See also: Confucius • Mozi • Han Fei Tzu
ALEXANDER THE GREAT
c.356–323 BCE
The son of King Philip II of Macedon, Alexander was born at the height of the classical period of Greek history, and is believed to have been tutored by Aristotle as a youth. After the death of his father, he succeeded to the throne and embarked on a campaign of expansion. He successfully invaded Asia Minor, and from there conquered the remainder of the Persian empire of Darius III, eventually extending his power as far as northern India. In the process, he introduced Greek culture and institutions into Africa and Asia, where many Hellenistic cities were founded, modelled on the classical Greek city-states.
See also: Aristotle • Chanakya
GENGHIS KHAN
1162–1227
Born into a ruling clan in northern Mongolia, Temujin gained the title Genghis Khan (meaning “the Emperor Genghis”) on founding the Mongol empire. Before he came to power, the people of Central Asia belonged to several different clans, and were largely nomadic. Genghis Khan brought the clans together as one nation and led a series of military campaigns, expanding his empire into China. Under his rule as Great Khan, the empire was divided into khanates ruled by members of his family, and continued to expand as far as central Europe. Seen by those he conquered as cruel, he nevertheless created an empire that respected the cultural diversity of its people.
See also: Sun Tzu • Chanakya
BARTOLOMÉ DE LAS CASAS
1484–1566
The Spanish priest and historian Bartolomé de las Casas emigrated to Hispaniola in 1502. He initially worked a plantation there and owned slaves. He remained a priest, however, and participated in the conquest of Cuba as chaplain, but was so appalled by the atrocities perpetrated against the local Taíno people that he became an advocate of the Indian people. He entered a monastery in Santo Domingo as a Dominican friar, and travelled throughout Central America, eventually becoming bishop of Chiapas in Mexico and “Protector of the Indians”, before returning to Spain in 1547. His writings on the cruelty of the colonization of the Americas can be seen as an early proposal of universal human rights.
See also: Francisco de Vitoria • Nelson Mandela • Martin Luther King
AKBAR THE GREAT
1542–1605
The third Mughal emperor in India, Akbar not only extended the empire to cover most of central and northern India, but also introduced a culture of religious tolerance to an ethnically diverse population, and instigated a reorganization of its government. Rather than divide his empire into autonomous regions under separate rulers, regions were administered by military governors under the rule of a central government. This central government was divided into different departments dealing with separate issues, such as revenue, the judiciary, and the military. In this way, Akbar unified the disparate regions into a prosperous and peaceful whole.
See also: Chanakya • Mahatma Gandhi • Manabendra Nath Roy
TOKUGAWA IEYASU
1543–1616
Japanese military leader and statesman Tokugawa Ieyasu was the son of the ruler of Mikawa province. He was born during a period of prolonged civil conflict. Ieyasu inherited his father’s position, as well as his alliance with neighbouring ruler Toyotomi Hideyoshi. Despite promises to honour the alliance after Hideyoshi’s death, Ieyasu defeated the Toyotomi clan and established his government in Edo, modern Tokyo. Tokugawa Ieyasu was made a shogun (military governor) by the nominal emperor Go-Yozei in 1603, effectively making him ruler of all Japan and founder of the Tokugawa dynasty. By distributing land among regional leaders and imposing strict regulations on their rule, he maintained a power base and brought stability to the country.
See also: Sun Tzu • Niccolò Machiavelli • Ito Hirobumi
OLIVER CROMWELL
1599–1658
Previously a relatively unimportant member of parliament, Cromwell came to prominence during the English Civil War. He proved an able military leader of the Parliamentarian forces in their defeat of the Royalists. He was then one of the signatories of King Charles I’s death warrant. Cromwell’s participation in the removal of the monarch was motivated by religion as much as politics, as was his subsequent occupation of Catholic Ireland. He rose to political power during the brief Commonwealth of England, and was made Lord Protector of England, Wales, Scotland, and Ireland in 1653. Seen by some as a ruthless anti-Catholic dictator, Cromwell is also regarded as the bringer of liberty at the time of a decadent monarchy, replacing it with the foundations of parliamentary democracy.
See also: Barons of King John • John Lilburne
JOHN LILBURNE
1614–1657
English politician John Lilburne devoted his life to fighting for what he called his “freeborn rights”, as opposed to rights granted by law. He was imprisoned for printing illegal pamphlets in the 1630s, and enlisted in the Parliamentarian army at the start of the English Civil War. He resigned from the army in 1645 because he felt it was not fighting for liberty as he understood it. Although associated with the Levellers, a movement campaigning for equal property rights, Lilburne argued for equality of human rights, and inspired the Levellers’ pamphlet An Agreement of the People. He was tried for high treason in 1649 but was freed in response to public opinion and sent into exile. On his return to England in 1653, he was tried again and imprisoned until his death in 1657.
