Who was the most influential military leader in history?
In our ranking Napoleon Bonaparte is the most influential military leader in history, the only one with full marks on all five criteria. Alexander the Great and Genghis Khan follow, level on points, then Julius Caesar, while George Washington, Hannibal, Augustus and Mao Zedong complete the top eight of the fifteen.
Influence is not the same as skill on the battlefield. This list ranks the fifteen military leaders whose wars or ideas changed history most: conquerors who founded empires, rulers who directed the wars that made or saved their states, and commanders whose ways of war were copied and taught. Hannibal, perhaps the most admired general of antiquity, lost his war, so he stands below George Washington, who won a country. Battlefield record alone is ranked in our guide to the greatest military commanders. The leaders are ranked by score for recognition, influence on war, influence on history, legacy and certainty, not by date; see how we chose them.
1 Napoleon Bonaparte, 1769 to 1821
- Lived
- 1769 to 1821
- Led
- French armies from 1796; Emperor of the French 1804 to 1814 and in 1815
- Turning point
- Austerlitz, 2 December 1805
- What changed
- Army corps and mass conscription; Germany redrawn, the Holy Roman Empire ended in 1806
- Legacy
- Tactics studied ever since; his Civil Code of 1804 still in force in France
Born in Corsica in 1769, Napoleon Bonaparte took command of the French Army of Italy in March 1796. He became Emperor of the French in 1804 and ruled until 1814, then again for the Hundred Days of 1815.1
His instrument was the Grande Armée, raised by conscription and split into eight semi-autonomous corps that could march apart, fight alone and converge fast. On 2 December 1805 it beat the Austrians and Russians at Austerlitz. By his biographer Andrew Roberts’s count he fought sixty battles and lost seven, but the losses were decisive: of more than 615,000 men who crossed into Russia in 1812 about half a million were lost, and Leipzig and Waterloo followed. The Civil Code of 21 March 1804 is still largely in force in France, and his redrawing of Germany led to the end of the Holy Roman Empire in 1806. Jomini made a career of explaining Napoleon’s method to the world’s armies, and Clausewitz built his theory out of the wars against him. Myth vs fact: he was not short. His recorded 5 pieds 2 pouces in old French measure is about 1.67 m, just under 5 ft 6 in, about average or a little above for his day; “Little Boney” was largely the invention of the British cartoonist James Gillray.2
Why it ranks here: Napoleon is the only leader here with full marks on all five criteria: a household name, a way of war taught ever since, a Europe he redrew and campaigns documented day by day. Nothing holds him back, and that is why he is No. 1.
2 Alexander the Great, 356 to 323 BC
- Lived
- 356 to 323 BC
- Led
- King of Macedon 336 to 323 BC; campaigns from Greece to the Punjab, 334 to 323 BC
- Turning point
- Gaugamela, 1 October 331 BC
- What changed
- The Persian Empire conquered; Greek rule and culture carried from Egypt to India
- Legacy
- His generals’ kingdoms made the Hellenistic world
Alexander became king of Macedon at twenty in 336 BC and inherited the best army of his age: his father Philip II had turned a backward kingdom into a strong state with a powerful army. In 334 BC he crossed into Asia, won at the Granicus and beat Darius III himself at Issus in 333.3
At Gaugamela on 1 October 331 BC Arrian gives Alexander 7,000 cavalry and about 40,000 infantry, and Darius, by report, 40,000 cavalry and 1,000,000 foot; Justin gives 400,000 foot and 100,000 horse, so the true Persian strength is unknown. Alexander and his cavalry drove into a gap in the Persian line, Darius fled, and Babylon and Susa surrendered without a fight. He went on to the Punjab, beat King Porus at the Hydaspes in 326 BC and turned back only when his army refused to go further. He died in Babylon in June 323 BC, aged 32; as HISTORY notes, he never lost a battle. His generals split the empire, and their kingdoms fought on with the army Philip had built. Myth vs fact: he never wept for want of worlds to conquer; in Plutarch he weeps on hearing that the worlds are infinite in number, “and we have not yet become lords of a single one.”4
Why it ranks here: Alexander has the same total of 48 as Genghis Khan and the same full marks for recognition and influence on history, so the tie goes to the older man. Only certainty holds him back: the eyewitness histories are lost, and Arrian, the best surviving account, wrote in the second century AD, so certainty scores 3.5
3 Genghis Khan, about 1162 to 1227
- Lived
- 1162 (or 1167) to 1227
- Led
- Great Khan of the Mongols, 1206 to 1227
- Turning point
- Proclaimed Genghis Khan by the tribal assembly, 1206
- What changed
- The steppe tribes forged into one decimal army; northern China and Central Asia conquered
- Legacy
