The 10 Most Influential Leaders in History

We explain who the 10 most influential leaders in history were, what their achievements were, their impact on society and their lives.

In Macedonia, a statue commemorates Alexander the Great, the great conqueror of Antiquity.
Leaders are often considered models of inspiration in different areas of life.

The most influential leaders in history

Throughout history, great leaders have played a leading role. Their exploits changed the course of history and contributed to the unification of peoples, the founding of nations or the overcoming of obstacles social, economic and political. This is why some people consider them models of inspiration in different areas of life.

It is not easy to define what constitutes an influential leader, beyond a certain action ability and vision to lead your followers towards a destination considered better. On the other hand, there were many charismatic leaders and leaders of the masses who, once in power, led their people into opprobrious scenarios, such as war, misery and suffering.

However, influential leaders are generally remembered for the contribution they made to the well-being of their people or to some particular cause and sometimes even for the contribution they made to humanity as a whole. In this sense, they may be political or military leaders, religious guides or social activists, among others.

Some of the great political and military leaders in history are detailed below.

Julius Caesar (100 BC-44 BC)

A statue portrays Julius Caesar wearing a laurel wreath.
Julius Caesar was the first Roman general to explore Britain and Germany.

Gaius Julius Caesar was a Roman orator, writer, politician and military man who stood out as one of the greatest leaders of Ancient Rome both on the battlefield and in the State judiciary.

He was a patrician by birth (that is, a citizen with the capacity to vote and hold public office) and began his service to Rome with a religious position. Later he was a soldier in Asia and then made his way into politics by occupying minor positions (quaestor in Hispania, where he was in charge of fiscal matters, and curul aedile in Rome, where he was dedicated to organizational tasks).

At the age of 37 he was elected pontifex maximus (chief priest) and then urban praetor (magistrate with jurisdiction in Rome). Four years later, He held the position of consul, that is, the highest magistrate of the Roman Republic and in 58 a. C. began to direct the military campaign against Gaul.

As a military leader, Julius Caesar was extremely successful: He subdued the Celtic peoples in Gaul and expanded Roman control into the territory of present-day France, Belgium, and the Netherlands, and even a part of Germany.

He was also the first Roman general to explore Britain and Germany, regions occupied by tribes hostile to Rome. However, after conquering Gaul, the Senate demanded that he leave command of his troops, but Julius Caesar decided to return with them to the capital. He crossed the Rubicon River, which at that time separated Gaul from Italy, and this fact was considered a hostile act, since it was prohibited for a Roman general to enter Italian territory with his army.

Thus began the second civil war of the Roman Republic between the supporters of Julius Caesar and the traditionalist sectors of the Senate, led by Pompey. He also emerged victorious from this conflict, and continued his conquests in the Bosphorus and Egypt.

After winning the civil war, Julius Caesar proclaimed himself dictator for life which earned him the enmity of a good part of the Roman Senate. On the other hand, during his government he undertook a series of administrative, urban and economic reforms, such as the distribution of land between poor citizens and war veterans, which earned him the sympathy of many social sectors in Rome.

Julius Caesar’s rivals sensed that he would end up becoming a monarch and thus destroy the Roman Republic, so hatched a plot against him and, on the Ides of March (the 15th) of 44 BC. C., they ambushed and murdered him in the Roman Senate. However, the heirs of Julius Caesar, who later formed a triumvirate, ended up establishing the Roman Empire, the largest political, social and economic organization in the West in Antiquity.

Cleopatra VII (69 BC-30 BC)

Relief of Cleopatra VII
During a period of drought, Cleopatra opened the royal granaries to feed the population. (Image: Olaf Tausch/Wikimedia Commons)

The famous Queen Cleopatra VII of Egypt, last monarch of the Ptolemaic dynasty, she was a skilled politician, diplomat and naval commander of ancient times. Daughter of Ptolemy XII, Cleopatra ascended the throne amid a panorama of instability in the region, the result of civil wars. She was able to consolidate her position thanks to the support of Julius Caesar, dictator of Rome with whom the queen had a love relationship and a son named Caesarion.

He was monarch and main religious authority of Egypt from the age of 19 although initially she did so in the midst of a civil war waged against her younger brother, Ptolemy XIII, in which the queen herself led her troops to victory in the Battle of the Nile, with the support of Julius Caesar. His reign was difficult, as it coincided with the assassination of Julius Caesar in 44 BC. C and the third civil war of the Roman Republic, of which Egypt was a vassal kingdom.

