Top 18 Leaders in World History

Took an empire from Greece to the Indus before he turned 33.

Gave her name to an era and reigned over a quarter of the world's population.

Held the United States together through civil war and ended slavery within it.

Crowned emperor in 800, he pulled most of western Europe under one administration.

Turned non-violent resistance into a method and led India to independence with it.

Led six South American countries out of Spanish rule and tried to federate them.

Won a revolution, then handed power back twice — first the army, then the presidency.

Founder of the Persian Empire, remembered for governing conquered peoples by their own laws.

Britain's wartime prime minister, whose broadcasts carried the country through 1940.

Built the largest contiguous land empire in history out of scattered steppe clans.

Ottoman sultan for 46 years, known at home as 'the Lawgiver' for rebuilding the legal code.

The general whose conquests and assassination ended the Roman Republic.

The Mauryan emperor who renounced conquest after Kalinga and carved his policy into rock.

Expanded Russia's borders and its libraries across 34 years on the throne.

The only US president elected four times, through both depression and world war.