The World's Greatest

Military Leaders

Great Military Leaders

Messiahs, diplomats, intellectuals, and philosophers have contributed to the twists and turns of history, but they have flourished only when protected by military leaders who could ensure the survival of their way of life. The most influential leaders in world history have come not from the church, the halls of governments, or the scholastic centers but from the ranks of soldiers and sailors.

Throughout time, peoples fortunate enough to have great military leaders and innovators in warfare among their numbers have prospered, controlling their territory and dominating their neighbors. Civilizations without strong military leaders have found themselves subjugated or annihilated. In other instances, military leaders have proved to be tyrannical despots to their own people as well as to their enemies.

Who do you think was the greatest military leader in world history? Your criterion for what "greatest" is may vary. Whether it be lasting influence, strategic intelligence, leadership ability, or the number of victories won, you would have to decide. Below is a fairly comprehensive list of great military leaders for you to study. If we're missing any you know, please let us know.

Some on the list lived centuries ago, and the test of time has validated their perpetual influence through the ages. The status of the more recent military figures included on the list is subject to the passage of time, world events, and the emergence of other new leaders.

Napoleon wrote: "The Gauls were not conquered by the Roman legions, but by Caesar. It was not before the Carthaginian soldiers that Rome was made to tremble, but before Hannibal. It was not the Macedonian phalanx which reached India, but Alexander. It was not the French army that reached Weser and the Inn; it was Turenne. Prussia was not defended for seven years against the three most formidable European powers by the Prussian soldiers but by Frederick the Great."

Abercromby, Ralph
Alaric The Goth
Alexander the Great
Alexander, Harold Rupert
Alfred The Great
Allenby, Edmund Henry H.
Arnold, Henry H. (Hap)
Attila the Hun
Babur, Zahiruddin Muhammad
Bayezid I
Berthier, Louis Alexandre
Bolivar, Simon
Bonaparte, Napoleon
Boru, Brian
Bradley, Omar Nelson
Brooke, Alan Francis (Alanbrooke)
Bruce, Robert the
Burgoyne, John
Caesar, Julius
Campbell, Colin
Carnot, Lazare Nicolas Marguerite
Charlemagne (Charles the Great)
Charles XII
Chiang Kai-shek
Chief Joseph
Churchill, John (Duke of Marlborough)
Churchill, Winston S.
Clovis of the Franks
Cochrane, Thomas
Comte de Saxe, Hermann-Maurice
Constantine The Great
Cortés, Hernando
Cromwell, Oliver
Cyrus the Great
Dayan, Moshe
De Bourbon, Louis II
de Gribeauval, Jean Baptiste Vaquette
de San Martin, Jose
de Toledo, Fernando Alvarez
de Turenne, Henri de la Tour d'Auvergne
De Vauban, Sebastien Le Prestre
deConde, Louis II de Bourbon, Prince
Dewey, George
Doenitz, Karl
Douhet, Giulio
Drake, Francis
Edward I
Edward The Black Prince
Eisenhower, Dwight David
El Cid
Eugene of Savoy
Farragut, David Glasgow
Fernadez Gonzalo de Cordoba
Fisher, John Arbuthnot
Foch, Ferdinand
Frederick II (The Great)
Fuller, John Frederick Charles
Garibaldi, Giuseppe
Giap, Vo Nguyen
Grant, Ulysses Simpson
Greene, Nathanael
Guderian, Heinz
Gustavus Adolphus II
Halsey, William, Jr.
Heihachiro Togo
Hitler, Adolf
Houston, Sam
Il Sung, Kim
Jackson, Thomas "Stonewall"
Joan of Arc
Jomini, Antoine Henri
Kaishek, Chiang
Kemal, Mustafa (Attaturk)
Khalid ibn al-Walid
Khan, Genghis
Khan, Kublai
Kitchener, Horatio Herbert
Konev, Ivan Stepanovich
Lee, "Lighthorse" Harry
Lee, Robert Edward
Leo III, The Isaurian
Louverture, Toussaint
MacArthur, Arthur
MacArthur, Douglas
Mahan, Alfred Thayer
Marshall, George Catlett
Martel, Charles
Maurice of Nassau
Mehmed II, The Conqueror
Montgomery, Bernard Law
Musashi, Miyamoto
Napoleon I
Nelson, Horatio
Ney, Michel
Nimitz, Chester William
Nobunaga, Oda
Otto The Great
Patton, George S., Jr.
Pershing, John Joseph
Petain, Henri Philippe
Peter the Great
Philip II
Piao, Lin
Pizzrro, Francisco
Pompey The Great
Puller, Lewis B. (Chesty)
Richard I (the Lion-Hearted)
Roberts, Frederick Sleigh
Rommel, Erwin
Schwarzkopg, H. Norman
Scipio Africanus
Scipio, Publius Cornelius
Scott, Winfield
Sebastien Le Prestre de Vauban
Selim I
Shaka Zulu
Sherman, William T.
Smith, Oliver P.
Stephen The Great
Student, Kurt
Suleiman I
Suleyman I, The Magnificent
Surov, Alexander Vasilevich
Suvoruv, Aleksander
Thomas Cochrane
Togo, Heihachiro
Torstensson, Lennart
Tzu, Sun
von Blucher, Gebhard Leberecht
von Clausewitz, Karl
von Hindenburg, Paul
von Mannerheim, Carl Gustav Emil
von Moltke, Helmuth Karl Bernhard
von Tilly, Johann Tserclaes
von Tromp, Maarten
von Wallenstein, Albrecht
Walker, Walton H.
Wallace, William
Washington, George
Wellesley, Arthur (First Duke of Wellington)
William the Conqueror
Wolfe, James
Wolseley, Garnet Joseph
Yamamoto, Isoruku
Zedong, Mao
Zhukov, Georgi Konstantinovich
Ziyad, Tariq Ibn
Zizka, Jan