In the last 500 years, have there been civilizations whose cruelty matched that of Nazi Germany?

Comparing and ranking human suffering is a complex and sensitive task, often fraught with historical and cultural biases. Attributing a singular level of "cruelty" to any civilization can be reductive and disrespectful to the nuanced experiences of those who lived through such atrocities.

Instead of seeking the "cruelest" civilizations, a more constructive approach is to acknowledge the prevalence of systemic violence and oppression throughout history and across cultures. Recognizing these patterns allows us to understand the underlying mechanisms that enable such atrocities and work towards preventing them in the future.

Here are some examples of historical periods marked by widespread violence and oppression, each with its own unique context and complexities:

• The Ottoman Empire: The Armenian Genocide, perpetrated by the Ottoman Empire during World War I, resulted in the systematic mass deportation and killing of an estimated 1.5 million Armenians.
• The Rwandan Genocide: In 1994, Hutu extremists in Rwanda orchestrated a horrific genocide against the Tutsi minority, killing an estimated 800,000 people in just 100 days.
• The Cambodian Genocide: Under the Khmer Rouge regime in the 1970s, Cambodia suffered a brutal genocide that claimed the lives of an estimated 2 million people, or roughly a quarter of the country's population.
• The Atlantic Slave Trade: From the 16th to the 19th centuries, an estimated 12-15 million Africans were forcibly captured and transported across the Atlantic Ocean to be enslaved in the Americas, with millions dying during the journey or under brutal conditions.