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Still, Cleopatra promoted an important religious and constructive work by building temples to the Greek and Egyptian gods, and even had a temple built in honor of Julius Caesar, known as the Caesareum of Alexandria. He also sponsored a Jewish house of prayer. Likewise, during a period of drought that threatened to cause famine, he instructed that the royal granaries be opened and the population fed.

Finally, the Roman conflict cost him the throne: Allied with her lover, the Roman Mark Antony, Cleopatra faced the troops of Octavian, who later became the first Roman emperor, and was defeated at the Battle of Actium. Shortly afterward he committed suicide: According to tradition, he let himself be bitten by a poisonous snake.

Boudica (c. 26-61)

A statue of Queen Boudica stands on Westminster Bridge.
Queen Boudica triumphed against the Romans until they defeated her at the Battle of Watling Street.

During the reign of the Roman Emperor Nero, a famous uprising took place in the Roman province of Britain starring the Iceni (a tribe that inhabited the current English county of Norfolk) and their Trinovante neighbors (a Celtic tribe).

This insurrection was led by the queen of the Iceni, Boudica (or Boadicea, according to other sources), whose name means “victory.” Daughter of Iceni aristocrats, Boudica was described by Roman historians as a very intelligent woman, with reddish hair and fierce eyes, who wore a tunic of many colors and a thick gold necklace.

Together with her husband Prasutagus, Boudica She ruled the Iceni and was a defender of their traditions and autonomy which they had been able to partially preserve despite having become a client tribe of the Romans. However, after the death of Prasutagus, the Romans decided to annex the Iceni territories as if they had been conquered, since they did not recognize Boudica’s formal leadership. In addition, Prasutagus’ debts were collected by plundering his villages, unleashing the wrath of the Iceni.

It was so Boudica emerged as leader of the insurrection against the Roman invaders and he led his troops to the city of Camulodunum (present-day Colchester), where they defeated the veteran Roman troops and burned the city. Afterwards, they headed to Londinium (present-day London), which was burned and looted.

The army under Boudica’s command was very large, possibly composed of men, women, the elderly and children, facing the disciplined Roman soldiers. Finally, in what is known as the Battle of Watling Street, Boudica’s troops were defeated and massacred. It is believed that the queen of the Iceni, Faced with the prospect of being captured by the Romans, she preferred to ingest poison and die

Genghis Khan (c. 1162-1227)

In Mongolia, a large statue shows Genghis Khan on his throne.
Genghis Khan was a Mongol warrior of extraordinary military achievements.

Genghis Khan was the founder and first great khan (emperor) of the Mongol Empire the imperial entity with the largest contiguous territorial extension in all of history (that is, not separated by seas and oceans). He was a Mongolian warrior of extraordinary military achievements, whose birth name was Temujin, which according to some interpretations means “iron.”

Between 1181 and 1206, He unified the scattered Mongol tribes, who were subject to his leadership and led them to the conquest of an immense territory that, after his death, covered around 24 million square kilometers, from the Korean Peninsula to the Danube River. The Mongols even subjugated other important states of the time, such as China or the regions of Persia and Mesopotamia, which belonged to the Abbasid Caliphate of Baghdad.

Genghis Khan’s reputation as a cruel conqueror that subjected entire towns to extermination and plunder was combined with his work as an efficient ruler as he managed to get some local leaders and warriors to voluntarily submit and pay allegiance to him. In this way, different Asian peoples became Mongol vassals.

Furthermore, in the Mongol Empire religious tolerance was practiced and literacy of officials was established with a writing system based on Uyghur characters, to facilitate the administration of such a large territory. A written code of justice was also implemented known as yasawhere rules and punishments were provided.

Likewise, during the reign of Genghis Khan, the Silk Road flourished thanks to political stability in the region and international trade was boosted. On the other hand, sciences and arts were respected and encouraged which earned him the sympathy of different European intellectuals.

Genghis Khan died at age 65, although the cause is unclear.

Elizabeth I of England (1533-1603)

Queen Victoria the First is portrayed in a painting from the late sixteenth century.
Queen Elizabeth I was the last English monarch of the Tudor dynasty.

Known as the Virgin Queen or Good Queen Bess, Elizabeth I she was the queen of England and Ireland from her accession to the throne at the age of 25 until her death at the age of 69. She was the last English monarch of the Tudor dynasty.

During his rule, known as the Elizabethan era, England flourished in the arts and literature and went from having a Catholic-based culture to being a largely Protestant nation. Likewise, this period was famous for England’s ocean exploration and naval performance.

