Ever since the 1940s, Adolf Hitler, independent (or at least as an outgrowth) of his historical significance, has become a universal symbol of evil. He’s almost a cipher, a shorthand for “as evil as a human being can possibly be.” He practically salted he cultural ground he walked on, to the point that his once-common given name and mustache instantly went out of style, never to recover (so far).
Before Hitler, was there ever anyone else who was so synonymous with evil? I mean, what did people use to Godwinize a discussion in the 19th century? "You know who else wore fur hats? THAT’S RIGHT, THE MONGOL HORDE!"
I never understood why people consider him to be so evil. Sure, he wanted to rule the world, but so did so many others. It’s not like he even had a chance.
In England that was definitely Napoleon. Having read a couple of history books from the late 1800s the perception of him was truly poison compared to more recent tellings of his story.
Nevertheless, I think he was used as a shorthand for Evil. (Also, people thinking they’re Napoleon was shorthand for Crazy.) I never thought of him as Evil, so much as ‘ambitious’. But I’m not an expert on European history.
ETA: MG1692’s post makes sense as to why he was seen as evil.
Nitpick, most people outside of Romania (where he was considered a harsh, but heroic figure) didn’t know about Vlad the Impaler. Other than his mention in Bram Stroker’s Dracula he didn’t get a lot of attention and many of the readers of Dracula assumed Stroker’s work was completely fictionalized.
Agreed - again, to my mind, the best paralel would be Attila the Hun - not because his actual history was well known, but because of the use of his name (and that of his nation) to define barbaric brutality. If you called someone a “Hun”, outside of Hungary, it wasn’t a complement.