Charles de Gaulle

Emperor · 1808 – 1873

Napoleon III was the nephew of Napoleon Bonaparte who became the first elected president of France and then its last emperor, modernizing Paris and French industry before his empire collapsed with defeat in the Franco-Prussian War of 1870.

• Second French Empire
• Modernization of Paris

Why An earlier French leader whose Second Empire left France defeated and humiliated — the inverse of the national restoration de Gaulle sought.

Military Leader · 1769 – 1821

Napoleon Bonaparte was a French military and political leader who rose during the French Revolution, crowned himself Emperor, and dominated European affairs for over a decade.

• Napoleonic Wars
• The Napoleonic Code

Why The French imperial figure de Gaulle both studied deeply and consciously avoided emulating, pursuing French greatness through republicanism rather than autocracy.

Statesman · 1874 – 1965

Winston Churchill was the British statesman who led the United Kingdom to victory in World War II — and a prolific historian and writer whose books and speeches won him the Nobel Prize in Literature, a rare honour for a man of action.

• Leadership in World War II
• Historic wartime speeches

Why His wartime ally and frequent adversary, with whom his relationship was essential but perpetually stormy.

General · 83 BC – 30 BC

Mark Antony was a Roman general and statesman, a close ally of Julius Caesar who, after Caesar's assassination, ruled much of the Roman world and allied with Cleopatra, before his defeat by Octavian ended the Roman Republic for good.

• Ally of Julius Caesar
• Affair with Cleopatra

Why Also a general & statesman · Comparable historical impact

General · 106 BC – 48 BC

Pompey the Great was a Roman general and statesman, one of the leading figures of the late Republic, whose conquests in the East made him Rome's greatest soldier before he was defeated by Julius Caesar in a civil war that ended the Republic.

• Conquests in the East
• First Triumvirate

Why Also a general & statesman · Comparable historical impact

General · 236 BC – 183 BC

Scipio Africanus was a Roman general who defeated Hannibal at the Battle of Zama to win the Second Punic War, one of the greatest commanders of antiquity and the savior of the Roman Republic in its darkest hour.

• Defeating Hannibal at Zama
• Winning the Second Punic War

Why Also a general & statesman · Comparable historical impact

General · 1881 – 1938

Mustafa Kemal Atatürk was the military commander who defeated the Allied partition of the Ottoman Empire after World War I, founded the Republic of Turkey in 1923, and then transformed it through sweeping secular modernization reforms that reshaped Turkish society.

• Founding the Republic of Turkey
• Turkish War of Independence

Why Also a general & statesman · Active in the same era

President · 1882 – 1945

Franklin D. Roosevelt was the 32nd President of the United States who led the country through the Great Depression with the New Deal and through most of World War II, serving an unprecedented four terms and reshaping the role of the federal government in American life.

• The New Deal
• World War II leadership

Why Also a president & statesman · Active in the same era

President · 1809 – 1865

Abraham Lincoln was the 16th President of the United States, who led the nation through its Civil War, preserved the Union, and abolished slavery before his assassination in 1865.

• Leading the Union in the Civil War
• The Emancipation Proclamation

Why Also a president & statesman · Active in the same era

General · 1887 – 1975

Chiang Kai-shek was the Chinese Nationalist leader who unified China in the late 1920s, led the country through the Japanese invasion in World War II, but lost the Chinese Civil War to Mao Zedong and retreated to Taiwan, which he ruled until his death.

• Nationalist China
• Chinese Civil War

Why Also a general & statesman · Active in the same era

General · 1769 – 1852

The Duke of Wellington was the British general who defeated Napoleon Bonaparte at the Battle of Waterloo in 1815, ending the Napoleonic Wars, and who subsequently served as Prime Minister of Britain — the only man to hold both the highest military and civilian offices in British history.

• Battle of Waterloo
• Peninsular War

Why Also a general & statesman · Active in the same era

Statesman · 1732 – 1799

George Washington was the commander of the Continental Army in the American Revolution and the first President of the United States, whose leadership and restraint shaped the new republic.