- Founded the largest contiguous empire in history, 24 million km² by 1279
Temujin was born in 1162, or perhaps 1167. In 1206 a khuriltai of tribal leaders proclaimed him Genghis Khan, probably “universal ruler.” The men of beaten tribes were taken into his army and organized, in the steppe fashion, in units of ten, a hundred, a thousand and ten thousand.6
His mounted archers moved fast, with scouts riding up to 110 km ahead and to either side of their columns. In 1211 he invaded the Jin state of northern China with two armies of 50,000 men each, and Beijing fell in 1215. From 1218 a Mongol army of 100,000, by WHE’s count, destroyed the Khwarazm Empire of Central Asia and took Bukhara and Samarkand. Cities that resisted were razed and their people massacred. Myth vs fact: the Persian chroniclers’ totals, such as 1,747,000 dead at Nishapur alone, are not counts; as the historian David Morgan puts it, “it may be doubted that anyone was counting.” Genghis died on 18 August 1227, and his heirs carried on until, by 1279, the empire covered about 24 million km², the largest contiguous empire there has ever been.7
Why it ranks here: Genghis Khan has the same 48 as Alexander and the same full marks for recognition and influence on history; ties go to the older leader, so he stands behind him. Certainty holds both back: his life is known from the Secret History of the Mongols, written down between 1228 and 1240, and from Persian and Chinese chroniclers writing later, so it scores 3.8
4 Julius Caesar, 100 to 44 BC
- Lived
- 100 to 44 BC
- Led
- Roman armies in Gaul, 58 to 51 BC, and in the civil war from 49 BC
- Turning point
- Alesia, 52 BC
- What changed
- Gaul conquered for Rome; the Republic ended in one-man rule
- Legacy
- His own Commentaries on his wars; Napoleon wrote a book on them in exile
Gaius Julius Caesar, born in July 100 BC, was 42 when, after years in Roman politics, he led his legions into Gaul in 58 BC in search of wealth and prestige.9
In under ten years he took what is now France and Belgium. Plutarch claims he stormed more than 800 towns, subdued 300 peoples and fought three million men, killing a million and taking as many prisoners; round numbers, not counts. At Alesia in 52 BC he shut Vercingetorix in with an army of about 60,000 by Britannica's estimate, and held his siege works against the garrison and a relief army that Caesar himself put at 250,000 infantry and 8,000 cavalry. Vercingetorix surrendered. Then he turned on Rome. He crossed the Rubicon in 49 BC, beat Pompey at Pharsalus in 48 and the Optimates at Thapsus in 46, and was dictator for life when he was stabbed on 15 March 44 BC. Myth vs fact: he was not born by caesarean section. In his day the operation was done only on dead or dying mothers, and his mother Aurelia is said to have lived to hear of his invasion of Britain.10
Why it ranks here: Caesar has full marks for recognition, influence on history and legacy: he took Gaul and ended the Republic, and Napoleon on St Helena still wrote a book on his wars. He perfected the Roman way of war rather than inventing a new one, so influence on war is 4, and much of the record is his own account, so certainty is 4.11
5 George Washington, 1732 to 1799
- Lived
- 1732 to 1799
- Led
- Commander-in-chief of the Continental Army, 1775 to 1783
- Turning point
- Yorktown, 19 October 1781
- What changed
- Won the independence of the United States; returned his command to Congress in 1783
- Legacy
- Civilian control of the army; first President of the United States, 1789 to 1797
A Virginia planter and veteran of the French and Indian War, George Washington was named commander-in-chief of the new Continental Army on 15 June 1775.12
He was not a great winner of battles. As the Miller Center puts it, he won important ones, at Boston, Trenton and Princeton, “he lost more.” He lost Long Island in 1776, with over 2,000 casualties, and Brandywine, Germantown and Philadelphia in 1777. He kept his army alive and struck when he could: on the night of 25 December 1776 he crossed the icy Delaware and took the Hessian garrison of Trenton by surprise. In 1781 he and the French general Rochambeau marched south, a French fleet sealed the Chesapeake, and they trapped Lord Cornwallis’s army of about 9,000 at Yorktown. Its surrender on 19 October, a third of all British forces in North America, ended the active fighting. Then, in 1783, he talked down the officers’ Newburgh plot against Congress and in December returned his commission to Congress at Annapolis. Myth vs fact: his false teeth were never wooden; they were made of human teeth, ivory and bone, set with lead, wire and brass screws.13
Why it ranks here: Washington has full marks for recognition, influence on history, legacy and certainty: he won a country and set the rule that a victorious general hands power back. He invented no new way of fighting, so influence on war is only 2; of the four leaders tied on 44, he and Hannibal lead on recognition, and his influence on history puts him first.
