Most influential person in World History

Who is the most influential person in world history

  • Columbus

    Votes: 15 9.8%
  • Cortez

    Votes: 4 2.6%
  • Goerge Washington

    Votes: 6 3.9%
  • Einstein

    Votes: 9 5.9%
  • Newton

    Votes: 6 3.9%
  • Gutenberg

    Votes: 7 4.6%
  • Stalin

    Votes: 2 1.3%
  • Mao

    Votes: 1 0.7%
  • Charlemagne

    Votes: 10 6.5%
  • Hitler

    Votes: 10 6.5%
  • Marx

    Votes: 7 4.6%
  • a religious figure

    Votes: 76 49.7%

  • Total voters
    153
  • Poll closed .
All of these people are massievly influential in their own right. There is no one most influential person.
 
Jesus and Mohammed. They founded the two largest religons in the world. Both influenced history greatly so they definely deserve to be the most important people in history.
 
Founding a religion is one thing, it takes more than 1 person to spread it wide. :)

Some more choices:

Agrippina
Dekanawidah
Edward de Vere
Leondardo Da Vinci
Rosa Parks
 
Obviously, in every aspect, not just religion, the religious founders BY FAR outclass the others in historical importance. For political reasons, religious reasons and just shaping the history of the world for many centuries the top people should be Jesus, Abraham and Muhammed. After Jesus Christianity spread rapidly and grew beyond belief in Europe and the Middle East, and thus spread by those nations to Africa, India, the Pacific and America, basically all over the world.

Obviously, political and religious leaders have had a much greater impact on the world than scientists. Science has had a humongeous impact on the world, but no one scientist can compare to the great political and religious leaders.
 
Ribannah said:
Founding a religion is one thing, it takes more than 1 person to spread it wide. :)

Some more choices:

Agrippina
Dekanawidah
Edward de Vere
Leondardo Da Vinci
Rosa Parks

Rosa Parks? I don't think a public transport user in America comes close to influencing an entire planet. If we were voting for blips on the cultural landscape I would agree with you.

I am going with the supporters of early man and inventor of tools myself. Without that hairy guy we would still be eating leaves and the occassional bit of raw meat.
 
I am going with the supporters of early man and inventor of tools myself. Without that hairy guy we would still be eating leaves and the occassional bit of raw meat.
But I thought we were talking about historical people, not hypotetical people. Most likely, no single individual invented agriculture, tools, how to make fire etc...There was probably dozens of people in all the regions of the world who figured it out about the same time period. I think the OP is looking for a specific person. And why does OP mean Thread Starter? Shouldn't it be TS?
 
Homie said:
But I thought we were talking about historical people, not hypotetical people. Most likely, no single individual invented agriculture, tools, how to make fire etc...There was probably dozens of people in all the regions of the world who figured it out about the same time period. I think the OP is looking for a specific person. And why does OP mean Thread Starter? Shouldn't it be TS?

Yep if pressed to point to the single most influential historic figure then I will stay on my theme and point to a scientist. The inventor of explosives gets my vote. Since the Chinese perfected explosives without crediting a single individual it is difficult to name that person. The west now points to Nobel as the inventor of dynamite so I would point to him as having had the biggest influence. Without him we would still be firing low velocity projectiles at each other.
 
my vote goes to Sid Meier, because we wouldn't have civilization with out him. clearly the inventor of civilization it the most influential person.
 
Homie said:
But if he wouldn't have invented it, someone else would.

Sure I agree it was inevitable ... but using that rationale you say that about Mohamed or Jesus or Buddha or L Ron Hubbard etc. someone else would have come up with similar ideas eventually.
 
SoCalian said:
my vote goes to Sid Meier, because we wouldn't have civilization with out him. clearly the inventor of civilization it the most influential person.
What about Francis Tresham?
 
From the list I would say Marx. But i'm focusing on the past 200 years.

I list him because he influenced the likes of Lenin, Mao and so on, which of course led to communist governments in Russia, China and many other countries. And then he also influenced people like Hitler, in his opposistion to communism, which was vital in him becoming the leader of Germany. And also others who opposed communism, not just fascists.

You could say Marx's infleuence has been directly felt in World War 1, World War 2 and the cold war, and those are some of the most important occurances in recent human history.
 
Karl Marx? Sheesh, why don't you include Ptolemy while you're at it...
 
If you are going to say Jesus or Mohammed, then you have to put Abraham first. I said it once and i will say it agian. He started it all, so he should get the credit for the 52.97% of the population that follows Christianity, Islam, or Judaism.
 
Nah, Jesus and Mohammed hands down.
 
DBear said:
Karl Marx? Sheesh, why don't you include Ptolemy while you're at it...
So, you are choosing to ignore 2 world wars and the cold war then? Communist Russia wasn't important was it? The Nazi's are just a footnote in history?

I did specifically point out that I am focusing on the past 200 years. And given that Marx's writings had direct influence on figures such as Lenin, Mao, Stalin (those 3 on the pro-Marx side) and Hitler, Reagen, Thatcher (3 examples of anti-Marxists) I would say thats pretty damn influencial. In fact the whole entire 20th Century was directly influenced by Marx's writings.

I am by no means saying he is the most infleuncial person in human history, but of those listed in the poll he certainally has had the most impact, especially when you consider that 2 of them are Communists and another a very radical anti-communist.
 
Thorgalaeg said:
Nah, Jesus and Mohammed hands down.
That's two people, not one. Abraham developed the Abrahamic tradition of which both Islam and Jesus perscribe. If either Jesus or Mohammed can be given credit for being the most influential person in history, then Abraham should take that credit right off the bat.
 
Actually I'd say Maximillian Rospierre. He may have gone nutty, but his work helped form individual prestige in our world. That would have never ending results.
 
Israelite9191 said:
That's two people, not one.
I dont care. Choose whatever you want.
Abraham developed the Abrahamic tradition of which both Islam and Jesus perscribe. If either Jesus or Mohammed can be given credit for being the most influential person in history, then Abraham should take that credit right off the bat.
Nope. That is not a valid argument here. Without Jesus and later Mohammed very few people would know anything about Abraham today. We have speaking of the most relevant person, not the first. That is like attributing Julius Caesar or August´s relevance to Romulo becuase he founded rome. Or Newton relevance to Galileo or Einstein´s to Newton becuase without Newton there would no be Einstein.
 
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