Learn about the BIGGEST of everything Monday and Friday just subscribe!
Throughout human history, nations have come and gone but the most enduring leaders remain etched in our collective memories. Some are known for their military might, others for political prowess, still others for the great works and cultural events they oversaw. In this edition of The biggest, we’re taking a look at the Most Powerful Leaders in the History of the World.
Cyrus The Great
Cyrus the Elder was the founder of the Achaemenid Empire, the first Persian Empire, and that wasn’t the only flowery nickname bestowed upon the great leader. King of Anshan, King of Persia, King of Media, King of Sumer and Akkad, and the King of the Four Corners of the World were all titles that Emperor Cyrus II of Persia was called during his life and after. Under his 30 year rule from 559-530 BC, the Persian Empire coalesced all of the previous civilized states of the Near East and expanded and conquered most of Western Asia and much of Central Asia from the Dead Sea to the Indus river, creating and controlling the largest empire the world had ever seen up to that point. He’s also remembered for his pioneering of human rights, his prowess with military strategy, and his influence on civilization as a whole. Cyrus was the first major world leader to truly honor the local traditions and religions of those he conquered rather than imposing upon the survivors, which was wildly successful for establishing a government as vast as his. The Persian Empire expanded further after his death, a credit to his skill as a leader and the policies he implemented.
King Nebuchadnezzar II
For 43 years, King Nebuchadnezzar served as the monarch of the Neo-Babylonian Empire, making him the longest-reigning and subsequently most powerful of the historical kingdom from 605 to 562 BC. Nebuchadnezzar fought several campaigns against nations to the west, including the Kingdom of Judah, which is described in the Old Testament. The Bible also remembers him unflatteringly as the destroyer of Solomon's Temple, also known as The First Temple, and the initiator of the Babylonian captivity of Canaan from Jerusalem to Damascus. During his rule, the capital city of Babylon saw great growth and prosperity, which included the creation of the famed Ishtar Gate, Processional Way, and possibly the Hanging Gardens of Babylon, one of the Seven Wonders of the Ancient World; though of course he Hanging Gardens are the only one of the Seven Wonders whose existence is disputed because no archaeological evidence has been found of them. The city fell to the Persians 30 years after Nebuchadnezzar’s death, and efforts to restore it by Alexander the Great could never elevate it back to the heights it had known under the reign of Nebuchadnezzar II.
Pharaoh Ramses II
Perhaps no series of leaders when put together commanded more power that the pharaohs of Ancient Egypt, and of them all Ramses II was the most powerful. As the third pharaoh of the Nineteenth Dynasty of the great Nile valley civilization of northern Egypt and the Middle East for a whopping 66 years, the god-king named “Usermaater Satepenre” oversaw a period of prodigious growth for the Egyptian Empire between 1279 and 1213 BC that would be its historical apex. During his reign, Ramses took control of lands as far north as The Levant and Canaan and as far south as Nubia. It grew so expansive, in fact, that the capital was moved from Thebes to a new city called Pi-Ramesses, which was built to better manage the ever expanding civilization, and which at its peak had a population of more than 160,000 making it the biggest city in the world for a time. He was lauded among Egyptians, who called him “Ramses The Great,” and reviled by rivals, such as the Greeks who translated his first name Usermaatre into “Ozymandias,” the “tyrant colossus,” a moniker he earned thanks to a 57-foot tall statue that once stood in Thebes that he commissioned of himself to commemorate his great legacy. He is regarded as the greatest, most celebrated, and most powerful pharaoh of the period of time known as the New Kingdom. His successors and later Egyptians called him the “Great Ancestor.” It’s no wonder he appears so high on the list!