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Elizabeth I was a charismatic but cautious, pragmatic queen who made the defense of her nation the main objective of her mandate. In fact, his participation in different European wars was rather moderate and she preferred prudence even when Pope Pius V excommunicated her and declared her illegitimate in 1570, or when different conspiracies attempted against her life. Since 1585 it faced Spain, in a war in which the Spanish Armada tried unsuccessfully to invade England.

In a context of instability of neighboring monarchies, Elizabeth I’s reign was particularly stable and it was one of the longest reigns in the history of his nation.

Catherine II of Russia (1729-1796)

A statue portrays Catherine the Great with her monarch's insignia.
Catherine the Great caused a true cultural transformation in Russia.

Catherine II, known as Catherine the Great, She was the reigning empress of the Russian Empire for 34 uninterrupted years since she overthrew her husband Peter III of Russia.

Continuing the legacy of Peter I (called Peter the Great), who wanted to modernize the tsarist empire according to the Western model, Catherine imported from Europe some aspects of Western legal, political and moral philosophy, medicine, art and education which represented a true cultural transformation in his nation.

Catherine considered herself “a philosopher on the throne” and left her memoirs written, an important source of information about her government and cultural management. She was a friend of enlightened philosophers such as Voltaire and Denis Diderot, but her interest in the French Enlightenment and the nascent liberal Europe did not prevent her from being an implacable ruler in Russia, who expanded the borders of the empire towards the Black Sea (with the conquest of the peninsula of Crimea) and towards Eastern Europe (with the conquest of present-day Poland and Lithuania). Due to this combination of enlightened philosophy and political authoritarianism, it is considered one of the main representatives of enlightened despotism.

Despite having converted to Orthodox Christianity, Catherine granted asylum to the Society of Jesus (which belonged to the Catholic Church). On the other hand, fostered the Christian sentiment of the Russian people against their rivals, the Ottomans, who professed the Muslim faith. He also attempted to establish relations with the shogunate of Japan, but was unsuccessful. Finally, he died at the age of 67 from a stroke.

Napoleon Bonaparte (1769-1821)

Napoleon Bonaparte is portrayed at his coronation by Anne-Louis Girodet de Roussy.
Napoleon Bonaparte’s wars changed the map of Europe at the beginning of the 19th century.

Napoleon Bonaparte, who in 1804 was crowned Napoleon I of France, was a prominent French military leader of the republican era of the French Revolution that is, from the moment the monarchy was overthrown in 1792. He is considered one of the most important military strategists in history and an example of a modern autocrat who followed the ideas of the Enlightenment.

As a soldier of the French Republic, Napoleon achieved important successes in Austria, Italy and Egypt, which made him an outstanding patriotic symbol, in a very turbulent time of struggles over political interests in France and military conflicts with neighboring countries in Europe.

During the period known as the Directory, Bonaparte returned from Egypt and led a coup d’état, which had some popular and military support. His task was supposedly to put an end to the corruption of the previous government, and thus he established the Consulate, in which he shared the title of consul along with the revolutionary politicians Emmanuel-Joseph Sieyès and Roger Ducos.

However, the Consulate did not last long and soon Napoleon He proclaimed himself consul for life and then emperor of the French titles with which he fought a series of wars against the enemy governments of the French Revolution and the French Empire in Europe. In just over a decade, Bonaparte led his army to conquer almost the entire continent, through military operations unprecedented in history until then. He even assumed the title of king of Italy.

Domestically, one of the most significant reforms of Napoleon’s government was the establishment of the Napoleonic Code a body of laws that codified some principles of the French Revolution, such as individual freedoms or equality before the law, and other aspects such as the protection of property rights.

Bonaparte’s wars determined the fate of Europe at the beginning of the 19th century, especially when His empire came to an end in 1815, after the defeat of his army at the Battle of Waterloo, in Belgium because that contributed to changing the map of the entire continent.

Simon Bolivar (1783-1830)

Simón Bolívar is remembered in an equestrian statue in the city of Medellín.
Simón Bolívar was a Venezuelan soldier and statesman influenced by the Enlightenment.

Leader of the independence of Venezuela and the territories that today belong to Colombia and Ecuador Simón Bolívar, called “the Liberator”, was a soldier and statesman born in Caracas (at that time part of the Spanish Empire). He trained in Spain and France, where he was influenced by the ideas of the Enlightenment.

Furthermore, he was a political leader who He served as president of Gran Colombia (a territory that included Colombia, Venezuela, Ecuador and Panama), of which he was also the founder. Bolívar had an integrative vision of Latin America, which he wanted to convert into a single confederation, although this project was never fulfilled.

