10 Cruelest Moments in Human History
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VOICE OVER: Peter DeGiglio
WRITTEN BY: Jack Altwal
From systematic persecution to mass killings, humanity has witnessed unspeakable acts of cruelty throughout history. Join us as we examine some of the darkest chapters of our past, including state-sponsored violence, genocides, and systematic oppression that have left permanent scars on human civilization. Our countdown includes the Holocaust, Armenian Genocide, Holodomor, Unit 731, and other devastating events that remind us of humanity's capacity for evil. These historical atrocities serve as crucial lessons about the importance of preventing such horrors from recurring.
Welcome to WatchMojo, and today we’re looking at the cruelest and most heinous acts in human history. For this list, we’re excluding pandemics and natural disasters.
Tulsa Race Massacre
On May 31st and June 1st, 1921, a mob of white supremacists descended on Tulsa's Greenwood district, the thriving African American community informally dubbed “Black Wall Street”. It’s estimated that between 75 and 300 people were killed—with many more injured and countless homes and businesses destroyed. Tensions erupted after a young black man named Dick Rowland was accused of assaulting a white woman named Sarah Page. Historical accounts suggest that, after hearing that a white mob was outside the courthouse where Rowland was being held, a group of black men arrived to protect him. There, a white man attempted to disarm one of the black men—and when a gunshot went off, chaos ensued. This spiraled into one of America's worst incidents of racial violence.
The Destruction of Carthage
The three Punic Wars between Rome and Carthage included intense land and sea battles. The Third Punic War ended with the 3-year siege of Carthage from 149 to 146 BC. Despite heavy struggles, the Romans were victorious under the command of Scipio Aemilianus. Upon their victory, the Romans spent six days marching door to door, brutally killing Carthaginians and setting the city on fire. On the seventh day, the remaining 50,000 citizens of Carthage were sold into slavery and the city plundered. Many rumors circulated that Aemilianus even razed the city with salt, though no evidence of this has been documented.
Unit 731
Straight out of humanity's worst nightmare, Unit 731 was a Japanese biological research facility established in 1936. Designed to advance Japan's biological warfare capabilities, it achieved its objectives primarily through human experimentation. Thousands of victims, inhumanely referred to as “logs,” were imprisoned and exposed to various diseases, weapons, and extreme conditions before being vivisected or autopsied. Female prisoners were systematically subjected to sexual assault and forced pregnancies. Nearby civilian communities were targeted with disease-ridden fleas. There are no documented survivors of Unit 731. Many prisoners were killed at the end of World War II in an attempt to disguise the unit’s extensive crimes. Several unit members, including director Shirō Ishii, were granted immunity or clemency in exchange for its research and data.
Great Chinese Famine
It’s widely considered history’s greatest famine—a merciless wave of starvation that swept through China and led to the deaths of an estimated 15-55 million people. Some provinces lost nearly 20% of their population. While natural disasters like the 1958 Yellow River flood contributed, it’s widely accepted that the famine was mainly due to man-made policies and decisions. In 1958, Chinese Communist Party chairman Mao Zedong launched the Great Leap Forward campaign, aiming to reinvent Chinese society. Its agricultural policies and Four Pests campaign drastically reduced China’s agricultural yield—a problem that was exacerbated when many farmers were forced to become iron and steel manufacturers. The famine and its aftermath were also ripe with scandal, corruption, and cover-up.
The Crusades
The battle for religious dominance has been ongoing for as long as humanity has had religion. Nowhere is this more evident than during the Crusades. From 1095 to 1291, thousands of European Christians set forth to reconquer the Holy Land, all under the patronage, support, or leadership of the Catholic Church. The Crusades greatly increased the Church’s popularity but left a trail of destruction in their wake. Jerusalem was sacked and invaded multiple times and Jews, Muslims, and Christians were killed en masse. While the numbers vary, it is estimated that as many as 9 million people were killed as a result of the Crusades.
The Armenian Genocide
By the mid-1910s, the Ottoman Empire had become highly concerned about potential Armenian independence and Russian annexation of Anatolia. Their solution: get rid of the Armenians. From 1915 to 1917, many Armenians were rounded up in the night and imprisoned or executed. The empire’s Committee of Union and Progress also began a mass deportation campaign banishing the Armenian population to the Syrian desert. These so-called death marches are estimated to have killed around one million Armenians. Hundreds of thousands, especially women and children, were allowed to remain but experienced forced Islamization, enslavement, exploitation, and abuse. The Armenian genocide was so cruel that even the Nazis were reportedly inspired by it.
