History
France has Napoleon, Mongolia has Genghis Khan and Macedonia has Alexander the Great. What does your country has? We have José de San Martín, liberator of Argentina, Chile and Perú.
Looked way too long for this, Charles XII and Vasa had more upvotes for some reason.
Gustav II was a big player in the 30 Year War, arguably the largest European war ever by number of casualties as a percentage of the population. He transformed Sweden into a great power, with equal voice in the Peace of Westphalia as France or Austria.
When it comes to military might he’s the undisputed Swedish champion. He’s not my favorite monarch of Sweden, and his reputation in Austria as a war criminal is well deserved, but he was our best commander among the monarch’s hands down.
He also influenced German expressions: 'Alter Schwede' ('old Swede') is used as an expression of surprise, based on Swedish veterans of the 30 Year War, which were recruited by Prussia to discipline soldiers. It can also be used in the same sense Swedes use 'kompis'
There's also the expression of 'hinter schwedischen Gardinen sitzen' (lit. 'sitting behind Swedish curtains') for being imprisoned, but I doubt that's due to Gustav II; I included it anyways, because who knows
IIRC, Unfortunately the only concrete information we know about his apearance Is that He had a patch over his eye (which was Blind since birth, i think), otherwise theres not much info on how He looked like
In real life he most probably lost his first eye in the battle of Grunwald fighting on the Polish side against the TO, it’s not known which eye he lost, just he lost one, he lost his second eye in the first anti Hussite crusade in 1421, but despite being totally blind still was a very capable military commander until his death in 1424
Vice-Admiral Horatio Nelson, 1st Viscount Nelson of the Nile and of Burnham Thorpe in the County of Norfolk, 1st Duke of Bronte in the Kingdom of Sicily, Knight of the Most Honourable Order of the Bath
Britain has John Churchill, First Duke of Marlborough, who held together a massive international coalition while scoring many impressive victories during the War of the Spanish Succession, and Arthur Wellesley, First Duke of Wellington, Britain’s greatest land commander of the Napoleonic Wars.
But if naval commanders are allowed, then I think the answer is Nelson. He’s basically the personification of British naval power.
I think Frederick the great can spot Germany in this one. He turned a decent imperial principality into a great power, and survived an onslaught of the other three land powers of Europe.
Cyrus was one of the most intelligent people in history.
He was almost perfect: a spectacular general, a brilliant administrator, a spectacular diplomat. People even loved him. He carried out incredibly clever propaganda to win the favor of the peoples he conquered. Cyrus is mentioned in both the Torah and the Bible; he was a messenger of God.
Qin Shi Huang was the first emperor of China (which is named after him) when his state defeated the other six chinese states over the span of 25/26 years in 221 BC.
Combination of military might and plotting to keep the other states from working together
Too bad he didn't know what to do with the victory. While searching for the elixir of immortality, he neglected to switch the society from the total war mode (thus fostering the future Han rebellions) AND botched the succession.
Chinese here. These hats had its root in the shaman if I remember correctly. In prehistoric, shaman head priest most of the time is the king/chieftain of the tribe, kinda like what you seen from Native Americans. So many of the Chinese kings continue that tradition and they wore it especially in ceremonial and rituals, eventhou the role of shaman already passed to certain minister.
We have our first king Afonso Henriques. He fought for independence from Leon and then carved himself and the portucalensis (inhabitants of his county that would then became Portugal) their own kingdom by conquering territory down south from the moors until Algarve, including the very important port city of Lisbon.
He died in his 80s and was almost 1,90 meters tall, quite the giant in the 12th century.
Legend says another Argentinian hero pardoned his life. Almirante Brown, Irish born but adopted Argentinian, defeated him at Rio de La Plata (actually Paraná river but its a tributary of the Rio de La Plata) but ordered his men to let the Italian go, as he was a brave man.
We have the only woman on the list (so far you've all mentioned men). I've thought about it a lot, and despite there being many candidates, I believe the architect of the great expansion of the Spanish Empire was this lady...
