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Petrarch

Father of Humanism, revived classical texts.

Machiavelli

Author of 'The Prince', promoted secular politics.

Erasmus

Author of 'Praise in Folly', advocate for church reform in Northern Christian Humanism.

Henry VIII

Separated England from Catholicism.

Henry IV

Issued the Edict of Nantes in 1588, extending tolerance for French Huguenots.

Ferdinand and Isabella

Centralizing new monarchs of Spain, completed reconquista and supported Columbus.

Luther

Published 95 Theses, sparking the Protestant Reformation.

John Calvin

Advocate for Calvinism.

James I

Divine absolutist king of England.

Charles I

Extreme divine absolutist of England, executed for treason during the English Civil War.

Cromwell

Ruled the English Commonwealth as Lord Protector, acted as a military dictator.

Charles II

Restored Stuart Dynasty in England after the Civil War.

William of Orange and Mary

Glorious Revolution monarchs of England, accepted the Bill of Rights peacefully in 1689.

Peter the Great

Westernized and militarized Russia, founded St. Petersburg.

Copernicus

Proposed the heliocentric theory in 'Revolution of Heavenly Spheres'.

Galileo

Built upon Copernicus's heliocentric ideas, questioned for heresy.

Harvey

Discovered circulation of blood.

Bacon

Promoted scientific observation through inquiry and experimentation (empiricism).

Descartes

Emphasized scientific reasoning through rationality and deduction; famous for 'I think, therefore I am'.

Kepler

Formulated the law that planets orbit on an ellipse.

Newton

Established the principles of physics known as Newtonian Laws and wrote 'Principia' in 1687.

Hobbes

Wrote 'Leviathan', advocating for a strong absolute monarchy to prevent human corruption.

Montesquieu

Advocate for separation of powers, proposing three branches of government and checks and balances.

Locke

Promoted the ideas of life, liberty, property, and natural rights supported by government.

Voltaire

Advocate for religious tolerance and freedom of speech, best known for 'Candide'.

Rousseau

Supported the concept of general will and direct democracy; authored 'The Social Contract'.

Wollstonecraft

Feminist writer known for 'A Vindication of the Rights of Woman'.

Adam Smith

Advocated for free market economics in 'Wealth of Nations', supporting laissez-faire capitalism.

Diderot

Compiled 'Diderot's Encyclopedia' in 1775, a secular collection of scientific knowledge.

Joseph II

Enlightened despots of Austria, known for freeing the serfs.

Frederick II/The Great

Prussian monarch known for military successes and legal reforms.

Robespierre

Radical Jacobin dictator during the French Revolution, known for the Reign of Terror.

Napoleon

Emperor of France in 1804, known for the Napoleonic Wars and Code, and for preserving Enlightenment ideals.

John Stuart Mill

Liberal feminist, advocate for economic equality.

Emmeline Pankhurst

Leader of the British suffragette movement, founded the WSPU.

Karl Marx

Wrote 'The Communist Manifesto' and developed Marxism.

Friedrich Engels

Collaborated with Marx on Marxist theory and wrote about the conditions of the working class.

Emile Zola

Founded literary naturalism and supported Alfred Dreyfus during the Dreyfus Affair.

Otto von Bismarck

Prime Minister of Prussia, known for his role in German unification through realpolitik.

Garibaldi

Italian nationalist leader of the Red Shirts who played a key role in the unification of Italy.

Victor Emmanuel II

King of Sardinia who became the first king of unified Italy.

Cavour

Prime Minister of Sardinia-Piedmont who engineered the unification of Italy.

Theodor Herzl

Founder of Zionism, advocating for an independent Jewish state.

Alexander II

Russian Tsar who emancipated the serfs in 1861 and was assassinated.

Nicholas II

Last Tsar of Russia, abdicated after the 1905 revolution.

Alexander Kerensky

Leader of the Provisional Government in Russia after the February Revolution.

Vladimir Lenin

Leader of the Bolsheviks who pulled Russia out of WWI and initiated the Soviet state.

Leon Trotsky

Militarist strategist for the Bolsheviks during the Russian Civil War.

Charles Darwin

Proposed the theory of evolution in 'Origin of Species', influencing thoughts on natural selection.

Freud

Introduced the concept of psychoanalysis, exploring the subconscious.

Archduke Franz Ferdinand

His assassination triggered World War I.

Margaret Thatcher

British Prime Minister known as the 'Iron Lady', associated with neoliberalism.

Woodrow Wilson

US President during World War I, known for his 14 points and the League of Nations.

Adolf Hitler

Fascist dictator of Nazi Germany.

Benito Mussolini

Fascist dictator of Italy.

Francisco Franco

Fascist dictator of Spain.

Joseph Stalin

Totalitarian leader of the Soviet Union, known for his purges.

Winston Churchill

British Prime Minister during World War II.

Nikita Khrushchev

Soviet leader known for de-Stalinization and during the Cuban Missile Crisis.

Simone de Beauvoir

Feminist author of 'The Second Sex'.

Lech Walesa

Leader of the Solidarity movement in Poland and later president of Poland.

Mikhail Gorbachev

Last leader of the Soviet Union; known for his reforms that ended the Cold War.

Louis Napoleon/Napoleon III

Popular leader who established the Second French Empire after ousting the conservative government.

Bismarck

Prussian statesman who manipulated the unification of Germany through wars and alliances.

Frederick William IV

Refused the crown offered at the Frankfurt Congress which aimed to unify Germany.

Metternich

Conservative Austrian minister known for suppressing nationalist and liberal movements in Europe.

William of Orange

Central figure in the Glorious Revolution in England, became monarch along with Mary.

Cromwell

Led the English Commonwealth; served as Lord Protector.

Charles II

Restored monarchy in England after Civil War.

Charles I

Executed for treason after a struggle with Parliament.