See also: Thomas Paine • Oliver Cromwell
SAMUEL VON PUFENDORF
1632–1694
The son of a Lutheran pastor in Saxony, Germany, Samuel von Pufendorf originally studied theology in Leipzig, but decided to move to Jena to study law. Here he discovered the works of Grotius and Hobbes, and their theories of natural law. He built a reputation for his ideas on universal law, and was appointed the first professor of law and nations at the University of Heidelberg, where he expanded on his theories of natural law, paving the way for Rousseau’s conception of the social contract. He also proposed a system of international law independent of religion. He later moved to Sweden as historian to the royal court, and developed a theory of Church government that stressed the distinction between the laws of the Church and the laws of the state.
See also: Hugo Grotius • Thomas Hobbes • Jean-Jacques Rousseau
JUANA INÉS DE LA CRUZ
1651–1695
Juana Inés de Asbaje y Ramírez de Santillana was born near Mexico City, the illegitimate daughter of Isabella Ramirez and a Spanish captain. At a very early age, she learned to read and write, and showed a great interest in her grandfather’s library when sent to live with him in 1660. At the time, studying was an exclusively male preserve, and she pleaded with her family to disguise her as a boy in order to go to university, but in the end taught herself the classics. In 1669, she entered the Convent of the Order of St Jerome, where she remained until her death. She wrote numerous poems and, in response to criticism of her writing from the Church authorities, a stout defence of women’s right to education, the “Reply to Sister Philotea”. She argued that society was damaged by keeping women ignorant, asking “how much injury might have been avoided… if our aged women had been learned?” She was censured by the Church for her comments.
See also: Mary Wollstonecraft • Emmeline Pankhurst • Simone de Beauvoir • Shirin Ebadi
GEORGE WASHINGTON
1732–1799
Commander-in-chief of the Continental Army in the American War of Independence, Washington was one of the Founding Fathers of the United States and the country’s first president. He was not a member of a political party, warning against the divisiveness of partisan politics. During his two terms of office, he introduced measures designed to unify the country as a republic ruled by federal government. As well as promoting a sense of nationalism, he took practical steps to improve the prosperity of the republic and promote trade – he brought in a fair tax system to clear the national debt, while in foreign affairs he advocated neutrality to avoid becoming involved in Eur
opean wars. Many of the conventions of US government, such as the inaugural address and the custom of a two-term presidency, were established by Washington.
See also: Benjamin Franklin • Thomas Paine • Thomas Jefferson
JOSEPH DE MAISTRE
1753–1826
Joseph-Marie, comte de Maistre, emerged as a major figure in the conservative backlash that followed the French Revolution. He saw the revolution as the result of atheist Enlightenment thinking, and argued that the Reign of Terror that followed it was an inevitable consequence of rejecting Christianity. He fled to Switzerland and later Italy and Sardinia to escape the revolution. He believed that rationally justified systems of government were doomed to end in violence, and the only stable form of government was a divinely sanctioned monarchy, with the pope as ultimate authority.
See also: Thomas Aquinas • Edmund Burke
NIKOLAI MORDVINOV
1754–1845
An officer in the Russian Navy who had also served in the British Royal Navy, Nikolai Mordvinov came to the attention of Emperor Paul and was promoted to admiral and later navy minister, a position in which he had influence over military policy. He was an advocate of liberalism at a time when the Russian government was resolutely autocratic. A fervent Anglophile, Mordvinov particularly admired British political liberalism and used his influence to argue for its replacement of serfdom, which he felt was holding back Russia’s economic development. He believed that this could be achieved without the need for revolution.
See also: John Stuart Mill • Peter Kropotkin
MAXIMILIEN ROBESPIERRE
1758–1794
A leading figure in the French Revolution, Robespierre was seen by his supporters as an incorruptible upholder of the principles of the revolution, but is remembered as a ruthless dictator. He studied law in Paris, where he first came across the revolutionary writings of Jean-Jacques Rousseau. Practising law in Arras, he became involved in politics and rose to membership of the Constituent Assembly. Here, he argued for equal rights and the establishment of a French Republic. After the execution of Louis XVI, he presided over the Committee of Public Safety, which sought to eradicate the threat of counter-revolution through a Reign of Terror, but was himself arrested and executed.
See also: Montesquieu • Jean-Jacques Rousseau • Gracchus Babeuf
GRACCHUS BABEUF
1760–1797
François-Noël Babeuf had little formal education. He became a writer and journalist and, after the beginning of the French Revolution, published propaganda under the pen-names “Tribune” and “Gracchus” Babeuf, in honour of the Roman reformers and tribunes, the Gracchus brothers. His views proved too radical even for the revolutionary authorities. The publication of his journal Le Tribun du Peuple in support of the ideals of the Reign of Terror gained him a following known as the Society of Equals. Evidence from infiltrators into his organization led to accusations of conspiracy and the arrest and execution of Babeuf and many of his fellow agitators.