6 Hannibal, 247 to 183 BC
- Lived
- 247 to 183 BC
- Led
- Carthage’s army in Spain and Italy in the Second Punic War, 218 to 202 BC
- Turning point
- Cannae, August 216 BC
- What changed
- The double envelopment became the model of a battle of annihilation; but Carthage lost the war
- Legacy
- Cannae still taught; it inspired Schlieffen’s plans
Hannibal, son of the Carthaginian general Hamilcar Barca, was born in 247 BC. In 218 BC he marched on Rome from Spain over the Pyrenees and the Alps, with 50,000 infantry, 9,000 cavalry and a train of elephants; by the time he came down into Italy his army was reduced to 26,000.14
He beat the Romans at the Trebia in December 218 and at Lake Trasimene in June 217. At Cannae in August 216, by Polybius’s figures, he had some 40,000 foot and 10,000 horse against a Roman army of about 80,000 infantry and over 6,000 cavalry. His center bowed back, his African infantry closed on both Roman flanks and his cavalry shut the rear. Polybius says about 70,000 Romans died, World History Encyclopedia 44,000; the toll is disputed. Myth vs fact: elephants did not win Cannae. Polybius says all but one died in the cold after the Trebia, and the victory belonged above all to the cavalry. Rome refused to make peace, and Scipio carried the war to Africa. At Zama in 202 BC Hannibal lost; in 183 BC, hunted by Rome, he killed himself in Bithynia. Cannae lived on: Schlieffen built his “Cannae concept” of encirclement into German plans before 1914, and one analyst links Desert Storm’s 1991 “left hook” to the same tradition.15
Why it ranks here: Hannibal has full marks for recognition, influence on war and legacy, and in the four-way tie on 44 his recognition puts him ahead of Augustus and Mao. Washington leads him on influence on history: Hannibal lost his war (3), and his story comes almost entirely from the winners’ historians (certainty 3).
7 Augustus, 63 BC to 14 AD
- Lived
- 63 BC to 14 AD
- Led
- Caesar’s heir in the civil wars, 44 to 30 BC; first Roman emperor, 27 BC to 14 AD
- Turning point
- Actium, 2 September 31 BC
- What changed
- A standing professional army with fixed pay and terms, paid from a military treasury
- Legacy
- Legions on the frontiers that guarded the empire for centuries
Gaius Octavius, born on 23 September 63 BC, was 18 when his great-uncle Julius Caesar was murdered and left him as heir. Fourteen years of civil war followed. With Mark Antony he crushed Caesar’s assassins at Philippi in 42 BC; then the two fell out.16
Octavian left the fighting to others. His friend Marcus Agrippa, “an excellent admiral,” cut Antony’s supply lines in Greece in 31 BC, and when Antony and Cleopatra, whose navy numbered some 230 ships, tried to break out at Actium on 2 September, their fleet broke; Egypt was annexed the next year. Myth vs fact: Actium is remembered as Octavian’s victory, but the admiral who won it was Agrippa. His real legacy came after the fighting. About 500,000 citizens had sworn the military oath to him, and he settled more than 300,000 veterans on land or paid them off. He fixed the soldiers’ pay, their length of service and their discharge rewards, and in 6 AD set up a military treasury to pay them, putting in 170 million sesterces of his own. The legions went to the frontiers, eight on the Rhine alone by 23 AD; for most of the imperial period Rome kept about 28 legions plus auxiliaries, some 350,000 men.17
Why it ranks here: Augustus has full marks for influence on history and legacy: his standing army and frontiers kept the empire for centuries. He left the fighting to Agrippa and is remembered as an emperor more than a soldier, so recognition is 4; level with Mao on 44, on recognition and on influence on history, he goes first as the older.
