Oliver

Oliver Cromwell was a military and political leader of the 1600’s. He was a solider that earned fair greater wages than a great body of people. He put their lives in jeopardy for the liberties of the protestant religion of England. In 1628 he was elected a Member of Parliament. From 1642 to 1646 he was the military commander of the New Model Army. During his time as a military leader he overthrew the English Parliament and changed England from a monarchy to a commonwealth. A commonwealth is a government that protects the welfare of its citizens as a large body instead of a small privileged class. He ruled for nine years. On April 20th 1653 he put an end to Rump Parliament. This was the first step toward his dictatorship. He signed the death warrant of Charles the I to have him beheaded so that it cleared the way for him to take over the power. He created a new parliament with men that had fidelity, honesty and shared his political views. He was later appointed Lord Protector. This gave him king like power and he received royal treatment. Cromwell loathed Irish Catholics. He drove them out of their homes and sold their land to Protestants to repay war debts

According to the Mind of a Dictator in 2011 by James Fallon a dictator has many qualities. They have charm, power hungry, controlling, have no restraint, lack compassion, have high self confidence, very intelligent, sadistic, malignant, masterful liars, and extremely self absorbed. Most dictators are narcissistic, psychopaths, are addicted to torture and killing, megalomaniacal and usually have held a high military office. Dictators rule by autocracies, have totalitarian government, have stratocracies, usually suspend elections and civil liberties, and kill off any opposing power. It appears according to the history books and the actions of Cromwell he possessed all of these characteristics.

A good reason to study history is to learn from past experiences and hopefully learn not to make the same mistakes. When one studies about Cromwell other historical leaders come to mind, but none are as parallel in nature to Cromwell as Adolph Hitler.

Adolph Hitler approached the German people convincing them that they could become the “master race”. He exhibited all the characteristics of a dictator according to Fallon’s definition. He was able to take over the government and become Germany’s leader. He ruled by dictatorship, was ruthless and killed six million Jews in concentration camps during WWII. Cromwell and Hitler were similar in their technique to obtain power, maintain the power and in promoting genocide.