Biographical Quiz Period 3

Catherine II (Catherine the Great)

Enlightened absolutist ruler of Russia who continued westernization started by Peter the Great, expanded Russian territory into the Black Sea region and Poland, encouraged limited Enlightenment reforms, but suppressed serf uprisings such as Pugachev's Rebellion.

Cecil Rhodes

British businessman and imperialist who founded De Beers diamond company, promoted British control in southern Africa, and served as Prime Minister of Cape Colony.

Charles Darwin

British naturalist whose theory of evolution by natural selection reshaped biology.

Eli Whitney

American inventor of the cotton gin, which accelerated cotton production and increased the demand for enslaved labor in the American South.

Elizabeth Cady Stanton

Leading American feminist, abolitionist, and organizer of the 1848 Seneca Falls Convention.

Empress Dowager Cixi

Conservative Qing ruler who held power for decades and opposed sweeping industrial reforms.

Father Miguel Hidalgo

Mexican priest who issued the Grito de Dolores in 1810, launching the first major peasant revolt against Spanish rule.

Mahatma Gandhi

Leader of India's independence movement who used nonviolent resistance, civil disobedience, and mass mobilization against British rule.

Henry Ford

American industrialist who pioneered the assembly line and mass production, making automobiles inexpensive.

Hiram Maxim

Inventor of the Maxim gun, the first portable and fully automatic machine gun.

Hong Xiuquan

Religious leader who claimed to be the brother of Jesus and led the Taiping Rebellion (1850

James K. Polk

U.S. president strongly associated with Manifest Destiny who oversaw the Mexican

James Watt

Engineer who significantly improved the steam engine, making it efficient enough for widespread industrial use.

Thomas Jefferson

American Enlightenment thinker, author of the Declaration of Independence, and third U.S. president.

John Stuart Mill

British philosopher who advanced liberalism, utilitarianism, and ideas of individual freedom.

José Rizal

Filipino nationalist, writer, and reform advocate whose novels exposed abuses under Spanish rule.

Karl Marx

Philosopher and economist who coauthored The Communist Manifesto and argued that capitalism exploits workers.

King Leopold II

Belgian king who personally controlled the Congo Free State and exploited its people for rubber and ivory.

Lin Zexu

Qing official tasked with stopping the opium trade who confiscated and destroyed British opium.

Lola Rodríguez de Tió

Puerto Rican poet and independence activist who wrote revolutionary literature and nationalist anthems.

Louis XVI

Last king of France before the revolution whose inability to resolve financial crises helped ignite the French Revolution.

Toussaint Louverture

Former enslaved man who led the Haitian Revolution, defeated European armies, and abolished slavery.

Mangal Pandey

Indian soldier whose attack on British officers helped ignite the Sepoy Rebellion of 1857.

Matthew Perry

U.S. commodore who forced Japan to open its ports with the Treaty of Kanagawa in 1854.

Menelik II

Emperor of Ethiopia who modernized the army and defeated Italy at the Battle of Adwa in 1896.

Michael Sadler

British reformer who led the Sadler Commission, documenting child labor abuses in textile factories.

Muhammad Ahmad (The Mahdi)

Sudanese religious leader who declared himself the Mahdi and led a massive rebellion against Ottoman

Muhammad Ali (of Egypt)

Ottoman governor who modernized Egypt through military, agricultural, and educational reforms.

Napoleon Bonaparte

French general who rose to power during the Revolution and became emperor, expanding French territory across Europe.

Otto von Bismarck

Prussian chancellor who unified Germany through realpolitik, nationalism, and wars against Denmark, Austria, and France.

Queen Victoria

British monarch during the height of the British Empire and symbol of Victorian morality.

Maximilien Robespierre

Radical Jacobin leader of the French Revolution who led the Committee of Public Safety and the Reign of Terror.

Samuel Slater

British textile worker who brought industrial technology to the United States by memory.

Simón Bolívar

Revolutionary leader who freed much of northern South America from Spanish rule.

Sultan Mahmud II

Ottoman ruler who carried out major reforms including eliminating the Janissaries.

Theodore (Teddy) Roosevelt

U.S. president who expanded American global influence and built the Panama Canal.

Túpac Amaru II

Leader of a large Indigenous uprising in Peru against Spanish colonial rule in 1780

Yaa Asantewaa

Queen Mother of the Asante Empire who led the War of the Golden Stool (1900) against British attempts to control the region.