8 Mao Zedong, 1893 to 1976
- Lived
- 1893 to 1976
- Led
- Communist forces in China from 1927; ruled the People’s Republic from 1949 to 1976
- Turning point
- The Long March, 1934 to 1935
- What changed
- Protracted people’s war: guerrillas grown into regular armies; Communist victory in China, 1949
- Legacy
- A model for insurgents from Vietnam onward; tens of millions dead in the Great Leap Forward famine
Mao Zedong, born in 1893, led Communist forces through China’s long revolution from 1927. Cornered by Chiang Kai-shek’s fifth encirclement campaign in 1934, around 100,000 troops and officials broke out on the Long March; by some estimates 8,000 or fewer finished it a year later in Shaanxi. Its length is disputed, 4,000 or 6,000 miles, but it made Mao the undisputed leader of the Chinese Communists.18
In lectures at Yan’an in May and June 1938 he set out his doctrine of protracted war: the weaker side survives the enemy’s offensive, wears him down in a stalemate, then counterattacks. In the civil war that followed, the Huai Hai campaign of November 1948 to January 1949 was, in the words of a US Army study, “the classic example” of the final stage Mao had foreseen, guerrillas grown into big mobile armies, and in 1949 he proclaimed the People’s Republic. Vo Nguyen Giap, who beat the French and the Americans in Vietnam, was one of his most famous followers. As ruler, Mao bears responsibility for the famine of the Great Leap Forward of 1958 to 1962: specialist demographers estimate 18 to 32.5 million excess deaths, and the historian Frank Dikötter at least 45 million.19
Why it ranks here: Mao has full marks for influence on war and on history: people’s war won China and was copied by insurgents for decades. He is known more as a political leader than as a general, so recognition is 4, and memory of him is divided (legacy 4); level with Augustus on 44, on recognition and on influence on history, he stands behind him as the younger.
9 Sun Tzu, about 500 BC
- Lived
- Traditionally about 500 BC; no record of his life from his own time survives20
- Led
- The armies of King Helü of Wu, according to Sima Qian, writing about 94 BC21
- Turning point
- Wu's war on Chu, which took the Chu capital Ying in 506 BC; Sima Qian implies he took part but never says so22
- What changed
- The Art of War, thirteen chapters on deception, intelligence and winning without a battle23
- Legacy
- Quoted by Mao in 1936; in Europe since Amiot's French translation of 177224
Almost everything said about Sun Tzu, "Master Sun," comes from one short biography by the Han historian Sima Qian, written around 94 BC, centuries later. In it Sun Wu of Qi brings thirteen chapters on war to King Helü of Wu, beheads two royal concubines who laugh while he drills the palace women, and is made a general.25
The Zuo zhuan, the fullest chronicle of the age, names Wu's commanders in the war that took the Chu capital Ying in 506 BC but never Sun Wu, and the scholar Ye Shuixin called the story of the women "utterly preposterous." Whether he existed at all is disputed, and some scholars doubt that he wrote the book. Myth vs fact: Sun Tzu is pictured as a lone author, but the book speaks in the voice of disciples ("Sun Tzu said"); some see it as a school's work. Bamboo slips from a Han tomb at Yinqueshan, found in 1972, prove the text existed by then; Chinese media say they end the doubts, but they date the book, not its author.26
Mao Zedong quoted "know the enemy and know yourself" in 1936, and Amiot's French translation brought the book to Europe in 1772, though the story that Napoleon studied it is a legend.27
Why it ranks here: The Art of War is still read by soldiers and strategists: full marks for recognition, influence on war and legacy. His existence rests on one account written centuries later (certainty 1), and his effect on events was indirect (influence on history 3); level with Mehmed II on 42 points, he ranks ahead as the better known.
