55
votes
Accepted
Has there ever been a peaceful overthrow of a dictator or monarch?
The abdication of King Edward VIII of United Kingdom in 1936 was achieved without any bloodshed and resulted in ascension and coronation of his brother George as King of the United Kingdom.
Although ...
- 72.3k
55
votes
Who was the last leader of a country to call himself a dictator, or the last regime that called itself a dictatorship?
"Was" is the wrong tense used here.
The basic task of the nation in the years to come is to concentrate its effort on socialist modernization. Under the leadership of the Communist Party of ...
- 80.8k
51
votes
Has there ever been a peaceful overthrow of a dictator or monarch?
Murad V, Sultan of the Ottoman Empire from 30 May to 31 August 1876 was deposed by the Ottoman cabinet on the grounds of insanity.
The Grand Mufti (seyhulislam)
issued a fetva justifying the act ...
- 108k
50
votes
States calling themselves a dictatorship
The Despotate of the Morea, which was a province of the Byzantine Empire, looks like one of these at first glance, but it isn't. The words "Despot", "Tyrant" and "Dictator" have all changed their ...
- 31.4k
44
votes
Has there ever been a peaceful overthrow of a dictator or monarch?
In 1946, Italy held a referendum to change from being a kingdom to a republic.
The last king of Italy, Umberto II, left the country peacefully to live the rest of his life abroad. He also absolved ...
- 629
42
votes
Who was the last leader of a country to call himself a dictator, or the last regime that called itself a dictatorship?
Since 2019 the El Salvadorian President Nayib Armando Bukele Ortez is in office.
The current developments were characterised as
"precursor to a dictatorship," and a representative from the ...
- 80.8k
38
votes
Has there ever been a peaceful overthrow of a dictator or monarch?
Queen Elizabeth II has been deposed many times and I guess holds the record for the most times someone has been deposed (peaceful or not).
This has happened many times when a former British colony ...
- 2,223
35
votes
Who was the last leader of a country to call himself a dictator, or the last regime that called itself a dictatorship?
Alexander Lukashenko has been the president of Belarus since 1994. He called himself "the last and only dictator in Europe" in a 2012 interview.
Q: Some Western politicians call you a ...
- 3,048
30
votes
Accepted
Who was the last leader of a country to call himself a dictator, or the last regime that called itself a dictatorship?
Perhaps that my own country (Portugal) is the answer. In 1926 we had a military revolution and in 1928 one the leaders of that revolution, general Óscar Carmona, was elected president of Portugal. The ...
- 4,656
25
votes
Accepted
How did Hitler imagine his succession? (for the case nazis would win the war)
The official, factual side
As unsatisfactory as that might sound @JMS is rightly focussing on first Göring and then Dönitz/Goebbels, although the later declined to survive so that Schwerin von ...
- 80.8k
19
votes
Has there ever been a peaceful overthrow of a dictator or monarch?
Augusto Pinochet, after 15 years as the dictator of Chile, stepped out of power because on the 5th October 1988 he lost a referendum with about 44% of votes and he accepted that result.
Benito ...
- 4,656
16
votes
Has there ever been a peaceful overthrow of a dictator or monarch?
The end of German Democratic Republic , a.k.a. East-Germany, was also quite peaceful. Prior to the German Reunification the GDR government applied some degree of oppression, yet the large-scale, ...
- 1,757
16
votes
States calling themselves a dictatorship
In the original sense of the term, Roman Dictators were magistrates of the Roman Republic, entrusted with the full authority of the state to deal with a military emergency or to undertake a specific ...
- 23.2k
14
votes
Why would people join a bloc party?
For practical matters and in East Germany, the benefits from being a member of a bloc party were actually not so different from being a member of the real ruling party.
Party membership (either in the ...
- 8,383
13
votes
Has there ever been a peaceful overthrow of a dictator or monarch?
Alfonso XIII of Spain, in 1931
On April 12, 1931, there were municipal elections. One year earlier, on January 28, 1930, the dictator Primo de Rivera resigned1. That dictatorship was a weird one, with ...
- 1,384
13
votes
Who was the last leader of a country to call himself a dictator, or the last regime that called itself a dictatorship?
The Centrocaspian Dictatorship ruled from July to September 1918 in and around the city of Baku in current Azerbaijan. This anti-Soviet country was not recognised by any other and soon overrun/...
- 3,697
11
votes
States calling themselves a dictatorship
The preamble to the constitution of the People's Republic of China describes the state as being a "people's democratic dictatorship".
Article 1 of the constitution repeats the claim.
- 111
11
votes
Has there ever been a peaceful overthrow of a dictator or monarch?
Bavaria stands out here. Ludwig II, Otto I, Ludwig III all lost power quite peacefully.
- 918
10
votes
Has there ever been a peaceful overthrow of a dictator or monarch?
Norway, 1905
From 1814 to 1905 Norway and Sweden were two kingdoms ruled by the same king.
This king ruled from the Swedish capitol and many Norwegians were unhappy about the situation.
The two ...
- 341
10
votes
Has there ever been a peaceful overthrow of a dictator or monarch?
Pedro II of Brazil, November 1889
There was only an injured person in the event.
The only one wounded in the episode of the proclamation of the republic was the Baron of Ladario, minister of navy, ...
- 101
9
votes
Who was the last leader of a country to call himself a dictator, or the last regime that called itself a dictatorship?
Marxists have been using the term dictatorship of the proletariat in the positive sense long after the word become an grave insult for Western liberals.
In the USSR, it was not until 1934 when XVII ...
- 564
8
votes
Has there ever been a peaceful overthrow of a dictator or monarch?
Without going back that long in time, you have got the Carnation Revolution in Portugal
This is also interesting in the fact that the overthrow was led by the military.
- 189
8
votes
Accepted
Why would people join a bloc party?
In the 1990s, the German Bundestag organised a long-running investigative commission, the Enquete-Kommissionen zur Aufarbeitung der SED-Diktatur. In its voluminous report at the end of the 12. ...
- 2,805
7
votes
Accepted
What was the first recorded non-violent toppling of a dictator?
If you accept a Western Roman Emperor as a dictator, then Vetranio (March to December 350 AD) may qualify. This somewaht obscure emperor was deposed peacefully by Contantius II:
Constantius first ...
- 108k
6
votes
What examples from history are there of a dictator successfully annexing countries by force over the long term?
It seems to me that the annexation of the Baltic States (Lithuania, Latvia, and Estonia) by the Soviet Union, from 1944 to 1991, is a good example. In particular, many countries have never accepted ...
- 4,656
5
votes
Accepted
How do totalitarian states/empires usually fall?
Totalitarian regimes generally end in two ways:
By the sword: either a foreign invader or a domestic revolt or both forced an end to the regime.
By the pen: the ruling regime peacefully transitions ...
- 97.4k
5
votes
Who wrote the "Mi General Augusto Pinochet" Song?
There are earlier references to this song, however, the most complete version of this song I was able to find was this one.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XD5nL0Toh7w
It not only includes much ...
4
votes
Has there ever been a peaceful overthrow of a dictator or monarch?
In 1953, after a lot of effort king Leopold III of Belgium abdicated. Normally an abdication is voluntary. In this case, the king's behavior during WW2 forced him to abdicate. It took 8 years for him ...
- 20.9k
4
votes
Has there ever been a peaceful overthrow of a dictator or monarch?
The resignation of (now) Emeritus Pope Benedict XVI, allegedly because of ill health, has primarily been blamed on his self-perceived incapacity to deal with the strong resistance inside the Curia and ...
- 2,059
Only top scored, non community-wiki answers of a minimum length are eligible