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Selected biography government 1
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Queen Victoria (Alexandrina Victoria; 24 May 1819 – 22 January 1901) was the monarch of the
United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland from 20 June 1837 until her death. From 1 May 1876, she used the additional title of
Empress of India. She inherited the throne at the age of 18, after her father's three elder brothers had all died, leaving no legitimate, surviving children. Victoria married her first cousin,
Prince Albert of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha, in 1840. Their
nine children married into royal and noble families across the continent, tying them together and earning her the nickname "the grandmother of Europe". Her reign of 63 years and seven months, which is
longer than that of any other British monarch and the
longest of any female monarch in history, is known as the
Victorian era. It was a period of industrial, cultural, political, scientific, and military change within the United Kingdom, and was marked by a great expansion of the
British Empire. Victoria herself became a national icon, and was identified with strict standards of personal morality.
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Ranavalona III (November 22, 1861 – May 23, 1917) was the last sovereign of the
Kingdom of Madagascar. She ruled 1883 to 1897 in a reign marked by ongoing and ultimately futile efforts to resist the colonial designs of the government of France. As a young woman, she was selected from among several
Andriana qualified to succeed Queen
Ranavalona II upon her death. Ranavalona entered a political marriage with a member of the
Hova elite named
Rainilaiarivony, who in his role as
Prime Minister of Madagascar largely oversaw the day-to-day governance of the kingdom and managed its foreign affairs. Ranavalona tried to stave off colonization by strengthening trade and diplomatic relations with the United States and Great Britain throughout her reign. French attacks on coastal port towns and an assault on the capital city of
Antananarivo ultimately led to the capture of the
royal palace in 1895, ending the sovereignty and political autonomy of the century-old kingdom. The newly installed
French colonial government promptly exiled Rainilaiarivony, who was never permitted to return to Madagascar.
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Ranavalona I (born Rabodoandrianampoinimerina; 1778 – August 16, 1861), was sovereign of the
Kingdom of Madagascar from 1828 to 1861. After positioning herself as queen following the death of her young husband,
Radama I, Ranavalona pursued a policy of
isolationism and self-sufficiency, reducing economic and political ties with European powers, repelling a French attack on the coastal town of
Foulpointe, and taking vigorous measures to eradicate the small but growing
Malagasy Christian movement. She made heavy use of the traditional practice of
fanompoana (forced labor as tax payment) to complete public works projects and develop a standing army of between 20,000 and 30,000
Merina soldiers, whom she deployed to pacify outlying regions of the island and further expand the realm. Ranavalona's European contemporaries generally condemned her policies and characterized her as a tyrant at best and insane at worst. Recent academic research has recast Ranavalona's actions as those of a queen protecting Malagasy sovereignty against the encroachment of European influence.
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Dona Teresa Cristina (14 March 1822 – 28 December 1889), nicknamed "the Mother of the Brazilians", was the
Empress consort of Emperor Dom
Pedro II of Brazil, who reigned from 1831 to 1889. Born a Princess of the
Kingdom of the Two Sicilies in present-day southern
Italy, she was married by proxy to Pedro II in 1843. The marriage between Teresa Cristina and Pedro II never became passionately romantic, although a bond based upon family, mutual respect and fondness did develop. The Empress was a dutiful spouse and unfailingly supported the Emperor's positions in public. She became ill and died shortly after a
coup d'état staged in 1889 forced her and her family into exile. Greatly loved by her subjects, both during her lifetime and afterwards, she was even respected by the Republicans who overthrew the Empire. Despite having had no direct impact on Brazil's political history, Teresa Cristina is well regarded by historians not only for her character and irreproachable behavior, but also for her sponsorship of Brazilian culture.
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Muhammad Ali Jinnah (
Urdu:
محمد علی جناح, born Mahomedali Jinnahbhai; 25 December 1876 – 11 September 1948) was a
lawyer,
politician, and the founder of
Pakistan. He is revered in Pakistan as
Quaid-i-Azam (Great Leader) and
Baba-i-Qaum (
Father of the Nation).
Jinnah rose to prominence in the Indian National Congress in the first two decades of the 20th century. In these early years of his political career, Jinnah advocated Hindu–Muslim unity. In 1920, however, Jinnah resigned from the Congress. By 1940, Jinnah had come to believe that Indian Muslims should have their own state. As head of the All-India Muslim League, he led the effort to pass the Lahore Resolution, demanding a separate nation. In the aftermath of World War II, the Indian National Congress and the Muslim League agreed to the creation of two separate states, a predominately Hindu India and a predominately Muslim Pakistan. Jinnah served as Pakistan's first Governor-General from independence until his death in 1948. He left a deep and respected legacy in Pakistan, and according to his biographer, Stanley Wolpert, he remains Pakistan's greatest leader.
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Frederick III (
German: Friedrich III.; 18 October 1831 – 15 June 1888) was
German Emperor and King of
Prussia for 99 days in 1888, the
Year of the Three Emperors. He was the only son of
Emperor William I, and was raised in his family's tradition of military service. Although celebrated as a young man for his leadership and successes during the
Second Schleswig,
Austro-Prussian and
Franco-Prussian wars, he nevertheless professed a hatred of warfare and was praised by friends and enemies alike for his humane conduct. Following the
unification of Germany in 1871 his father, then King of Prussia, became the German Emperor. On William's death on 9 March 1888, the throne passed to Frederick. Frederick was suffering from
cancer of the larynx when he died on 15 June 1888, aged 56, following unsuccessful medical treatments for his condition. The premature demise of Frederick III is considered a potential turning point in German history; and whether or not he would have made the Empire more liberal if he had lived longer is still discussed.
