0pmmdp1jap Horatio Nelson, 1st Viscount Nelson, (29 September 1758 21 October 1805)

was a British flag officer famous for his service in the Royal Navy, particularly during
the Napoleonic Wars. He was noted for his inspirational leadership and superb grasp of strategy
and unconventional tactics, which resulted in a number of decisive naval victories. He was
wounded several times in combat, losing one arm in the unsuccessful attempt to conquer Santa
Cruz de Tenerife and the sight in one eye inCorsica. Of his several victories, the best known and
most notable was the Battle of Trafalgar in 1805, during which he was shot and killed.

Peter the Great, Peter I or Pyotr Alexeyevich (Russian: , I, Pyotr I, or

, Pyotr Velikiy) (9 June [O.S. 30 May] 1672 8 February [O.S. 28 January] 1725)
[a]
ruled the Tsardom of Russia and later the Russian Empire from 7 May [O.S. 27 April] 1682 until
his death, jointly ruling before 1696 with his half-brother. Through a number of successful wars
he expanded the Tsardom into a much larger empire that became a major European power. He
led a cultural revolution that replaced some of the traditionalist and medieval social and political
system with one that was modern, scientific, Europe-oriented, and based on The Enlightenment.
[1]

Napolon Bonaparte (French pronunciation: [naple bnapart], born Napoleone di Buonaparte; 15

August 1769 5 May 1821) was a French military and political leader who rose to prominence
during the latter stages of the French Revolution and its associatedwars in Europe.
As Napoleon I, he was Emperor of the French from 1804 to 1814 and again in 1815. He
implemented a wide array of liberal reforms across Europe, including the abolition
of feudalism and the spread of religious toleration.[2] His legal code in France, the Napoleonic
Code, influenced numerous civil law jurisdictions worldwide. Napoleon is remembered for his
role in leading France against a series of coalitions in the Napoleonic Wars. He won the large
majority of his battles and seized control of most of continental Europe in a quest for personal
power and to spread the ideals of the French Revolution. Widely regarded as one of the
greatest commanders in history, his campaigns are studied at military academies worldwide. He
remains one of the most studied political and military leaders in all of history.[3]

Alexander Vasilyevich Suvorov ( , r Aleksandr Vasilevich

Suvorov; 24 November [O.S. 13 November] 1729 or 1730 18 May [O.S. 6 May] 1800), Count Suvorov
of Rymnik ( ), Prince of Italy ( ), Count of the Holy Roman
Empire, national hero of Russia, was the last Generalissimo of the Russian Empire.
Suvorov is one of the few generals in history who never lost a battle, being undefeated in over
60 large battles while always having numerical disadvantage.[1] He was famed for his military
manual The Science of Victory and noted for several of his sayings, including "What is difficult in
training will become easy in a battle", "The bullet is a mad thing; only the bayonet knows what it
is about", and "Perish yourself but rescue your comrade!". He taught his soldiers to attack

instantly and decisively: "Attack with the cold steel! Push hard with the bayonet!" He joked with
the men, calling common soldiers 'brother', and shrewdly presented the results of detailed
planning and careful strategy as the work of inspiration.[2]

Sun Tzu (also rendered as Sun Zi) was a Chinese military general, strategist and philosopher
who lived in the Spring and Autumn Period of ancient China. The name he is best known by is
actually an honorific which means "Master Sun": His birth name was Sun Wu and he was
known outside of his family by his courtesy name Changqing. He is traditionally credited as the
author of The Art of War, an extremely influential ancient Chinese book on military strategy. Sun
Tzu has had a significant impact on Chinese and Asian history and culture, both as the author
of The Art of War and as a legendary historical figure.
Sun Tzu's historicity is uncertain. Sima Qian and other traditional historians placed him as a
minister to King Hel of Wu and dated his lifetime to 544496 BC. Modern scholars accepting
his historicity nonetheless place the existing text of The Art of War in the laterWarring States
period based upon its style of composition and its descriptions of warfare.[2] Traditional accounts
state that the general's descendant Sun Bin also wrote a treatise on military tactics, also
titled The Art of War. Since both Sun Wu and Sun Bin were referred to as Sun Tzu in classical
Chinese texts, some historians believed them identical prior to the rediscovery of Sun Bin's
treatise in 1972.
Sun Tzu's work has been praised and employed throughout East Asia since its composition.
During the twentieth century, The Art of War grew in popularity and saw practical use in Western

society as well. It continues to influence many competitive endeavors in Asia, Europe, and
America including culture, politics,[3][4] business,[5] and sports,[6] as well as modern warfare.

Otto Eduard Leopold, Prince of Bismarck, Duke of Lauenburg, (1 April 1815 30 July
1898), known as Otto von Bismarck, was a conservative Prussian statesman who dominated
German and European affairs from the 1860s until 1890. In the 1860s he engineered a series of
wars that unified the German states (excluding Austria) into a powerful German Empire under
Prussian leadership. With that accomplished by 1871 he skillfully used balance of
power diplomacy to preserve German hegemony in a Europe which, despite many disputes and
war scares, remained at peace. For historian Eric Hobsbawm, Bismarck, who "remained
undisputed world champion at the game of multilateral diplomatic chess for almost twenty years
after 1871, devoted himself exclusively, and successfully, to maintaining peace between the
powers."[1]
In 1862 King Wilhelm I appointed Bismarck as Minister President of Prussia, a post he would
hold until 1890 (except for a short break in 1873). He provoked three short, decisive wars
against Denmark, Austria and France, aligning the smaller German states behind Prussia in
defeating his arch-enemy France. In 1871 he formed the German Empire with himself
as Chancellor, while retaining control of Prussia. His diplomacy of realpolitik and powerful rule at
home gained him the nickname the "Iron Chancellor". German unification and its rapid

economic growth was the foundation to his foreign policy. He disliked colonialism but reluctantly
built an overseas empire when it was demanded by both elite and mass opinion. Juggling a very
complex interlocking series of conferences, negotiations and alliances, he used his unrivaled
diplomatic skills to maintain Germany's position and used the balance of power to keep Europe
at peace in the 1870s and 1880s.
He was the master of complex politics at home. He created the first welfare state in the modern
world, with the goal of gaining working class support that might otherwise go to his Socialist
enemies. In the 1870s he allied himself with the Liberals (who were low-tariff and anti-Catholic)
and fought the Catholic Church in a culture war. He lost that battle as the Catholics responded
by forming a powerful Center party and using universal male suffrage to gain a bloc of seats.
Bismarck then reversed himself, ended the culture war, broke with the Liberals, imposed tariffs,
and formed a political alliance with the Center party to fight the Socialists. A devout Lutheran, he
was loyal to his king, who in turn gave Bismarck his full support, against the advice of his wife
and his heir. While Germany's parliament was elected by universal male suffrage, it did not have
real control of the government. Bismarck distrusted democracy and ruled through a strong, welltrained bureaucracy with power in the hands of a traditional Junker elite that comprised the
landed nobility of the east. Bismarck largely controlled domestic and foreign affairs under the
elderly Wilhelm I until he was removed by young Kaiser Wilhelm II in 1890.