Whenever you see the word "dictator," the word "reasonable" isn't usually one that leaps to mind. World leaders renowned for their temper or instability are a lot like people online—we expect them to overreact to everyday occurrences with a regularity bordering on obsession. These hilariously extreme overreactions that out of character for even the most insane world leaders.

10.Selim II Invaded Cyprus Because He Ran Out Of Wine

Selim II, sometimes known as Selim the Blond or Selim the Sot, was a sultan of the Ottoman Empire who was known for his love of Cyprus's wine. Selim's addiction to wine was so severe that his nickname, Salem the Sot, bestowed by historians, basically translates to Selim the Drunkard. Selim enjoyed drinking so much that his own people didn't even wait until he died to start making fun of him for it. Selim's love of wine was so great that part of the reason he eventually decided to invade Cyprus was so that he'd have full control over the world's supply of his favorite tipple. Selim's desire to invade Cyprus wasn't fully influenced by his taste for wine—he had good reason to invade Cyprus because it was a country of great strategic importance, although Selim himself likely didn't know it. However, we shouldn't lose sight of the fact that Selim's decision to invade an entire country and risk the lives of thousands was, in part, an overreaction to running out of his favorite wine. On some level, you just have to respect dedication like that.

9.Zhang Xianzhong Celebrated His Recovery From Illness By Dismembering Hundreds

Zhang Xianzhong is a rather reviled figure in Chinese history mainly due to the fact that, under his rule, a reported 90 percent of the population of the Sichuan province met their untimely demise. Xianzhong, who was commonly referred to as "Yellow Tiger," engaged in unspeakable acts of cruelty during his reign. He would regularly cut the hands and heads off people he'd executed just so that he could pile them up to keep count of how many people he'd killed that day. One time, when Xianzhong fell ill to an undisclosed sickness, he promised the gods that if they helped him recover from the illness, he'd offer them two "Heavenly Candles" as thanks. Now no one, including Xianzhong's own entourage, knew what he meant by the phrase "Heavenly Candles," but they soon found out he wasn't talking about wax. When Xianzhong eventually recovered from his bout of illness, he instructed his men to gather as many women as possible. Then, in a move nobody saw coming, he instructed his men to cut off the feet of all of the women present and place them in two separate piles. When his macabre piles of anguish were constructed, he then cut off the (exceptionally tiny) feet of his favorite concubine and placed one atop each pile before setting them both alight.

8.Frederick William I Would Shoot People For Making Small Mistakes

We've discussed Frederick William I and his penchant for tall men on Listverse before, and in keeping with what we mentioned back then, we're still insistent that King Frederick was utterly insane. Along with an unfortunate habit of kidnapping random tall people and forcing them to fight in his private army of giants, King Frederick was known for his explosive temper, often doing things like beating his subjects half to death with a cane for seemingly no reason at all. Along with a cane, King Frederick also carried two pistols loaded with salt at all times purely for the purpose of shooting servants who annoyed him. As discussed in the book Memoirs of the Court of Prussia, the king would often sit on his throne with the pistols by his side, just waiting for someone to give him an excuse to fire one. It's reported that on at least one occasion the king shot a servant right in the face for a simple blunder, permanently blinding him in one eye. Considering the fact that Frederick could have just asked one of his giant soldiers to rough the guy up a little, shooting him in the face with salt just seems excessive.

7.Prince Sado Of Korea Burned Clothes Just Because They Didn't Fit

Crown Prince Sado of Korea is another ruler that we've mentioned before. During the 18th century, Prince Sado would wantonly abuse his servants and rape women without a second thought. However, today we're talking about Prince Sado's obsession with clothes. Prince Sado was utterly obsessed with his appearance and, in a futile attempt to avoid his wrath, his servants would lay out at least 30 outfits a day for the prince to try on. Prince Sado would invariably hate all of the outfits, and just to ensure that they hated their already thankless task a little bit more, he'd punch, kick, and sometimes even kill the poor people charged with trying to dress him. Before he'd even begin to get dressed, though, Sado would burn dozens of expensive silk outfits for reasons that were only apparent to him.

6.Jean-Bedel Bokassa Imprisoned And Killed Schoolchildren For Not Wearing Their Uniforms

Jean-Bedel Bokassa has appeared on this site numerous times before purely because of how genuinely insane he was. Bokassa famously tried to fashion himself into an emperor-like figure when he became the ruler of the Central African Republic in 1976, and almost bankrupted his entire country by buying himself a crown and a giant palace.Under his rule, Bokassa insisted that all schoolchildren had to wear an incredibly expensive school uniform, the only seller of which was a company owned by one of his many, many wives. When schoolchildren inevitably began to protest this, Bokassa, in a fit of rage, had hundreds of them imprisoned.In and of itself, this is already an overreaction of epic proportions, but Bokassa wasn't a man who did anything halfway. After he'd had the children arrested, he personally beat a bunch of them to death with his bare hands, an action that earned him scorn from the international community and little else. Some of the children were noted to be as young as eight years old.

翻译:赵一力 来源：前十网