• Commanding the Continental Army
• First U.S. President

Why Also a statesman & president · Active in the same era

Revolutionary Leader · 1890 – 1969

Ho Chi Minh was the Vietnamese revolutionary leader who led the resistance against French colonial rule and then American military intervention, founding the Democratic Republic of Vietnam and becoming the unifying symbol of Vietnamese independence.

• Vietnamese independence
• Defeat of France at Dien Bien Phu

Why Also a statesman & president · Active in the same era

Dictator · 1878 – 1953

Joseph Stalin was the Soviet dictator who industrialized the USSR, led it to victory in World War II, and built a vast empire in Eastern Europe — but also presided over a totalitarian state that killed millions through purges, gulags, and engineered famine.

• Soviet dictator
• World War II Eastern Front

Why Also a general & statesman · Active in the same era

Statesman · 1918 – 2013

Nelson Mandela was a South African anti-apartheid revolutionary and statesman who, after 27 years in prison, became the country's first democratically elected president and a global symbol of reconciliation.

• Ending apartheid
• 27 years in prison

Why Also a statesman & president · Active in the same era

General · 1783 – 1830

Simón Bolívar was the South American general and statesman who liberated six nations from Spanish colonial rule, earning the title El Libertador and shaping the independence of Venezuela, Colombia, Ecuador, Peru, Panama, and Bolivia.

• Liberation of South America
• El Libertador

Why Also a general & statesman · Active in the same era

Statesman · 1858 – 1919

Theodore Roosevelt was the 26th President of the United States, a soldier, conservationist and reformer — and a remarkably prolific author who wrote around forty books on history, nature, politics and exploration alongside his public career.

• 26th U.S. President
• National parks and conservation

Why Also a statesman & president · Active in the same era

Statesman · 1743 – 1826

Thomas Jefferson was an American statesman, the principal author of the Declaration of Independence and third President of the United States, who was also a prolific writer, architect and scholar whose Notes on the State of Virginia was a landmark of early American letters.

• Declaration of Independence
• Third U.S. President

Why Also a statesman & president · Active in the same era

General · 1807 – 1882

Giuseppe Garibaldi was the Italian nationalist military leader who united southern Italy with the north through his bold expedition of the Thousand, becoming the military hero of Italian unification and one of the most celebrated revolutionary figures of the 19th century.

• Expedition of the Thousand
• Italian unification

Why Also a general · Active in the same era

General · 1743 – 1803

Toussaint Louverture was the Haitian revolutionary leader who rose from slavery to lead the only successful slave revolt in history, defeating French, Spanish, and British armies to lay the foundations for Haiti's independence as the world's first Black republic.

• Haitian Revolution
• Only successful slave revolt in history

Why Also a general · Active in the same era

General · 1750 – 1816

Francisco de Miranda was the Venezuelan revolutionary who became the forerunner of Spanish American independence, fighting across three continents before returning home to lead Venezuela's first republic — a visionary who preceded Bolívar and inspired the liberation of Latin America.

• Forerunner of Latin American independence
• First Venezuelan Republic

Why Also a general & statesman · Active in the same era

Emperor · 1892 – 1975

Haile Selassie was the Emperor of Ethiopia who modernized his country, became the symbol of African resistance to European colonialism after surviving Mussolini's invasion, championed African unity at the UN and as founder of the African Union, and is venerated as a messiah by the Rastafari movement.

• Symbol of African anti-colonialism
• Founder of the African Union

Why Also a statesman · Active in the same era

Military Leader · 1768 – 1813

Tecumseh was the Shawnee leader who built the largest Native American confederacy in history to resist US expansion, allied with the British in the War of 1812, and was killed at the Battle of the Thames — becoming the greatest pan-Indian leader America ever faced.

• Pan-Indian confederacy
• War of 1812 alliance with Britain

Why Also a statesman · Active in the same era

Statesman · 1755 – 1804

Alexander Hamilton was the American Founding Father who designed the United States financial system, co-wrote the Federalist Papers, founded the first national bank, served as the first Secretary of the Treasury, and was killed in a duel by Vice President Aaron Burr in 1804.

• US financial system
• Federalist Papers

Why Also a statesman · Active in the same era