10 Mehmed II, 1432 to 1481
- Lived
- 30 March 1432 to 3 May 148128
- Led
- The Ottoman army as sultan, briefly from 1444 and again from 1451 to 148129
- Turning point
- Constantinople, stormed on 29 May 1453 after a siege of six to seven weeks: 60,000 to 80,000 Ottomans (modern estimates) against 5,000 to 7,000 defenders30
- What changed
- Ended the Byzantine Empire; showed what heavy siege guns could do to old walls31
- Legacy
- Honored in Turkey as Fatih, the Conqueror; Istanbul made the Ottoman capital32
Mehmed was twelve when his father Murad II first handed him the throne in 1444, and he took it for good in 1451. Two years later he stood outside Constantinople, the last remnant of the Byzantine Empire, with an army that modern historians put at 60,000 to 80,000 men. The defenders numbered about 5,000 to 7,000, with some 700 Genoese arriving to help.33
He brought what earlier besiegers had lacked: cannon. The Hungarian founder Urban cast him a gun 9 meters long that threw stones of 500 kilograms, and when a chain barred the Golden Horn, Mehmed had about 70 ships hauled overland on ox carts to get around it. Myth vs fact: the giant gun did not break the city alone; it fired only about seven times a day, smaller guns fired far more often, and Constantinople fell to a mass assault at dawn on 29 May 1453. The city was sacked: perhaps 4,000 people were killed and over 50,000 enslaved, and Hagia Sophia became a mosque. He went on to take Serbia, the Morea and Trebizond by 1461. He also failed: at Belgrade in 1456 János Hunyadi routed his army and the sultan was badly wounded. Turkey still marks 29 May as the conquest of Istanbul.34
Why it ranks here: Taking Constantinople ended the Byzantine Empire and gave the Ottomans their capital, so influence on history scores 5, and his guns showed that old walls could no longer hold. He is a household name in Turkey but less known elsewhere (recognition 4), which places him behind Sun Tzu on the tie at 42 points.
11 Saladin, 1137 to 1193
- Lived
- 1137 (Tikrit) to 4 March 1193 (Damascus)35
- Led
- The armies of Egypt and Syria as sultan, after taking Damascus (1174) and Aleppo (1183)36
- Turning point
- Hattin, 4 July 1187: about 30,000 men against perhaps 20,000 Crusaders (Britannica); King Guy captured37
- What changed
- Retook Jerusalem in October 1187; lost Acre and Arsuf to the Third Crusade in 119138
- Legacy
- A hero in the Muslim world and a model of chivalry in European tales39
Saladin was born in 1137 in Tikrit, the son of a Kurdish soldier of fortune, and rose in the service of Nur ad-Din, following his uncle Shirkuh into Egypt in 1169 and then governing it. He spent the next fourteen years binding Egypt to Syria, taking Damascus in 1174 and Aleppo in 1183, so that the Crusader states faced one ruler on both sides. The Franks did beat him badly at Montgisard in 1177.40
In July 1187 he drew King Guy's army onto the waterless hills west of Tiberias. At the Horns of Hattin on 4 July the parched Franks broke; Guy, the Master of the Temple and Raynald of Châtillon were taken and the True Cross was lost. According to Ibn al-Athir, the captured Templars and Hospitallers were executed. Saladin entered Jerusalem on 2 October; instead of the massacre of 1099, its people were allowed to ransom themselves, and thousands of the poor were freed. The Third Crusade answered: Acre fell in July 1191, Richard I beat him at Arsuf that September, and the peace that followed left the Crusaders parts of the coast but Jerusalem to Saladin. Myth vs fact: his taking of Jerusalem is remembered for its mercy, and it was indeed bloodless, but it was not free: those who could not pay the ransom, about 15,000 people by World History Encyclopedia’s count, were enslaved.41
Why it ranks here: Saladin is admired on both sides of the Crusades, so he takes full marks for recognition and legacy, but he fought with the armies and methods of his day (influence on war 2), and the Third Crusade won back the coast (influence on history 4). He heads the three leaders on 41 points as the best known.