See also: Jean-Jacques Rousseau • Maximilien Robespierre
JOHANN FICHTE
1762–1814
Primarily known as a philosopher, Fichte is also regarded as a seminal figure in political nationalism in Germany. After the French Revolution, France annexed many of the western states of Germany and introduced ideas of liberty and civil rights, but this provoked a patriotic reaction. Fichte urged the German people to come together in their shared heritage and language to oppose the French influence and, more controversially, to remove the threat he believed came from the Jewish “state within a state”. As well as his openly anti-Semitic ideas, he believed that women should be denied civil rights. The most extreme of his proposals were echoed in Hitler’s National Socialism movement.
See also: Johann Gottfried Herder • Georg Hegel • Adolf Hitler
NAPOLEON BONAPARTE
1769–1821
A Corsican of noble Italian extraction, Napoleon studied at a military academy in France and served in the French army, despite remaining a Corsican nationalist. His republican sentiments earned him a place in the republican forces near the end of the French Revolution. After a coup d’état, he made himself First Consul of the Republic, and instituted the Napoleonic Code. This established a meritocratic government by outlawing privilege by birth, and introduced measures to ensure religious emancipation – especially to Jews and Protestants. He also signed a concordat with Pope Pius VII restoring some of the Catholic Church’s status. He proclaimed himself emperor in 1804 and embarked on a series of wars that would eventually lead to his downfall. He abdicated and went into exile on Elba in 1813, but soon returned to power, only to be defeated by the British at Waterloo in 1815. He was imprisoned on St Helena island until his death.
See also: Friedrich Nietzsche • Maximilien Robespierre
ROBERT OWEN
1771–1817
Owen came from a humble Welsh family and moved to Manchester, England, as a teenager in search of work. He made his name in the textile trade and became the manager of a cotton mill aged 19. He outlined his ideas for social reform in his book A New View of Society. His Utopian socialist philosophy was based on improvements in the workers’ environment, such as housing, social welfare, and education. He established cooperative communities at New Lanark in Scotland and elsewhere in Britain, as well as one in New Harmony, Indiana, US. A pioneer of the cooperative movement, his new communities were an inspiration to social reform movements in Britain.
See also: Thomas Paine • Jeremy Bentham • Karl Marx • Beatrice Webb
CHARLES FOURIER
1772–1837
Born in Besançon, France, the son of a businessman, Fourier travelled widely in Europe and had a variety of jobs before settling on a career as a writer. Unlike other socialist thinkers of the revolutionary period, he believed that the problems of society were caused by poverty rather than inequality, and developed a form of libertarian socialism. He was also an early advocate of women’s rights. In place of trade and competition, which he considered an evil practice operated by Jews, he proposed a system of cooperation. Fourier’s Utopian ideas were to be achieved in communities he called “phalanxes” housed in apartment complexes. Workers would be paid according to their contribution, with higher pay for unpopular jobs. His ideas were taken up in the Paris Commune, which briefly ruled Paris in 1871, and phalanxes were set up in several places in the US.
See also: Mary Wollstonecraft • Robert Owen
GIUSEPPE GARIBALDI
1807–1882
A leading figure in the Italian Risorgimiento – the movement towards the unification of Italy in the 19th century – Garibaldi led a guerrilla force famed for their red shirts, which conquered Sicily and Naples. He also fought campaigns in South America during a period of exile from Italy, and spent time in the United States. His exploits led to renown on both sides of the Atlantic, and his popularity did much to hasten Italian unification. A republican who was strongly opposed to political power for the papacy, Garibaldi nonetheless supported the establishment of a monarchy for the sake of unification, and helped to create the Kingdom of Italy under the Sardinian king Victor Emanuel II, which was established in 1861. The Papal states joined the kingdom in 1870, completing the Risorgimiento. Garibaldi was a supporter of the idea of a European federation, which he hoped would be led by a newly unified Germany.
See also: Giuseppe Mazzini
NASER AL-DIN SHAH QUAJAR
1831–1896
The fourth shah of the Qajar dynasty, Naser al-Din came to the throne of Iran in 1848 and began his reign as a reformer influenced by European ideas. As well as improving the infrastructure of the country – building roads and setting up postal and telegraph services – he opened Western-style schools, introduced measures to reduce the power of the clergy, and was sympathetic to the idea of establishing a Jewish state. He toured Europe in 1873 and again in 1878, and was especially impressed with the British political system. As his reign progressed
, however, he became increasingly dictatorial, persecuting minorities and giving concessions to European traders while lining his own pockets. Seen as being in thrall to foreign interests, he became increasingly unpopular with the growing Iranian nationalist movement and was assassinated in 1896.
See also: Theodor Herzl • Mustafa Kemal Atatürk
OSWALD SPENGLER
1880–1936
German historian Oswald Spengler made his name with The Decline of the West, which, although finished in 1914, was not published until after World War I. In it, he describes his theory that all civilizations face ultimate decay, an idea reinforced by the decline of Germany in the 1920s. Another book, Prussiandom and Socialism, advocated a new nationalist movement of authoritarian socialism. He was, however, not a supporter of Nazism, and openly criticized Hitler’s ideas of racial superiority, warning of a world war that could bring an end to Western civilization.
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