significances (people) apwh

Genghis Khan

-Founder of the Mongol Empire.

-United Mongol tribes

-led conquests across Asia and Europe. (mongol expansion)

-Promoted trade and communication across Eurasia (Pax Mongolica), helping spread goods, ideas, and diseases like the Black Death.

Nasir al-Din al-Tusi

-Influential scholar in astronomy, mathematics, and philosophy during the Islamic Golden Age.

-Helped preserve and advance classical knowledge, including Greek and Indian science.

-His work influenced developments in the Scientific Revolution.

-made accurate astronomical charts

-made principles of trigonometry

Ibn Battuta

-Muslim traveler and chronicler who journeyed across Africa, the Middle East, India, and Southeast Asia.

-His Rihla (travel journal) provides valuable insight into the Dar al-Islam and cultural interactions across the 14th century.

-Highlights the connectivity of Afro-Eurasia.

Muhammad Ali

-Ottoman governor of Egypt who implemented modernizing reforms in the 19th century.

-Known as the 'father of modern Egypt'; industrialized, reformed the military, and centralized power.

-Represents state-sponsored modernization in response to European imperialism.

Mansa Musa

-Emperor of Mali during its golden age in the 14th century.

-Famous for his pilgrimage to Mecca, where he displayed Mali's immense wealth.

-Promoted Islam, trade, and education (e.g., built mosques and universities in Timbuktu).

Tupac Amaru II

-Led an indigenous rebellion against Spanish colonial rule in the late 1700s.

-Although the revolt failed, it became a symbol of resistance against imperialism in Latin America.

-Connects to themes of colonialism and resistance.

Zheng He

-Admiral who led massive maritime expeditions in the early 15th century.

-Promoted Chinese prestige and diplomacy across the Indian Ocean.

-His voyages show Chinese technological superiority, but also how Ming China turned inward after his expeditions.

Akbar the Great

-Mughal emperor known for religious tolerance(to Hindus), centralization, and cultural achievements.

-Encouraged syncretism (e.g., Din-i Ilahi religion), patronized arts and architecture.

-Helped build a strong, multi-ethnic empire in India.

John Locke

-Enlightenment thinker who promoted natural rights (life, liberty, property) and government by consent.

-His ideas influenced the American and French Revolutions.

-Known as the 'Father of Liberalism'.

Czar Peter the Great

-Russian tsar who westernized and modernized Russia in the late 1600s-early 1700s.

-Built a strong military, reformed government

-founded St. Petersburg as a 'window to the West.

-Strengthened centralized autocracy in Russia.

Tokugawa Ieyasu

-Founder of the Tokugawa Shogunate, which ruled Japan for over 250 years (1603-1868).

-Established political stability, rigid social hierarchy, and isolationist policies (sakoku).

-His era marked Japan's Edo period of peace, isolation, centralization, and cultural growth.

Simón Bolívar

-Liberator of much of northern South America from Spanish colonial rule (early 1800s).

-Inspired by the Enlightenment and Atlantic Revolutions.

-Tried to unify the region as Gran Colombia, it failed cause political divisions.

Adam Smith

-Founder of modern capitalism and classical economics

-wrote The Wealth of Nations (1776)

-argued for free markets, laissez-faire, and the invisible hand guiding supply and demand.

Karl Marx

-Co-founder of communism

-wrote The Communist Manifesto with Engels

-criticized capitalism as exploitative

-called for a proletarian revolution.

Otto von Bismarck

-Architect of German unification through 'blood and iron' (war and diplomacy)

-practiced realpolitik to strengthen the state

-unified Germany under Prussian leadership in 1871.

Emperor Meiji

-Leader during the Meiji Restoration (1868)

-modernized and industrialized Japan rapidly

-helped Japan become a major imperial and military power by the early 20th century.

Josef Stalin

-Communist dictator who ruled the USSR from the 1920s-1953

-launched Five-Year Plans

-collectivization to industrialize the USSR.

Benito Mussolini

-Founder of fascism

-ruled Italy as a dictator from 1922-1943

-promoted ultranationalism, militarism, and authoritarianism.

Mustafa Kemal Atatürk

-Founder of modern Turkey after the collapse of the Ottoman Empire

-introduced sweeping secular and Western reforms.

Jawaharlal Nehru

-First prime minister of independent India (1947-1964);

-promoted nonalignment during the Cold War and industrial modernization.

Mao Zedong

-Led the Communist Revolution in 1949

-founded the People's Republic of China

-launched radical campaigns like the Great Leap Forward and the Cultural Revolution.

Kwame Nkrumah

-First president of independent Ghana (1957)

-leader in African decolonization

-advocated Pan-Africanism and African unity.

Mikhail Gorbachev

-Last leader of the USSR

-known for glasnost (openness) and perestroika (restructuring); -key figure in ending the Cold War peacefully./ arms race

Deng Xiaoping

-Successor to Mao who shifted China toward market-based reforms in the 1980s

-introduced the 'socialism with Chinese characteristics' model.

Margaret Thatcher

-First female British Prime Minister (1979-1990)

-leader of neoliberal economic policy

-promoted free-market reforms(w/reagen), and privatization, and reduced state welfare.