The Holodomor
Reports of mass hunger and malnutrition in the Ukrainian SSR first emerged in January 1933 in the city of Uman. It didn’t take long after that for similar reports to start emerging from other oblasts and cities in the region. Soviet policies of collective farming, increased grain exports, food requisitions and reported ethnic discrimination drove 3-5 million people to death by starvation. Questions remain on whether this famine should be considered a genocide with the Ukrainian government actively lobbying for this recognition. The victims of the Holodomor are regularly remembered in Ukraine and other nations around the world.
The Transatlantic Slave Trade
For over 300 years, approximately 12.5 million Africans were shipped across the Atlantic from their homelands to various colonies in the Americas. They were headed for a life of slavery, working on plantations, mines, and fields for the enrichment of European colonists. Their journey, which lasted months, was anything but smooth sailing. Enslaved Africans were tightly packed into ships specifically designed to transport the greatest number of people with no regard for humanity, safety, or comfort. Disease was rampant—and torture and sexual abuse were regular occurrences. In fact, about 2 million Africans are believed to have died on these ships. The transatlantic slave trade ended in the 1800s, but its legacy continues to reverberate to this day.
Trail of Tears
From 1830 to 1850, over 60,000 members of the Choctaw, Seminole, Chickasaw, Cherokee, and Muscogee tribes were forcibly displaced from their ancestral homelands. They were sent to new lands west of the Mississippi in displacements often facilitated by the US military or state militias. Disease and starvation were common as Native Americans often traveled in harsh weather conditions on paths with very little supplies. Tens of thousands were killed in what has since been described as “a trail of tears and death.” For those who survived, leaving their land often meant losing connection to part of their history and traditions. This Native American removal has been alternatively described as either a genocide or an act of ethnic cleansing.
The Holocaust
Jewish persecution escalated quickly in 1930s Germany as the Nazis passed thousands of laws aimed at excluding German Jews from all facets of society. In 1939, their ultimate goal became clear: the elimination of Jews not just in Germany, but throughout Europe. Scores of Jews were forced to move into ghettos, conscripted into hard labor, forced to flee or killed. The Nazis established numerous concentration and extermination camps that housed over a million prisoners in extremely inhumane conditions. Most of those prisoners did not survive, being killed either in the gas chambers or through disease, starvation, or execution. The Holocaust remains one of history’s vilest moments, its most well-known genocide, and a dark reminder of mankind’s capability for evil and cruelty.
What other cruel and horrific moments in human history do you think could’ve been on this list? Let us know in the comments below.
Tulsa Race Massacre
On May 31st and June 1st, 1921, a mob of white supremacists descended on Tulsa's Greenwood district, the thriving African American community informally dubbed “Black Wall Street”. It’s estimated that between 75 and 300 people were killed—with many more injured and countless homes and businesses destroyed. Tensions erupted after a young black man named Dick Rowland was accused of assaulting a white woman named Sarah Page. Historical accounts suggest that, after hearing that a white mob was outside the courthouse where Rowland was being held, a group of black men arrived to protect him. There, a white man attempted to disarm one of the black men—and when a gunshot went off, chaos ensued. This spiraled into one of America's worst incidents of racial violence.
The Destruction of Carthage
The three Punic Wars between Rome and Carthage included intense land and sea battles. The Third Punic War ended with the 3-year siege of Carthage from 149 to 146 BC. Despite heavy struggles, the Romans were victorious under the command of Scipio Aemilianus. Upon their victory, the Romans spent six days marching door to door, brutally killing Carthaginians and setting the city on fire. On the seventh day, the remaining 50,000 citizens of Carthage were sold into slavery and the city plundered. Many rumors circulated that Aemilianus even razed the city with salt, though no evidence of this has been documented.
Unit 731
Straight out of humanity's worst nightmare, Unit 731 was a Japanese biological research facility established in 1936. Designed to advance Japan's biological warfare capabilities, it achieved its objectives primarily through human experimentation. Thousands of victims, inhumanely referred to as “logs,” were imprisoned and exposed to various diseases, weapons, and extreme conditions before being vivisected or autopsied. Female prisoners were systematically subjected to sexual assault and forced pregnancies. Nearby civilian communities were targeted with disease-ridden fleas. There are no documented survivors of Unit 731. Many prisoners were killed at the end of World War II in an attempt to disguise the unit’s extensive crimes. Several unit members, including director Shirō Ishii, were granted immunity or clemency in exchange for its research and data.