12 Qin Shi Huang, 259 to 210 BC
- Lived
- 259 to 210 BC42
- Led
- The state of Qin as king from about 246 BC, then China as First Emperor; his generals fought the campaigns43
- Turning point
- The conquest of the six rival states, from Han in 230 BC to Qi in 221 BC44
- What changed
- One empire in place of the Warring States; the title Shi Huangdi, First Emperor, in 221 BC45
- Legacy
- A unified China; the Terracotta Army, found by well diggers in 197446
Ying Zheng became king of Qin, the militarized western state, at the age of twelve or thirteen around 246 BC. Between 230 and 221 BC his armies destroyed the six other Warring States one by one: Han in 230, Zhao in 228, Wei in 225, Chu in 223, Yan in 222 and Qi in 221.47
Sima Qian tells how, against Chu, the young general Li Xin promised victory with 200,000 men and was routed, while the veteran Wang Jian insisted on 600,000; the king saw him off in person, and Wang Jian killed the Chu general Xiang Yan and, a year or so later, captured the king of Chu. In 221 BC Ying Zheng took the title Shi Huangdi, First Emperor, and in 213 BC he approved the burning of books proposed by his minister Li Si. He died in 210 BC and his dynasty fell within four years, but the unified state outlived it. In 1974 well diggers near his tomb found the Terracotta Army; the largest pit alone held about 6,000 warriors and horses.48
Myth vs fact: he is pictured as a conqueror in the field, but Sima Qian, a Han historian hostile to him, credits the conquests to his generals, above all the Wang and Meng families.49
Why it ranks here: He ended centuries of division, so influence on history and legacy score 5, but his generals fought the campaigns and nearly everything we know comes through Sima Qian, so influence on war and certainty score 3. On 41 points he trails the better-known Saladin, and his greater influence on history puts him ahead of Frederick the Great.
13 Frederick the Great, 1712 to 1786
- Lived
- 1712 to 178650
- Led
- The Prussian army in person, as king from 1740 to 178651
- Turning point
- Leuthen, 5 December 1757: about 33,000 Prussians beat some 65,000 Austrians52
- What changed
- The oblique order: strike one enemy flank with the mass of the army to beat a larger force53
- Legacy
- Prussia a great power, Silesia kept; a share of Poland in the first partition, 177254
Frederick II became king of Prussia on 31 May 1740, and that December he marched his army into the rich Austrian province of Silesia, starting the War of the Austrian Succession. He spent years defending his prize, above all in the Seven Years' War of 1756 to 1763 against Austria, France, Russia and their allies.55
The year 1757 showed both sides of him. He lost at Kolin; then at Rossbach on 5 November about 22,000 Prussians routed some 45,000 French and Imperial troops, for 549 casualties against perhaps 10,000. A month later at Leuthen, with about 33,000 men against some 65,000 Austrians, he feinted at their right and threw his main force at their left, the textbook case of his oblique order; the Austrians lost about 22,000 men. At Kunersdorf on 12 August 1759 Russians and Austrians cost him about 19,000 killed, wounded and captured, and he expected the state to collapse. The Peace of Hubertusburg in 1763 left him Silesia, and in 1772 Prussia took its share of Poland in the first partition.56
At Frederick's tomb Napoleon reportedly said that if this man were still alive, he would not be there. Twenty years after Frederick's death the French had destroyed the Prussian army at Jena and Auerstedt on 14 October 1806.57
Why it ranks here: His oblique order was studied across Europe and his campaigns are among the best documented here (certainty 5), but the Prussian power his wars built was broken at Jena twenty years after his death, so influence on history scores 4. On 41 points he ranks behind Saladin, who is better known, and Qin Shi Huang, whose wars changed more.
