Posts: 65
Mon 03 Nov, 2008 10:05 pm
Interesting topic.
To me, the most impressive would be:
- Spanish and Portugese conquistadors. Far from being moral giants by any stretch of imagination, ruthless and greedy, but imagine - there's a couple hundred of you against a whole continent - and you set forth to conquer it all ! This took some major guts, arrogance, stamina, and military talent to match.
- Alexander the Great and his, relatively small, army. Same situation. Although in his case the odds were just a little bit better, so the Conquistadors take the first spot.
- Alexander Suvorov, the great Russian General who fought over 500 battles (IIRC) and hasn't lost one. He also beat Napoleon (although not decisively). I don't know of any other commander with such record.
- Chenghis Khan, who created one of the greatest armies and empires of all time basically from scratch.
Posts: 570 Location: Gothenburg/Sweden
Tue 04 Nov, 2008 2:41 am
Gene Green wrote: |
- Alexander Suvorov, the great Russian General who fought over 500 battles (IIRC) and hasn't lost one. He also beat Napoleon (although not decisively). I don't know of any other commander with such record.
|
Suvorov never even fought Napoleon, let alone defeat him. Suvurov only fought the French in Italy&Switzerland in 1799, a time when Napoleon was in Egypt. The "500" battles calim is just as inaccurate I'm afraid. Suvorov was one of the Great Captains of history but in some instances his achivements have been exaggerated.
Posts: 430
Tue 04 Nov, 2008 10:30 am
Philip II of Macedon, there would never have been Alexander except for the reforms of Philip. It was HIS army Alexander conquered with.
Posts: 2,698 Location: Indonesia
Fri 07 Nov, 2008 1:25 am
Liu Bang. A bandit who founded a dynasty that gave its name to the whole mainstream Chinese ethnicity is certainly not somebody to be sneezed at. His general Han Xin (no connection to the name of the Han dynasty) is also a remarkable figure in his own right.
There are two rather enigmatic figures from later periods of Chinese history that have struck my interest--one is An Lushan, the Muslim(?) general whose rebellion brought about the decline of the Tang dynasty, and the other is Wu Sangui, who is popularly known to be the man who betrayed both his old masters (the Ming dynasty) and his new ones (the Manchu/QIng dynasty). As always, the truth about both men are a lot more complicated than popular history makes them, which is why their lives are so interesting.
Posts: 416 Location: Auckland, New Zealand
Fri 07 Nov, 2008 1:49 am
There's lots and lots of Muslims in China... They have recognition as their own Min Zu minority, which is one of the most numerous of the 55 - The Hui Zu. Millions of them... One of my best girl-buddies is married to a Hui Zu guy.
The greatest weapon the Conquistador ever had was the diseases he brought with him from the Old World. Wiped out somewhere near to 90% of the native population, if I remember correctly...
Another interesting historical figure - Kim Il Sung, Korean hero during the Japanese Occupation (1910-1945), and first North Korean leader. Would've run the whole place by the people's choice if not for, *ahem*, US "opposition" to Marxist-inspired rule. Apparently the Number One, Most Wanted man by the Imperial Japanese Government during their expansion stage... His son is also sort of interesting, in a more :wtf: way... But nowhere near as much as he is himself, by far...
Posts: 678 Location: Australia.
Sun 16 Nov, 2008 5:13 am
I'd have to say William Wallace, Hannibal, Vercingetorix, Spartacus, Boudica, Jack Malcolm Thorpe Fleming Churchill and Ned Kelly lol.
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