Ok. I'm getting lost here. Columbus was (very probably) born in Genoa but "worked" for the Spaniards, so you put him in the Spanish list. Seneca was born in Cordoba but "worked" for the Romans... so shouldn't he appear in the Roman list? If not, why don't you include Trajan and Hadrian as great generals for Spain? Trajan was born in Italica, in the province Hispania Baetica, near contemporary Seville...
Whoops... my apologies. You're right, he should be in the Roman list.
It seems Columbus and Einstein are creating a lot of controversy here... OK, I'll give my opinion.
Columbus: he should be in the Spanish list. It is accepted that he was born in Italy, though this is a very controversial fact. I don't believe the Spanish historians that argue that he was Spanish. In any case, it is documented that he documented his future trip in Spain, and probably with Norse sailors. In fact, his own brother was a map drawer, and worked in Seville. His uncle was probably Spanish too, and made the contacts to afford the Pinzon brothers' services, who were also Spanish (and Galician, BTW).The Pinzon brothers were the captains of the smaller ships, and the Santa Maria was to be directed by Columbus itself. There was a project to build the ships, but the money was needed. He tried to get financing for his expedicion on France and on Portugal, because they were richer, to be neglected. So he tried in Spain. He was neglected again: the Spanish treasury was not enough to afford the high sum he was asking. But, when he was about to pass the frontier to offer his services for Portuguese, for a lower bill, a messenger stopped him and said that the Crown finally got the financing. It is said that Queen Isabella sold her jewells, but this is merely a legend. In any case, the agreement was done, and he worked for the Spanish.
Einstein: it's difficult to say if he should be in the American or in the German list. But, if you want to include him as a GS, he should be German. He worked for Germans during his most brightest works, but when he retired to America, he didn't stopped. He started to work in the Manhattan Project (Yes, he did!), but his compromise was "to frighten but not to use". When the bombs were used, he retired all his support to the American government, he felt betrayed, and started a heavy political campaign with many pacifist and socialist messages, as seen in the article "Why socialism?". His political activity was obviusly pursued by McCarthy's anticommunist campaign, so he was tempted to flee to Israel. He was offered in 1952 to become president of the new country, but he refused: though Israel was a better place to develop his ideas of socialism, he had to refuse because he was convinced that Israel won't become a pacifist country. During this period he made the Russell-Einstein Manifest, asking for a Wordly Union, and the eradication of nuclear weapons. After this, he was affected by the Alzheimer Syndrome, and he smoothly vanished from public activities, until his death. As you see, most of the activity of Einstein
after fleeing from Germany involved politics, not science.
Well, I did it again: I gave you a history lesson. Sorry for the long chattering.
By the way, Mona Lisa is in Le Louvre, and, putting it the game terms (like you did for Cristoforo Colombo) Leonardo's art has probably contributed more to France's "culture rating" than Italy's; you might even think of him as a ‘culture bomb’ exploding somewhere in France... so would you say that Leonardo is a French great man after all?
