A long lost historical photograph, showing Lenin meeting with an unknown revolutionary, which he later said inspired his own fight against the oppressive Russian regime

This section is devoted to great historical leaders, conquerors, and revolutionaries.

It is a well-observed phenomenon that chimpanzees and gorillas, our closest living animal relatives, organise themselves into complex social groups, involving hierarchies for both sexes in the wild. Even among primitive tribes, such a structure almost invariably exists, although there are different types and sizes.

With the advent of farming and the subsequent beginnings of civilisation about 10,000 years ago, humans began to gave up their nomadic existence and settled. Cities flourished, different languages were created, writing was invented, and weapons were manufactured. Much larger social and political structures were necessary, as were armies to defend and invade rival cities and civilisations.

Ever since then, human history has been littered with wars, power struggles, conquests, and revolutions to reach the top of the social hierarchy, or to confront different peoples. Empires have risen and fallen, cultures have evolved and vanished, new ideologies replace older ones, but human thirst for aggression, power, and independence is as strong as ever. In this dynamic world, there have sometimes been powerful leaders, who in their circumstances managed to decisively alter human events. Those are the people who will all (eventually in the distant future) be featured here.

I don't think these are people who should be heroes or idols. They all have their own shortfalls. Most are stubbornly rooted in their own convictions, and many are ruthless. There's only one leader I probably admire in history - the Buddhist emperor, Ashoka. However, saying that, there are lessons to be learnt from looking at the lives of all of these people.

These aren't detailed biographies, but rather concise factlists. Not very entertaining to read, but for more detail, anecdotes and opinions, follow the links on each page (if there are any).

356 BC	-	323 BC	Alexander III (the Great)
??? BC	-	232 BC	Ashoka
247 BC	-	182 BC	Hannibal
100 BC	-	44 BC	Gaius Julius Caesar
1167	-	1227	Genghis Khan
1495	-	1566	Suleyman I (the Lawgiver)
1870	-	1924	Vladimir Ilyich Lenin
1889	-	1945	Adolf Hitler
1892	-	1975	Francisco Franco Bahamonde

If you host or know of a webpage that features one of the people above, then please contact me at krishnachinthapalli@yahoo.co.uk, so that I can add a link on the relevant page above. I'd especially like to add links for the ones that don't have any at the moment.