reshape humanity.
06:28He styled himself as a messianic figure.
06:30You would see those great rallies in the streets of Berlin with hundreds of thousands of people
06:35marching in uniform.
06:38Obsessed with racial purity, he believed he'd usher in a thousand-year empire.
06:41His face appeared on coins, posters, and classroom walls.
06:44Schoolchildren saluted his name.
06:46He micromanaged German culture, stamping his influence on everything from sports to architecture
06:50and film.
06:51A propaganda department produced art, films, and books, praising Hitler and embracing
06:56his vision of a better Germany.
06:59Fueled by paranoia and fascinated by the occult, he trusted astrologers more than generals.
07:04His thirst for domination cost millions their lives.
07:06In the end, the man who saw himself as Germany's savior left it in ruins.
07:10He almost destroyed civilization as we know it during the 20th century.
07:13I don't think that history will ever, ever forgive him, nor should it.
07:18Number 2.
07:19Genghis Khan
07:19Born as Temujin, Genghis Khan decided at a young age that he would etch his name into
07:24the world.
07:24History records him as a brutal butcher.
07:27He united the Mongol tribes and launched a campaign of conquest that reshaped entire continents.
07:32His empire would become the largest contiguous land empire in history, stretching from Korea
07:37to the Caspian Sea.
07:38He believed it was his divine right to rule, and his enemies paid the price.
07:41Entire cities were razed, populations wiped out.
07:43Only children and potential concubines were spared, taken as slaves.
07:49He killed so many people it reportedly cooled the climate.
07:51Yet he saw himself as a civilizer, spreading trade, law, and even postal systems across his
07:55empire.
07:56His legacy lives on today.
07:57A 2003 genetic study found that he had over 16 million living descendants.
08:01Up to 16 million men today who live in regions that Khan conquered could have been descendants
08:08of him.
08:09Before we unveil our top pick, here are a few dishonorable mentions.
08:12Emperor Napoleon Bonaparte, the self-anointed French ruler controlled his own press to craft
08:17a legend fit for an emperor.
08:19Saddam Hussein, the dictator filled Iraq with statues, murals, and even Qurans written in his
08:24own blood.
08:25Donald Trump, the reality star led with lies and crowned himself America's greatest president.
08:33Muammar Gaddafi, Libya's self-declared king of kings ruled with delusions as vast as the
08:38desert.
08:38Julius Caesar, he named a month after himself and made dictator for life sound like a reasonable
08:43job.
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09:06Number 1.
09:07Alexander the Great.
09:08He conquered the known world and then wept because there were no more worlds to conquer.
09:12Alexander of Macedon was possibly the greatest military mind in history.
09:16His victories led him to believe himself a god.
09:18By age 30, he had topped with the Persian Empire and marched to the edge of India.
09:21All of Persia, its capital city, and literally tons of gold and silver bullion belong to Alexander.
09:29It wasn't enough.
09:30He named over 20 cities after himself and one after his horse.
09:33He demanded divine honors, called himself a son of Zeus-infused Greek and Persian customs
09:37in a bid to rule as a living deity.
09:39He could do what he liked.
09:42He could call himself god if he wanted.
09:45His megalomania was so intense, even his generals grew afraid.
09:48Alexander died young, but not before burning his name into the fabric of human civilization forever.
09:53Whether he was a god or not, he certainly had the confidence of one.
09:57From emperors to ego-trippers, let us know who you think should have made the list of history's
10:02greatest megalomaniacs.
10:03He clearly saw himself as a god and he was being treated as a god.
10:09Henonyac
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