AP Euro- People

Johannes Gutenberg

15th century German printer who invented the printing press, along with the technique of movable type

Leonardo da Vinci

Classic Renaissance Man. Italian painter, engineer, musician, inventor and scientist

Machiavelli

Florentine statesman who authored The Prince

Henry VIII

King of England who creates the Church of England to avoid Papal authority

Elizabeth I

Long serving Queen of England. Returned the nation to the Anglican Church. Helped defeat the Spanish Armada

Peter the Great

Czar of Russia, absolutist, Westernizer. Known for westernization of Russia, founding of St. Petersburg, and creating the Table of Ranks.

Isaac Newton

English mathematician and physicist, remembered for developing calculus, his law of gravitation, and his 3 laws of motion.

Galileo

Italian astronomer who improved upon telescope technology and made observations that supported Copernican heliocentricity. Recanted findings to avoid immolation.

John Locke

English empiricist philosopher who advocated for the social contract, where a government’s power is derived from the consent of the people

Camillo Cavour

Architect of Italian unification in 1858. Prime minister of Sardinia who formed an alliance with France to help kick Austria out of Italy. First Prime Minister of Italy.

Charles Darwin

English naturalist who set forth his theory of evolution and natural selection in his 1859 book, On the Origin of Species.

Karl Marx

Wrote The Communist Manifesto with Friedrich Engels in 1848. Advocated for a revolution against the bourgeoisie lead by proletariat. Touchstone of communist revolutions worldwide.

Vladimir Lenin

Bolshevik leader who executed the Bolshevik Revolution in 1917, took Russia out of WWI, and imposed communism in Russia.

Winston Churchill

British statesmen and Prime Minister involved heavily in the organization of Allied efforts during WWII. Warned of “Iron Curtain” at the start of the Cold War.

Margaret Thatcher

English political leader who became Prime Minister in 1979, ushering in a series of conservative reforms while attacking socialism and the welfare state.

Adolf Hitler

Leader of the German National Socialist party. Became dictator of Germany from 1933 to 1945. Responsible for the holocaust.

Martin Luther

German Theologian and religious reformer who was the catalyst of 16th cent Protestant Reformation. Responsible for the 95 Theses

Benito Mussolini

Italian prime minister from 1922 to 1943 who founded Fascism.

Napoleon

French general and statesman who rose to prominence during the French Revolution and led a series of military campaigns across Europe. First Consul from 1799 to 1815 and French Emperor from 1804 to 1814.

Otto von Bismarck

German statesman and diplomat who oversaw the unification of Germany and served as its first Chancellor from 1871 to 1890. His policy of Realpolitik and firm governance in him being popularly known as the “Iron Chancellor”.

Mahatma Gandhi

Indian anti-colonial nationalist who employed nonviolent resistance or civil disobedience to lead the successful campaign for India’s independence from British rule.

Josef Stalin

Soviet politician and revolutionary who led the Soviet Union from 1924 until his death in 1953. Initially governed as part of a collective leadership, but consolidated power to become a dictator by the 1930s. Essential to WWII and the Cold War.