despotic rule

Despotism is government by a singular authority - either a single person or tightly knit group - which rules with absolute power.

Also, see despotism and hydraulic despotism.

columbians monopolizing the coke industry, the mongolians in the Opium wars, Egypt and Babylonia in the BCE era, the government controlled the irrigation channels; good subjects received plentiful water for their crops, while bad subjects were starved of water so that their crops died.