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Jefferson Finis Davis (June 3, 1808 – December 6, 1889) was a
United States soldier and statesman, and was the
President of the
Confederate States of America during the entire
Civil War which was fought from 1861 to 1865. He took personal charge of the Confederate war plans but was unable to find a strategy to defeat the larger, more powerful and better organized
Union. His diplomatic efforts failed to gain recognition from any foreign country. At home he paid little attention to the collapsing Confederate economy; the government printed more and more paper money to cover the war's expenses, leading to runaway inflation. Historians tend to attribute many of the Confederacy's weaknesses to Davis.
After Davis was captured in 1865, he was accused of treason but was not tried and was released after two years. While not disgraced, Davis had been displaced in white Southern affection after the war by his leading general, Robert E. Lee. Over time, admiration for his pride and ideals made him a Civil War hero to many Southerners, and his legacy became part of the foundation of the postwar New South.
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Nikita Sergeyevich Khrushchev (April 15, 1894 – September 11, 1971) led the
Soviet Union during part of the
Cold War. He served as
First Secretary of the
Communist Party of the Soviet Union from 1953 to 1964, and as
Chairman of the
Council of Ministers, or Premier, from 1958 to 1964.
In the power struggle triggered by Stalin's death in 1953, Khrushchev, after several years, emerged victorious. On February 25, 1956, at the 20th Party Congress, he delivered the "Secret Speech", denouncing Stalin's purges and ushering in a less repressive era in the Soviet Union, culminating in partial de-Stalinization. His domestic policies, aimed at bettering the lives of ordinary citizens, were often ineffective, especially in the area of agriculture. Hoping eventually to rely on missiles for national defense, Khrushchev ordered major cuts in conventional forces and backed the progress of the early Soviet space program. Despite the cuts, Khrushchev's rule saw the tensest years of the Cold War, culminating in the Cuban Missile Crisis. Khrushchev's party colleagues removed him from power in 1964.
Selected biography government 12
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George I of Greece (
Greek:
Γεώργιος Αʹ, Βασιλεύς των Ελλήνων; 24 December 1845 – 18 March 1913) was
King of
Greece from 1863 until his death in 1913. Originally a
Danish prince, George was born in
Copenhagen, and seemed destined for a career in the
Royal Danish Navy. He was only 17 years old when he was elected king by the
Greek National Assembly, which had deposed the unpopular former king
Otto. His nomination was both suggested and supported by the
Great Powers: the
United Kingdom, the
Second French Empire, and the
Russian Empire. He married the Russian grand duchess
Olga Constantinovna of Russia, and became the first monarch of a
new Greek dynasty.
George's reign of almost 50 years (the longest in modern Greek history) was characterized by territorial gains as Greece established its place in pre-World War I Europe. Britain ceded the Ionian Islands peacefully, while Thessaly was annexed from the Ottoman Empire after the Russo-Turkish War. During the First Balkan War, after Greek troops had occupied much of Greek Macedonia, George was assassinated in Thessaloniki.
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Dom Pedro I (12 October 1798 – 24 September 1834) was the
founder and first ruler of the
Empire of Brazil. As King Dom Pedro IV, he
reigned briefly over
Portugal, before a French invasion in 1807 led him to flee to Brazil. The outbreak of the
Liberal Revolution of 1820 in Lisbon compelled Pedro I's father to return to Portugal in April 1821, leaving him to rule Brazil as regent, where he had to subdue revolutionaries and insubordination by Portuguese troops. The Portuguese government's threat to revoke the political autonomy that Brazil had enjoyed since 1808 was met with widespread discontent in Brazil. Pedro I chose the Brazilian side and declared
Brazil's independence from Portugal on 7 September 1822. On 12 October, he was acclaimed Brazilian emperor and by March 1824 had defeated all armies loyal to Portugal. He would go on to invade Portugal in July 1832. Caught up in a larger ideological conflict between
Liberalism and
Absolutism, Pedro I died of
tuberculosis just a few months after he and the liberals had emerged victorious.
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Andrew Johnson (December 29, 1808 – July 31, 1875) was the
17th President of the United States, serving from 1865 to. Johnson,
Abraham Lincoln's
vice president, became president after
Lincoln's assassination. A Democrat who ran with Lincoln on the
National Union ticket, Johnson came to office as the
Civil War concluded. The new president favored quick restoration of the
seceded states to the Union. His plans did not give protection to the
former slaves, and he came into conflict with the
Republican-dominated Congress, culminating in
his impeachment by the House of Representatives. The first American president to be impeached, he was acquitted in the Senate by one vote. Returning to Tennessee after his presidency, Johnson sought political vindication, and gained it in his eyes when he was elected to the Senate again in 1875, the only former president to serve there, just months before his death. Although Johnson's ranking has fluctuated over time, he is generally considered
among the worst American presidents for his opposition to federally guaranteed rights for African Americans.
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William Wilberforce (24 August 1759 – 29 July 1833) was an English politician,
philanthropist, and a leader of the movement to abolish the
slave trade. A native of
Kingston upon Hull,
Yorkshire, he began his political career in 1780, eventually becoming the
independent Member of Parliament for
Yorkshire (1784–1812). In 1785, he underwent a
conversion experience and became an
evangelical Christian, which resulted in major changes to his lifestyle and a lifelong concern for reform. In 1787, he came into contact with a group of anti-slave-trade activists. They persuaded Wilberforce to take on the cause of abolition, and he soon became one of the leading English
abolitionists. He headed the parliamentary campaign against the British slave trade for twenty-six years until the passage of the
Slave Trade Act 1807. While he championed numerous religious and humanitarian efforts, his underlying conservatism led him to support politically and socially repressive legislation, and resulted in criticism that he was ignoring injustices at home while campaigning for the enslaved abroad.
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