Who were the greatest leaders of all time and why?

reply to post by AbleEndangered

Tesla
Edison

Pick one.

reply to post by Zarniwoop


Tesla!

He had the Radio tuned into alien Satellite!!

reply to post by AbleEndangered

Tesla!

BZZZZ.... wrong. The correct answer was Edison.

Tesla was much, much smarter, but less corrupt.

You fail to win one ATS trivia medal. You may try again in one week.

King Arthur
Napoleon
William Wallace
Robin of Lochly
Mao
nefertiti
Oprah

reply to post by tinner07



This Shelby guy down in the swamplands is shaping up to be a force to be reckoned with.

has to be adolph schicklegrobber aka hitler for the things germany managed in the time the natzi's were in power germany had its auto banns in the 30s america not until the 70s

Hitler and Gandhi. Of the current bunch, Putin stands head and shoulders above the rest.

reply to post by tinner07


Its obvious!!!!!!

ADAMA

Hitler? Really? You guys are aware what happened to Germany under Hitler's leadership right?

It was turned into a smoking hole in the ground.

German population in 1939 - 69,300,000
German military casualties - 4,400,000
German civilian casualties - 1,100,000 to 2,500,000
Total German deaths - 5,500,000 to 6,900,000

So as a percentage of the total German population the 'brilliant leadership' of Hitler resulted in 7.9% to 10.0% of the total population getting killed.

That ain't exactly a measure of success in my book...

Unless you're being sarcastic, in which case I've totally missed the point here.

Painterz
Hitler? Really? You guys are aware what happened to Germany under Hitler's leadership right?

It was turned into a smoking hole in the ground.

German population in 1939 - 69,300,000
German military casualties - 4,400,000
German civilian casualties - 1,100,000 to 2,500,000
Total German deaths - 5,500,000 to 6,900,000

So as a percentage of the total German population the 'brilliant leadership' of Hitler resulted in 7.9% to 10.0% of the total population getting killed.

That ain't exactly a measure of success in my book...

Unless you're being sarcastic, in which case I've totally missed the point here.

I think you are misunderstanding why people mention him. The question wasn't - who is the most brilliant leader? It was - who was the greatest - and greatness can be interpreted and assessed in many ways. One way might be looking at the amount of influence, and in this sense, regardless of what you think might is good or bad, success or not, Hitler was indeed one of the greatest leaders during the last century at least.

I don't like where he lead the world, I doubt that anybody in this thread does. But he did lead a lot of people that way regardless of what we think. He is defiantly one of the most charismatic leaders ever.

reply to post by tinner07


Great question but i would think it depends upon how you define "great". For example, Genghis Khan went from being outcast and left in the wilderness with his mother and brothers to uniting all the tribes, conquering the Chin and then attacking wholesale the rest of the accessible world. You cannot really get any greater than that! On the other hand, you could equally argue that he wasn't a great societal leader in that i doubt his newly gained subjects in places such as Samarkand didn't have particularly fond memories of him!

Gaius Julius Caesar would have to be another contender, really. Militarily, well pretty much everyone knows the story - kidnapped by pirates, ransomed off, raised and formed a band of soldiers on coast he was dropped off, captured pirates who had captured him, stopped off in Greece and helped put down the 2nd rebellion by Mithridites, routing his army (10 times the size), again with a scratch force raised without the backing of Rome - all of this even before he returned to Rome to help fight Spartacus (and years before his Gaul campaigns).

Societally, he made the lot of the "plebs" much fairer, undertook vast building works, etc, etc. The people loved him, the Senators not so much. Everyone knows what happened on the Ides of March, what many do not know so well is that many of the senators involved were dead within a few short years - Caesar was loved.

reply to post by tinner07


Bobby Moore

Maybe I was kinda vague but it seemed perfectly clear to me at the time....After leaving for work at 11 am and getting home just after 1 am...and not being a night person lol...

I was just wondering if any leader was ever loved by all...or just by those he didnt kill or force to love him.

maybe the king of Fiji or something.

Thanks for your answers though

reply to post by tinner07


Reagan, he showed Republicans a way to not be afraid of the Left. Remember in his time there was ALWAYS Democrat control over the House and Senate. He led the way for the Republican revolution.

Won the cold war... He pushed and prodded the USSR at the exact right time and was there to ask Gorbachev to " tear down this wall."

Brought patriotism and American exceptionalism back after the debacle that was Nam, Watergate and "Carter" years. Was shot and survived, joked with Doctors even though he almost died. He was a great president, if we had him in the world we have now, I don't think we would be in this mess. He understood what the far left was and he wasn't a rabid partisan.

tinner07
Maybe I was kinda vague but it seemed perfectly clear to me at the time....After leaving for work at 11 am and getting home just after 1 am...and not being a night person lol...

I was just wondering if any leader was ever loved by all...or just by those he didnt kill or force to love him.

maybe the king of Fiji or something.

Thanks for your answers though

Okey dokey, Emperor Marcus Aurelius.

Or a couple of the Byzantine Emperors from Alexius Comnenus, John Comnenus, etc.

reply to post by Painterz


I was under the impression that the allies caused those deaths.

missvicky
I would have to say Ghandi and Mother Teresa. They never started out with the ambition to "rule", they followed the high road they walked to its end...and in that process became leaders.

here is one for ghandi.



just had to do that.

williams had another show, where he did a ghandi joke, i couldn't find it, so here is a paraphrase of it.

what did ghandi say when he got shot?..... holy cow!

There are two that based on their accomplishments it would be had to argue with. The first Emperor of China who subjugated the city states and made one language and writing for all of China. He later went off the deep end later taking mercury as prescribed by his doctors (hahahah not much has changed, No?).

The other who was recognized by most leaders that followed was Alexander the Great... who in his short 27 years conquered most of the then known world against incredible odds.

The Great Khan who after killing one of his brothers for a fish went on to gather and conquered all the other tribes and then one of the largest land masses to include China in the ancient world. He would have taken Japan too but the divine wind (typhoon) saved Japan. These are just the big ones everyone knows about.

The King's of Siam from the first to the last were nothing to sneeze at either if the history I have read can be believed.

Buddha, Jesus, and Mohammed as for as followers counted are still a big deal even today... So it depends if you are speaking of those who conquered the land with sword and spear and made empires.... or with words which are still conquering today?

When Genghis Khan rampaged westwards, and murdered 40,000,000 people, so little agriculture took place the whole
region was reforested, and sucked up thousands of tons of CO2 so perhaps he was good/great in that respect.
I vote Hadrian (of the wall) 'laughing Albert' (Kesselring), queen Elisabeth !st, Nelson, the duke of Wellington, Simon Bolivar (Bolivia is named after him), Von Brawn, (pronounced brorn, not brown, not sure if that is the correct spelling for Von Brawn), many more but thats enough for now.

JESUS ... because he obviously wasn't in it for himself and he told the truth, and yet his movement has been successful and helpful for humanity.

GAHNDI ... for the same reason.

and the flip side ....

HITLER ... before he went insane and blew it, he pulled a backwater country out oblivion and into being the most powerful country on earth. Take no prisoners. Get the job done. Cold and methodical.

Gingis Khan ... for the same reason. (only he didn't go insane)