François-Dominique Toussaint Louverture -- Helped lead Haiti to freedom, and established a free state from a population of slaves, something had never happened before or since. He showed great political savvy, as well as military skill, in defeating the Spanish, the French and the Brits. That Haiti was latter economically destroyed by the geo-political actions of said powers shouldnt take away from his legacy.
Caesar -- The Roman Republic was a byzantine and intensely complex political, economic, cultural, religious and military system, where some of the greatest minds of the ancient world constantly struggled for status and rank. Caesar was killed basically because he had "won" a game that everyone had been playing for centuries, excelling in practically every area. The assumed he would become Emperor because that was the only thing he hadnt done yet.
Hannibal -- The greatest general in the history of the world, in my opinion. His tactical genius is still being studied, in fact it could be argued that he was the inventor of modern military thinking. Cannae was truly brilliant. What makes Hannibal so amazing isnt just that he crushed the Romans repeatedly, its the army he did it with. Heres what he did
1.) marched your army into enemy controlled territory thousands of miles from your home and supplies, an army much smaller than what you will face.
2.) meet random people, people youve barely heard of before. You share nothing, not language, religion, military doctrine, nothing...all you share is a desire to kill Romans and get shiny loot
3.) merge said random, unaligned groups into an army (on the fly) that will then take on the most disciplined, aggressive, skilled, and motivated army the world had seen up until that time. Keep in mind you will fight outnumbered and almost completely cut off from your supply lines.
4.) Crush said armies. Repeat until they literally decide to create a strategy thats based around not ever fighting you.
The only reason he lost is because he was unaware that the Roman creation of the nation-state had dramatically changed warfare. But as a tactical leader and a pure leader of men, really cant be beat in my opinion.
Thomas Jefferson. -- Yes, I'm an American, and the dude had tons of faults. But, creating the concept of a constitutional democracy was kinda a big deal. Most likely, if you're reading this, you're living in one, or in a political system heavily influenced by it.
Abraham Lincoln. -- Again, yes I'm an American, but Abraham Lincoln is one of the few historical figures who becomes greater the more you study him. In short, the more you know about him, the more amazing he was. To prove this isn't a wholly American view, or a modern one, I'll use one of Leo Tolstoy's quote "“We are still too near to his greatness, but after a few centuries more our posterity will find him considerably bigger than we do." “His genius is still too strong and too powerful for the common understanding, just as the sun is too hot when its light beams directly on us.”
Tolstoy always called him "the perfect human being".
Honorable mention: Metternich, Bolivar, Charlemagne, Qin Shihuang, Cyrus the Great, Alexander, Tokugawa Ieyasu, Churchill (on quotes alone),
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Topic: All time, Top 5 Political Figures (Read 3772 times)