Tamerlane basically covered it. Admittedly, however, I don’t know as much about him as I do someone such as Victoria, who was also a more symbolic leader but literally defined an era in British history that I’ve studied at some length, especially with regard to literature.
Anyway, Mutsuhito (his personal name, albeit not used by most Japanese since his death) is now gone. That leaves my votes for this round as follows:
Pitt the Elder (even though he did outclass Lord Palmerston*) – 2
Gandhi – 2 (he never actually served as head of state, though he might have had Indian independence been achieved earlier) – 2
Charlemagne – 2 (other posters in this thread have convinced me he’s overrated)
Mikhail Gorbachev – 2 (influence seems to be waning with time)
Not enough people participating in this game. And I know why…
It’s me. I never participate in internet games and now I’ve gone and jinxed this one :D.
Oops. Well nobody ever said I was smart. Or could read, apparently.
Well, thank you kindly. Though honestly I’m not betting on him winning :).
Well, let’s see, who is left?
Pitt the Elder - 2 pts.- Impressive career, but not enough in this crew.
Menes - 2 pts. - No knock on the achievements of ancient Egypt, but unlike his Chinese counterpart, Menes is semi-mythological. He’s more of a symbol of union than a historical figure we can point to as definitively having done this or that.
Anwar El Sadat - 2 pts. - Another impressive career and the Israeli rapproachment, such as it was, is still reverberating a bit. But not enough.
Thomas Jefferson - 1 pt. - Time to toss an American. I’ve been going back and forth between TJ ( “founding father” and his contribution to the Second Continental Congress, Declaration, et al. ) and FDR ( longer, more eventful presidency ). Finally decided for consistency’s sake that it was the presidential terms that should govern.
Solon - 1 pt. - Suffers somewhat, though to a lesser extent, from the Menes syndrome as above. Hard to know just how much credit he really deserves for what has been attributed to him.
Tomas Masaryk - 1
Genghis Khan - 1
Pitt the Elder - 1
Anwar El Sadat - 1
Solon - 2
Jawaharlal Nehru - 2
I’m still feeling scourged by the early dismissal of Attila. Was it because his empire was short-lived? What about Masaryk?! Was it his bloodshed? What about Genghis?!
As Tamerlane points out, Solon can be considered semi-mythical. And as for Sadat, the “great Middle-East peace-maker” … we only wish!
Anwar El Sadat - 5
Pitt the Elder - 5
Deng Xiaping - 4
Napoleon I - 4
Nelson Mandela - 4
Genghis Khan, Jefferson, Masaryk, Solon - 3 each
Charlemagne, Gandhi, Gorbachev, Julius Caesar, Menes, Nehru, Umar - 2 each
The top five are now gone. That leaves:
Alexander the Great - Macedonian conqueror, emperor
Alfred the Great - Scholar, warrior, statesman
Asoka - Early India leader
Mustafa Kemal Ataturk - Modernized, ruled Turkey
Caesar Augustus - Founded Roman Empire
David Ben-Gurion - First Israeli PM
Otto von Bismarck - United German kingdoms
Simon Bolivar - Latin America liberator
Gaius Julius Caesar - Roman dictator, general
Charlemagne - Holy Roman Emperor
Winston Churchill - British wartime inspiration
Cyrus the Great - Great, benevolent conqueror
Elizabeth I of England - Shrewd, determined queen
Frederick II - Ruled 1700s Prussia
Gandhi - Independence through peace
Genghis Khan - Mongol Empire founder
Mikhail Gorbachev - Reformed Soviet Union
Hammurabi - First written laws
Isabella I of Castille - Unified, developed Spain
Thomas Jefferson - Declaration of Independence
Justinian I - Unleashed Gen. Belisarius
Abraham Lincoln - Won Civil War
Louis XIV - France’s “Sun King”
Tomas Masaryk - Czechoslovakia’s founding president
Menes - Egypt-uniting pharaoh
Muhammad - United all Arabia
Nebuchadnezzar II - Babylon’s greatest ruler
Jawaharlal Nehru - Indian prime minister
Rameses II - Egypt’s greatest pharaoh
Franklin Delano Roosevelt - 32nd American president
Peter the Great - Modernized, expanded Russia
Saladin - Muslim leader, warrior
Shaka Zulu - United Zulu tribes
Qin Shi Huang - Unified China emperor
Solon - Founded Athenian democracy
Tamerlane the Great - Clever, liberal conqueror
Umar - Expanded Islamic empire
George Washington - First U.S. president
The current round of voting will end on Mon. June 7 at noon EST. To shake things up a little…
New rules: Each player now has ten votes, and may use up to five against any particular leader in this round (thus, five votes each against two leaders, or five votes against one leader, with the other five votes split among two or more others, etc.).
Solon - 3 - Ditto in a slightly less semi-mythical, but still difficult to attribute way.
Thomas Jefferson - 2 pts. - Was not central to the American Revolution in the way that Gandhi or Masaryk were to their respective independence movements. Masaryk also led his country for the first 17 years of its existence, as opposed to Jefferson’s shorter ( and much later ) Presidential stint.
re: Gandhi - Though he never held office per se, I’d argue he was a de facto national leader in most of his years as an independence advocate ( say from 1921-1948 ).
Got to dump Pitt. English leaders are overrepresented on the list, and he wasn’t that important. Moses gets a 2 as probably fictional, and David gets 2.
Wish I’d noticed the setup thread. Akbar should definitely be on the list.
RNATB, all three of those for whom you voted this morning had already been voted out.
The top five are now gone. That leaves:
Alexander the Great - Macedonian conqueror, emperor
Alfred the Great - Scholar, warrior, statesman
Asoka - Early India leader
Mustafa Kemal Ataturk - Modernized, ruled Turkey
Caesar Augustus - Founded Roman Empire
David Ben-Gurion - First Israeli PM
Otto von Bismarck - United German kingdoms
Simon Bolivar - Latin America liberator
Gaius Julius Caesar - Roman dictator, general
Winston Churchill - British wartime inspiration
Cyrus the Great - Great, benevolent conqueror
Elizabeth I of England - Shrewd, determined queen
Frederick II - Ruled 1700s Prussia
Mikhail Gorbachev - Reformed Soviet Union
Hammurabi - First written laws
Isabella I of Castille - Unified, developed Spain
Justinian I - Unleashed Gen. Belisarius
Abraham Lincoln - Won Civil War
Louis XIV - France’s “Sun King”
Tomas Masaryk - Czechoslovakia’s founding president
Menes - Egypt-uniting pharaoh
Muhammad - United all Arabia
Nebuchadnezzar II - Babylon’s greatest ruler
Jawaharlal Nehru - Indian prime minister
Rameses II - Egypt’s greatest pharaoh
Franklin Delano Roosevelt - 32nd American president
Peter the Great - Modernized, expanded Russia
Saladin - Muslim leader, warrior
Qin Shi Huang - Unified China emperor
Solon - Founded Athenian democracy
Tamerlane the Great - Clever, liberal conqueror
Umar - Expanded Islamic empire
George Washington - First U.S. president
The current round of voting will end on Weds. June 9 at noon EST.
Same rules as the most recent round: ten votes per player, no more than five against any single ruler, etc.
Was it because his empire was short-lived? What about Masaryk?! Was it his bloodshed? What about Genghis?!