Great Chinese Famine
It’s widely considered history’s greatest famine—a merciless wave of starvation that swept through China and led to the deaths of an estimated 15-55 million people. Some provinces lost nearly 20% of their population. While natural disasters like the 1958 Yellow River flood contributed, it’s widely accepted that the famine was mainly due to man-made policies and decisions. In 1958, Chinese Communist Party chairman Mao Zedong launched the Great Leap Forward campaign, aiming to reinvent Chinese society. Its agricultural policies and Four Pests campaign drastically reduced China’s agricultural yield—a problem that was exacerbated when many farmers were forced to become iron and steel manufacturers. The famine and its aftermath were also ripe with scandal, corruption, and cover-up.
The Crusades
The battle for religious dominance has been ongoing for as long as humanity has had religion. Nowhere is this more evident than during the Crusades. From 1095 to 1291, thousands of European Christians set forth to reconquer the Holy Land, all under the patronage, support, or leadership of the Catholic Church. The Crusades greatly increased the Church’s popularity but left a trail of destruction in their wake. Jerusalem was sacked and invaded multiple times and Jews, Muslims, and Christians were killed en masse. While the numbers vary, it is estimated that as many as 9 million people were killed as a result of the Crusades.
The Armenian Genocide
By the mid-1910s, the Ottoman Empire had become highly concerned about potential Armenian independence and Russian annexation of Anatolia. Their solution: get rid of the Armenians. From 1915 to 1917, many Armenians were rounded up in the night and imprisoned or executed. The empire’s Committee of Union and Progress also began a mass deportation campaign banishing the Armenian population to the Syrian desert. These so-called death marches are estimated to have killed around one million Armenians. Hundreds of thousands, especially women and children, were allowed to remain but experienced forced Islamization, enslavement, exploitation, and abuse. The Armenian genocide was so cruel that even the Nazis were reportedly inspired by it.
The Holodomor
Reports of mass hunger and malnutrition in the Ukrainian SSR first emerged in January 1933 in the city of Uman. It didn’t take long after that for similar reports to start emerging from other oblasts and cities in the region. Soviet policies of collective farming, increased grain exports, food requisitions and reported ethnic discrimination drove 3-5 million people to death by starvation. Questions remain on whether this famine should be considered a genocide with the Ukrainian government actively lobbying for this recognition. The victims of the Holodomor are regularly remembered in Ukraine and other nations around the world.
The Transatlantic Slave Trade
For over 300 years, approximately 12.5 million Africans were shipped across the Atlantic from their homelands to various colonies in the Americas. They were headed for a life of slavery, working on plantations, mines, and fields for the enrichment of European colonists. Their journey, which lasted months, was anything but smooth sailing. Enslaved Africans were tightly packed into ships specifically designed to transport the greatest number of people with no regard for humanity, safety, or comfort. Disease was rampant—and torture and sexual abuse were regular occurrences. In fact, about 2 million Africans are believed to have died on these ships. The transatlantic slave trade ended in the 1800s, but its legacy continues to reverberate to this day.
Trail of Tears
From 1830 to 1850, over 60,000 members of the Choctaw, Seminole, Chickasaw, Cherokee, and Muscogee tribes were forcibly displaced from their ancestral homelands. They were sent to new lands west of the Mississippi in displacements often facilitated by the US military or state militias. Disease and starvation were common as Native Americans often traveled in harsh weather conditions on paths with very little supplies. Tens of thousands were killed in what has since been described as “a trail of tears and death.” For those who survived, leaving their land often meant losing connection to part of their history and traditions. This Native American removal has been alternatively described as either a genocide or an act of ethnic cleansing.
The Holocaust
Jewish persecution escalated quickly in 1930s Germany as the Nazis passed thousands of laws aimed at excluding German Jews from all facets of society. In 1939, their ultimate goal became clear: the elimination of Jews not just in Germany, but throughout Europe. Scores of Jews were forced to move into ghettos, conscripted into hard labor, forced to flee or killed. The Nazis established numerous concentration and extermination camps that housed over a million prisoners in extremely inhumane conditions. Most of those prisoners did not survive, being killed either in the gas chambers or through disease, starvation, or execution. The Holocaust remains one of history’s vilest moments, its most well-known genocide, and a dark reminder of mankind’s capability for evil and cruelty.
What other cruel and horrific moments in human history do you think could’ve been on this list? Let us know in the comments below.
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