14 Charlemagne, 748 to 814
- Lived
- Probably 2 April 748 (older works say 742) to 28 January 81458
- Led
- The Frankish armies as king from 768, and as emperor from 80059
- Turning point
- The Saxon wars, 772 to 804, his longest and hardest campaign60
- What changed
- Most of western Europe united in one realm61
- Legacy
- Hailed as the founder of both France and Germany and the father of Europe62
Charles, king of the Franks, went to war almost every year of his reign, from 768 to 814. In 774 he ended the Lombard kingdom in northern Italy after wearing down King Desiderius in a long siege; in 778 he crossed the Pyrenees into Spain; in the 790s he broke the Avars on the Danube in a war that Einhard, his courtier and biographer, says took seven years.63
The longest and cruelest war was against the pagan Saxons, fought from 772 to 804; Einhard counts thirty-three years of it. In 782, after a rising, the Royal Frankish Annals record that 4,500 Saxon prisoners were beheaded in a single day at Verden on the Aller; the historian Janet Nelson writes that Verden "stubbornly resists euphemism." In the end he moved 10,000 Saxons from the Elbe with their families and scattered them across his realm. On Christmas Day 800 he was crowned emperor in Rome, and by his death in 814 he ruled, Nelson notes, an area almost exactly matching the original European Community.64
Myth vs fact: the Song of Roland, written down around 1100, turned the ambush of his rearguard at Roncevaux in 778 into a battle against Muslims; Einhard says the attackers were Gascons, that is Basques.65
Why it ranks here: His wars built the Carolingian empire, the root of both France and Germany, and he is still claimed as the father of Europe, so influence on history and legacy score 5. He is remembered more as a ruler than as a soldier and left no new way of fighting (influence on war 2), which holds him to 40 points.
15 Wellington, 1769 to 1852
- Lived
- 1 May 1769 (Dublin) to 14 September 185266
- Led
- British and allied armies in India, Portugal, Spain and Belgium, 1796 to 181567
- Turning point
- Waterloo, 18 June 1815: 68,000 men under Wellington, with Blücher's Prussians, against Napoleon's 72,00068
- What changed
- Ended the Napoleonic Wars; the reverse-slope defense became his trademark69
- Legacy
- The Iron Duke; prime minister 1828 to 1830 and in 183470
Arthur Wellesley, born in Dublin in 1769, learned his trade in India, where he won his first major victory at Assaye on 23 September 1803, a battle he later rated his best, and learned the value of secure supply lines.71
In the Peninsular War against Napoleon's armies he showed the method that made his name. At Vimeiro in 1808 he sheltered his infantry behind a ridge to stop the French columns, a reverse-slope defense that became his trademark. Falling back behind the fortified Lines of Torres Vedras when he had to, he wore the French down and beat them at Talavera, Salamanca and Vitoria; his failure to take Burgos in 1812 sent him back into Portugal.72
On 18 June 1815 at Waterloo his 68,000 men and 156 guns held the ridge of Mont-Saint-Jean against Napoleon's 72,000 while the Prussians fought their way onto the French right at Plancenoit. Napoleon lost nearly 40,000 men, the Allies 22,000. Myth vs fact: Waterloo is often told as Wellington's victory alone, but it was won by a coalition led by Wellington and Marshal Blücher, and the arrival of the Prussians completed Napoleon's defeat. He later served twice as prime minister.73
Why it ranks here: Waterloo closed the Napoleonic era, which gives influence on history a 4, and his campaigns are among the best documented on the list (certainty 5). His reverse-slope defense and care for supply were admired but did not add up to a new system of war (influence on war 3), which leaves him fifteenth on 39 points.
How we chose and ranked these military leaders
We counted a leader as influential when his wars or his military ideas changed history: empires founded, states saved or destroyed, ways of war invented, copied or taught. Rulers count when they directed the wars, even if their generals fought the battles, so Augustus, Qin Shi Huang and Charlemagne compete with field commanders. A pure theorist who never led a war, such as Clausewitz, does not. Skill on the battlefield alone is ranked in the greatest military commanders, and commanders period by period in the greatest commanders by era.
We considered 25 candidates and scored each one from 1 to 5 on five criteria. Recognition counts three times, because this page answers the question of which military leaders were the most influential; influence on how wars were fought, influence on history and legacy count twice, and certainty once:
- Recognition (×3). 5 if the leader is known far beyond military history and appears on most published lists of influential military leaders, 1 if only specialists know the name.
- Influence on how wars were fought (×2). 5 if the leader's reforms, doctrine or example were copied by other armies and are still taught, 1 if he fought with the methods of his day and left none of his own.
- Influence on history (×2). 5 if the wars founded, saved or destroyed states and empires or redrew borders for centuries, 1 if they changed little that lasted.
- Legacy (×2). 5 if the leader is studied, imitated and alive in national memory and culture today, 1 if forgotten.
