AHC Make a (few) regime(s) as infamous as Hitler's, historiographically & internationally

[Fenestella]

Many regimes or empires excelled at acquisition of living space and annihilation of undesirables.
How to make them as infamous as the Third Reich internationally?

 

[Tibi088]

The Third Reich was special in the sense that it was especionally well suited to receive (deserved) bad press:
1. They lost.
2. They were important and strong enough for the world to take 6 years to defeat them in the most bloody war
3. Had every surviving great or super powers as an enemy
4. Had a sufficiently evil ideology
5. Actually acted on said evil ideology
6. They are pretty recent

The only one who could have gained similar levels of bad reputation would be a soviet union if defeated after a long war (if the world somehow survived).
Beside the soviets some of the colonial empires are as close as you can possibly get but still pretty far behind.

 

[Arkenfolm]

Beside the soviets some of the colonial empires are as close as you can possibly get but still pretty far behind.

This is a matter of perspective. I suspect a Congolese, say, might have different thoughts on if Hitler was worse than their colonial overlords. In terms of sheer number of people, the Imperial Japanese win in terms of people who would consider them the absolute worst regime in history (and even in the West they're usually considered number two thanks to Pearl Harbor, their abuse of POWs, etc.).

 

[Tibi088]

This is a matter of perspective. I suspect a Congolese, say, might have different thoughts on if Hitler was worse than their colonial overlords. In terms of sheer number of people, the Imperial Japanese win in terms of people who would consider them the absolute worst regime in history (and even in the West they're usually considered number two thanks to Pearl Harbor, their abuse of POWs, etc.).

The congolese might disagree but I think if we could either butterfly the belgians or the nazis most people would choose to butterfly the nazis.

You might be right about more people hating the Japamese regime of WWII and their abuse of the POWs. However I think Pearl Harbor was very far from making them worst in history.

 

[Maeglin]

King Leopold wasn't trying to take over the world, and Imperial Japan wasn't planning to exterminate entire ethnic groups. Hitler was doing both.

 

[bbctol]

In a "Nazis win and take over the world" TL most Allied nations would be viewed pretty harshly, particularly the USSR.

 

[Dante]

King Leopold wasn't trying to take over the world, and Imperial Japan wasn't planning to exterminate entire ethnic groups. Hitler was doing both.

Yeah this is really the sweet spot of evil regimes.

 

[Whiteshore]

A Trotskyist USSR?

 

[Grey Wolf]

Are you asking about making OTL historical regimes better known and reviled alongside the Nazis? Rather than ATLs that never happened?

If so, you just need to keep things in the public eye for the Mongols to have this reputation - remind people of the massacres, the annihilation of civilisations etc

 

[Dante]

A Trotskyist USSR?

If Trotsky stays true to his idea of spreading communism by "continual revolution" and a Trotsky led Soviet Union is more involved in the wider world in the inter-war period you have all the elements of a historical boogeyman. You'd have an ideology that contrasts with the status quo as well as support for homegrown revolutionaries, a real enemy within situation.

 

[Vuu]

Go back far enough and the boogeyman is someone else

I say that Pol Pot isn't considered so bad merely because of it's extremely limited area

 

[Philip]

I say that Pol Pot isn't considered so bad merely because of it's extremely limited area

And not in Europe.

 

[Byzantine fanatic]

Many regimes or empires excelled at acquisition of living space and annihilation of undesirables.
How to make them as infamous as the Third Reich internationally?

I would say the USA's current reputation is pretty infamous. The country is considered the biggest threat to world peace by many countries. 79% of people in Turkey and 82% of people in Jordan have an unfavourable view of the US. In Iran the US government is considered "the great Satan", and it's understandable, considering US policy to Iran since 1953. There's also the 2003 invasion of Iraq to consider, plus the fact that Trump's inaction on climate change may doom us all.

I really feel for a lot of educated Americans, it must be awful having people like Dubyya or Trump as the president. Talking to an American friend of mine (offline) really brought this home to me. America has some of the most intelligent people in the world, Harvard, Yale and other educational institutions. I'm willing to bet many of those people have spent a lot of time thinking about how things could be better.

 

[Arkenfolm]

However I think Pearl Harbor was very far from making them worst in history

Not so much Pearl Harbor itself but what it symbolises--starting (yet another) unprovoked war of aggression in the most spectacular way possible.

 

[Tibi088]

Not so much Pearl Harbor itself but what it symbolises--starting (yet another) unprovoked war of aggression in the most spectacular way possible.

I think that at the very least the unprovoked part is open for debate - seeing the american embargo's etc. I also doubt that its that much of a symbol outside the USA.

 

[Falecius]

In a "Nazis win and take over the world" TL most Allied nations would be viewed pretty harshly, particularly the USSR.

The USSR would not be viewed. Like, not, at all. The Nazis did not just plan to cancel Jews, Roma, most Slavs and Communism out of existence (both collectively and as individuals). They also explicitly wanted to erase any memory that any of those ever existed (and the memory of their crimes againsts those therefore nonexistent entities with it).
Not only exterminating Jews, but exterminating any awareness that Judaism was ever a thing. Not just killing Poles, but destroying any concept of a Polish state or nation present, past or future. Not just destroying the Soviet Union, killing, starving or enslaving most of its people, and destroying their cultural memory, but annihilating any notion whatsoever that people anywhere could even entertain a notion of trying building a political community based on hopes of equality, and freedom from exploitation.
Of course, the Soviet Union had already turned out not really even trying to approach such sort of hopes, to put it mildly. But it still embodied a glimmer of those for many people, and the 1917 revolutions had that as a driving force. Had the Nazis really got their way, nobody would ever even know that any revolution happened in 1917, especially not in Russia... since nobody would be supposed to know that Russia even ever existed in any form whatsoever.

 

[SealTheRealDeal]

Documentation and recentness is key. Timur would be at least as deplored if his skull pyramids were caught on film.

 

[stevej713]

I would say the USA's current reputation is pretty infamous. The country is considered the biggest threat to world peace by many countries. 79% of people in Turkey and 82% of people in Jordan have an unfavourable view of the US. In Iran the US government is considered "the great Satan", and it's understandable, considering US policy to Iran since 1953.

Eh, world opinions on Turkey and Iran are similarly low too.

 

[cmakk1012]

Documentation and recentness is key. Timur would be at least as deplored if his skull pyramids were caught on film.

The Mongols would be viewed similarly for Khwarezm, Baghdad, and so on. Similar global scale and outreach as the Nazis, at least in a 13th century perspective.

Oddly enough, I’ve heard the man most reviled before Hitler was Napoleon (no doubt thanks to Perfidious Albionese propaganda), so maybe a successful Napoleonic Europe would be so globally despised?

 

[Arcavia]

Oddly enough, I’ve heard the man most reviled before Hitler was Napoleon (no doubt thanks to Perfidious Albionese propaganda), so maybe a successful Napoleonic Europe would be so globally despised

I think thats really more of an Anglophone thing; on the Continent the title went to the Pharoah of Exodus, though whether that counts as per OP is debatable. Imo, the easiest way to get an enemy as detested as Hitler is probably the fascistic Whitists winning the RCW.