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26 Intimidating World Leaders Who You Never Realized Were Super Short

Katia Kleyman
Updated July 14, 2021 175.6K views 26 items

While they may tower over peoples' daily lives, many world leaders actually come up a bit short when it comes to height. In fact, throughout history many powerful leaders fell on the punier side, some not even making it to five feet! These super short historical figures still made a big impact on the world, and not always in a good way. One of the shortest leaders on this list was responsible for the death of about 20 million people. Do you think it’s because he had a Napoleon complex? Fun fact: Napoleon Bonaparte is actually tied for the tallest of these short world leaders.

Some psychologists claim that short people in positions of power tend to perceive themselves as being taller. Many members of the British monarchy have equated their height to their royal power. A lot of these short leaders also employ tricks to make themselves seem taller to the public, like manipulating camera angles and wearing platform shoes. You’ll be really surprised at how short some of these leaders are (or were), because you probably expected them to be giants with all that power in their hands.