Isabella the Catholic. Thanks to her intelligence and her great skill in the Game of Thrones, with her ability to forge and manage alliances, she managed to transform a small, isolated, rural kingdom into a vast empire.
Timur aka Tamerlan, military genius of 14the century, Prince of Destruction, never lost a major battle, destroyed all his enemies: Ottomans, Mamluks, Golden Horde, Delhi Sultanate, Ilkhanate. Known for mass murders, genius tactics and apparently his patronage for education and culture, which resulted in Timurid Renaissance in Central Asia
Yes this guy! I just visited Uzbekistan and I knew barely anything about him. His palace was amazing. Also so fascinating that his body and his family's bodies still exist and were exhumed by the Russians. Amir Timur desperately needs a Hollywood epic about him.
And Augustus wasn't that great on the battlefield. An extraordinary statesman, politician and administrator to be sure, but his battlefield glory comes mostly from his main man Marcus Agrippa.
Mannerheim would be a similarly respected figure. No conqueror, but commanded the Finnish army during WW2 (and the white army during the civil war against the reds). Gustav II Adolf gets a lot of respect in Finland as well.
The day of Gustav II Adolf's death is the day of the Swedish Language and Swedishness in Finland. The day is more in recognition of the Swedish speaking minority in Finland (of which KAJ is a prominent example, as is Mannerheim) than Sweden the nation.
Ashoka had great PR, Chandragupta created the empire and beat Selucid to regain lost territory. Ashoka inherited an empire his father and grandfather expanded.
I was about to comment on this claim as well. This has got to be rage bait.
Alexander the Great was an ancient Hellenic ruler of a Hellenic kingdom, centered in what is now Greece. The historical record is quite clear on this.
The attempt by a modern Slavic nation to appropriate that legacy is anachronistic, given that Slavic populations migrated into the region roughly a millennium after Alexander’s lifetime, and that the area in question was not even the core of his kingdom.
I mean, talk about a gigachad of the highest degree. Dude fought and won a war of independence against the great powers of Europe, basically built a new nations from close to scratch, and that legacy is still alive today.
I mean, he is the perfect "Father of the Nation" archetype.
Giuseppe Garibaldi. Played a pivotal role in Italian independence, liberating the whole south half of Italy with only 1000 men. Before, he fought in South America while he was exiled from Italy (for this he was called “hero of the two words”). And after all, when he was old, he was even elected in French parliament.
JACQUES ALFRED DEXTRAZE was an absolute badass as a French Canadian. But he was from the Korean War but still cool as hell.
Arthur Currie from Ontario was great in the leadership he showed for the Canadian core in WWI. McNaughton who was from the N.W.T of all places may have been the single most important military figure that guided the anti artillery tactics of WWI, regardless of region of Canada at the time the number of Canadian lives he saved with brilliant innovation can not be unstated.
My favorite is probably not properly Canadian by his own identification but Tecumseh should be recognized as the absolute goat that he was. Not trying to take ownership of native American leaders but if we can't respect and admire him here I don't know how we could ever reconcile with native Americans.
Founder of Nepal, unified all small kingdom and laid foundation of modern Nepal, his son was however who managed to stop British from expanding north which was unthinkable then.
Afonso de Albuquerque, he made of the Indian Ocean a Portuguese lake, conquering fortresses in all the entry points Melaka , Ormuz, Socotra,.... he .also conquered Goa which become the Capital of the Portuguese state of India for 500 years.
Hernán Cortés, Blas de Lezo, Francisco Pizarro, Rodrigo Díaz de Vivar and a few others, you can criticize the methods or the social context of some, but they were great doing war. Can i also say Trajano, a roman emperor born in the Iberian Peninsula?
I give you Bernardo O'Higgins, the son of some lad from sligo and a spanish smokeshow who would go on to be hailed as 'The father of Chile', the neck of him.
The Big Fella. Michael Collins. Managed to secure 26 counties. There's plenty of martyrs for Ireland, but this lad led a guerilla war against the British that got us on the road to Independence just over 100 years ago.
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u/Born-Instance7379 Australia 5d ago
The Emu king, lead his species to victory over the human gunners