Likewise, it was an outstanding military strategist and a charismatic leader. He was also the author of legal texts, legislator and drafter of constitutions. He was responsible for the liberation of Peru (along with José de San Martín) and a source of inspiration for the Bolivian revolutionaries, who named their country after him. He is a fundamental figure of South American independence and is considered a hero in various nations in the region.

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Bolívar’s life was one of great military victories, but also of adversity. He lived through periods of exile and garnered devotees and detractors in equal measure. Even many of his former supporters turned their backs on him in the last years of his life. He died of tuberculosis in December 1830, after having abandoned the presidency of Gran Colombia, at the same time that it was dismembered.

Abraham Lincoln (1809-1865)

A monument to Abraham Lincoln was created in 1922.
Abraham Lincoln was an American politician and lawyer.

American politician and lawyer, and sixteenth president of the United States Abraham Lincoln was the leader of the Union side during the Civil War (1861-1865) against the Confederate States of America (also called “the Confederacy”). Although his training was mostly self-taught, he is one of the most remembered politicians in his country.

His presidency was characterized by rapid economic modernization and a continuing fight for the abolition of slavery. In addition, he gave a series of famous speeches, including the Gettysburg Address.

Lincoln’s great achievement during the Civil War was keeping his country unified, which was going through the bloodiest internal conflict in its history. To do this, he not only needed good troops under his command, but also great political talent, which allowed him to undertake a policy of reconciliation, essential for the reconstruction of the nation. Thanks to this, He was reelected in 1864, but a year later he was assassinated by a supporter of the Confederate cause, at Ford’s Theater in Washington, DC

Lincoln was a skilled politician, leader of the moderate wing of the Republican Party, whose mandate was spent in the midst of difficult conditions, besieged by his rivals inside and outside the party, and by representatives of the Confederate side. Even so, He is considered one of the best presidents in the history of the United States.

Mahatma Gandhi (1869-1948)

Gandhi's struggle is commemorated in a statue in the City of London.
Mahatma Gandhi promoted various pacifist methods of civil disobedience.

Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi, better known by the honorific name Mahatma Gandhi, was the leader of the Indian independence movement against the British Raj (the colonial regime of the United Kingdom in that country).

Was lawyer, thinker and politician of Hindu religion and creator of several pacifist methods of civil disobedience. Its leadership advocated Indian nationalism against British colonial rule and for the reform of Indian society, which it considered very traditional and conservative.

Gandhi promoted vegetarianism to avoid harming other living beings and nonviolent resistance as a method of struggle against colonial injustices. The latter consisted of hunger strikes, refusals to work and other forms of protest that did not resort to armed struggle, but to civil disobedience. Today, it is considered a symbol of Indian culture, traditional alternative medicine and popular organization.

India’s independence was achieved in 1947 and gave rise to two states: India, with a Hindu majority, and Pakistan, with a Muslim majority. Gandhi’s role in this division was complex. Although he was a necessary figure to carry out this partition plan and thus avoid a religious war between Muslims and Hindus, he was at the same time openly opposed to the division of his country into two or more different nations.

Finally, shortly after the partition of India was completed, Gandhi He was murdered by a Hindu fanatic a member of an ultranationalist party, who accused him of weakening the new Indian government and favoring Pakistan.

Common characteristics of great leaders

It is possible to identify at least five common elements in every great historical leader:

  • Vision. Leaders must have a future plan, a medium or long-term goal to pursue and communicate to others, so that they can assume it as their own.
  • Charisma or leadership. Leaders must be able to convince others, that is, to join them in their cause and transmit to them the vision of the future (of the country, of the tribe, of the company) that they are trying to build.
  • Self-confidence. Leaders must believe in themselves and their cause, not only because they must be willing to make sacrifices and work hard to achieve it, but also to inspire others to do the same.
  • Determination. Leaders must be willing to act without hesitation, without hesitation that leads their followers to question their leadership or doubt their intentions. Great leaders have always been willing to seize the moment.
  • Responsibility. Leaders must carry the weight of their leadership on their shoulders, which is rarely an easy task. They must take responsibility for staying ahead and making decisions boldly.

References

  • Díez, F., Aurrekoetxea, M and Martínez, P. (2021). 6 characteristics that identify great leaders throughout history. BBC News World. https://www.bbc.com/
  • Historyplex. (sf). Great Leaders in History. https://historyplex.com/
  • Larousse and La Nación. (2007). They made history. Larousse and La Nación.
  • Mamchii, O. (2023). 40 Influential and Famous World Leaders in History. Best Diplomats. https://bestdiplomats.org/