Title: 10 Dictators Throughout History Who Were Surprisingly Good
Headings: 10 Dictators Who Were Surprisingly Good
10 Dictators Who Were Surprisingly Good
Unbelievable Facts
1. Ashoka was an Indian emperor, belonging to the Mauryan dynasty between c 268 to 232 BCE. He ruled over almost the entire subcontinent of India stretching from present-day Bengal to Afghanistan. He turned out to be a benevolent ruler after the Kalinga War and is one of the first rulers to give consideration to humans and animals in his empire.
2. Kemal Pasha was the President of Turkey from 1922 until the time he died in 1938. He was a nationalist revolutionary who raised an army against the Ottoman Empire’s European occupants. In 1935, he was given the surname “Ataturk,” which means “Father of the Turks.” He modernized Turkey ar beyond any recognition of its former state.
3. Josip Broz Tito was essentially a dictator but became the official leader of Yugoslavia in 1945 to 1980 by overthrowing the ruling king. He, however, was instrumental in bringing a more relaxed form of communism to the country, called “Titoism.”
4. Lee Kuan Yew was a Cambridge-educated lawyer who freed Singapore from British rule in 1959. Yew ruled the country with iron-clad rules from 1959 to 1990 as the prime minister and for 21 years after that as an advisor. He took Singapore, an impoverished agricultural economy, and raised it to become one of Asia’s richest countries.
5. Paul Kagame, the 60-year-old President of Rwanda, has been in power since 1994 when his rebel army ended the genocide which had killed 800,000 people. He was the defense minister and vice-president until 2000 after which he assumed the presidential office. Despite his ruthlessness, he has managed to take the country forward by bringing about a number of reforms.
6. Frances Albert Rene overthrew the president of Seychelles in a coup d’état in 1977 and took his place. He is also known as “The Boss” among party members and government officials. During his regime, Seychelles became the most developed country in Africa.
7. Peisistratus is known as the “tyrant of ancient Athens” and ruled between 561 and 527 BCE. He may have been a dictator, but his administration and policies helped Athens become one of the most prosperous and beautiful cities in ancient times.
8. Frederick II, or Frederick the Great, was the self-proclaimed king of Prussia from 1740 to 1786. He unified the kingdom and modernized it by making reforms to the judicial and economic system and encouraging religious tolerance.
9. Simon Bolivar was the President of Gran Columbia from 1819 until he stepped down in 1830. He was officially named the dictator of Peru in 1824. He was a great military leader and speaker who was instrumental in releasing Venezuela, Peru, Columbia, Bolivia, Panama, and Ecuador from Spanish dominion.
10. Catherine the Great became the Empress of Russia from 1762 to 1796 by unseating her husband, Peter III, with help from her lover. Although she held absolute power, she ushered in the Golden Age of the Russian Empire, or the Russian Enlightenment, by introducing a number of changes in administration and reforms.

Content: He gave women equal rights by giving them universal voting rights in 1934, abolished polygamy and gave them the right to equal inheritance. In 1935, there were 18 woman MPs in the parliament when women in most other countries didn’t even have the right to vote. Kemal Pasha established secular, civil law based on Western models and banned Sharia law, essentially separating religion from governance. This also had a positive effect on education reforms by introducing coeducation, easier access to learning, and adult education. He propagated the rise of art and culture which had been prohibited during the Ottoman rule. Under him, art, architecture, literature, music, libraries, and cultural centers thrived. He pushed the economy forwards by encouraging small- and large-scale industries, establishing a banking system, and introducing land reform. ( 1, 2, 3)
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3. Josip Broz Tito was essentially a dictator but became the official leader of Yugoslavia in 1945 to 1980 by overthrowing the ruling king. He, however, was instrumental in bringing a more relaxed form of communism to the country, called “Titoism.”