- Certainty (×1). 5 if the leader's campaigns are documented by independent and contemporary sources, 1 if they rest on one late account or are disputed.
The list is ranked by total score, not by date. Ties go to the better-known leader, then to the one with the greater influence on history, then to the older one. The scores are our editorial judgment, made on the evidence in the sources below, and the table shows every one of them. It explains, for example, why Hannibal, perhaps the most admired general of antiquity, is only sixth, behind George Washington: Cannae is still studied, but Hannibal lost his war, while Washington won a country.
| Rank | Name | Recognition ×3 | Influence on how wars were fought ×2 | Influence on history ×2 | Legacy ×2 | Certainty ×1 | Total |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Napoleon Bonaparte | 5 | 5 | 5 | 5 | 5 | 50 |
| 2 | Alexander the Great | 5 | 5 | 5 | 5 | 3 | 48 |
| 3 | Genghis Khan | 5 | 5 | 5 | 5 | 3 | 48 |
| 4 | Julius Caesar | 5 | 4 | 5 | 5 | 4 | 47 |
| 5 | George Washington | 5 | 2 | 5 | 5 | 5 | 44 |
| 6 | Hannibal | 5 | 5 | 3 | 5 | 3 | 44 |
| 7 | Augustus | 4 | 4 | 5 | 5 | 4 | 44 |
| 8 | Mao Zedong | 4 | 5 | 5 | 4 | 4 | 44 |
| 9 | Sun Tzu | 5 | 5 | 3 | 5 | 1 | 42 |
| 10 | Mehmed II | 4 | 4 | 5 | 4 | 4 | 42 |
| 11 | Saladin | 5 | 2 | 4 | 5 | 4 | 41 |
| 12 | Qin Shi Huang | 4 | 3 | 5 | 5 | 3 | 41 |
| 13 | Frederick the Great | 4 | 4 | 4 | 4 | 5 | 41 |
| 14 | Charlemagne | 4 | 2 | 5 | 5 | 4 | 40 |
| 15 | Wellington | 4 | 3 | 4 | 4 | 5 | 39 |
Close calls
Six leaders came close and did not make the fifteen:
Gustavus Adolphus, 1594 to 1632. The Swedish king made up for small numbers with light, fast-firing guns and closely coordinated infantry, cavalry and artillery; he won at Breitenfeld in 1631 and was killed at Lützen in 1632, where his army won without him. One encyclopedia calls him the first man in modern times to reduce war to a system, but outside Sweden he is known mostly to specialists (recognition 3).74 › Battle of Breitenfeld, 1631
Cyrus the Great, about 600 to 530 BC. He overthrew the Medes around 550 BC, took Lydia and in 539 BC Babylon, uniting much of the Middle East under Persian rule. How he fought is barely recorded and even his death is disputed: Herodotus has him killed by Queen Tomyris, Xenophon gives him a peaceful end in his palace. Certainty 2 keeps him out.75
Suleiman the Magnificent, 1494 to 1566. He took Belgrade in 1521 and Rhodes in 1522, destroyed the Hungarian army at Mohács in 1526, where King Louis II died, and besieged Vienna in vain in 1529. He led his army in person to the end, dying on campaign in 1566, but he fought with the army he had inherited (influence on war 2).76
Moltke the Elder, 1800 to 1891. As chief of the Prussian general staff he used railways and the telegraph to mass armies, beat Austria at Königgrätz on 3 July 1866 and in September 1870 trapped Napoleon III and his army at Sedan, where 80,000 French were taken prisoner; these wars unified Germany. His general staff became the envy of Europe, but few outside military history know his name (recognition 2).77
Khalid ibn al-Walid, about 585 to 642. The leading general of the early Muslim conquests took effective command at the Yarmouk in August 636, where 20,000 to 25,000 Arabs beat a larger Byzantine army and Syria passed for good to the Caliphate. The Arabic accounts were mostly written down from the late eighth century, so certainty scores 2, and he is little known in the West (recognition 3).78
Scipio Africanus, 236 to 183 BC. At Zama in 202 BC, with about 40,000 men a side, he opened lanes in his line so that Hannibal's elephants ran harmlessly through, then beat him and ended the Second Punic War. The victory set Rome on the road to empire, but the man he beat outshines him in memory, and recognition scores only 3.79
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