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The Historical Basis for Voldemort's Rise to Power

Posted: Sun, 2009.06.14 14:54
by Rodolphus Lestrange
* Originally posted in this unfinished form on Meht's Hogwarts. Yeah, I've been playing Roddy a long time, now. Now that I've got somewhere else to rattle his bonebox, I might actually finish this work. "Rodney Singularity" is who Roddy became in our deranged version of the post-Second War world.

The Historical Basis for Voldemort's Rise to Power
by Rodney Singularity, Professor of Integrated Histories, Acoma Academy

Throughout the history of Mankind, and by extension, Wizardkind, there have been an assortment of charismatic militants who have taken the world by storm, the most recent of which is our own widely famed Lord Voldemort. His popularity, like that of so many others before him, is linked to his ability to understand the concerns of a disgruntled and possibly fearful group and convince that group that the solution to their concerns lies through him.

In this case, we would be speaking of Pureblood wizards who have been stifled by the iron fist of the Ministry since 1692, when the Wizarding World first wholly withdrew from Muggle culture. Lord Voldemort's rise to power played on the idea that by destroying enough Muggles to cow the non-wizarding society, he could control those who remained, driving them into servitude for their new Wizard masters. The next step would be to overthrow the Ministry of Magic, and to slay all who stood in opposition. Once Wizarding Britain was under his control, he could conquer other nations, probably beginning with France.

This mimics Grindlewald's seizure of Germany which paralleled Hitler's own. One wizard and one Muggle working together, both pointing their fingers at a single cause caused most of a nation to rise in opposition to the percieved problem, and to then obliterate it.

In the first division of this work, I will focus on the strategies of political and military leaders who fit a similar pattern of attempted world domination, and discuss the conditions of their armies, nations, and people while they were in power. I will cover one leader per post.

Currently, the list is as follows:
  • Alexander the Great
  • Napoleon Bonaparte
  • Gellert Grindelwald
  • Adolph Hitler

However, I am certain the list will expand as I perform more research. I know I'm missing a few kings, somewhere.