Notable Historic Figures - SAT Subject Test in World History

Mahatma Gandhi was the spiritual and, at times, political leader of the Indian nationalist movement working towards independence from the British. Gandhi encouraged the Indian people to practice non-violent cooperation as a peaceful alternative to violent revolution. He also urged the Indian people to work together to achieve self-sufficiency and to realize their Indian identity. According to Gandhi, this could be achieved by refusing to buy British products and instead buying directly from Indians as well as by refusing to attend government schools, as these provided an English type of education. Although Gandhi was devoutly Hindu, he would never have encouraged Indians to protect Hindu interests over Muslim interests; Gandhi was primarily about peace and unity, not about creating discord.

German unification was achieved largely as a result of the territorial and political ambitions of its “iron chancellor,” Otto von Bismarck. German nationalism had long existed as a tenuous and optimistic ideal, but the fragmented nature of the Holy Roman Empire and the German principalities made such a unification very difficult. It was not until the ascension of Prussia as one of the preeminent powers in Europe that German national unification was anything more than a pipe dream. Bismarck governed Prussia effectively and realized the way to engender German nationalism was to create a common enemy—France and Austria. A series of wars with both these countries created support for a unified Germany.

The Salt March was an important moment in the Indian movement towards independence. It was an act of civil disobedience and nonviolent protest against the British monopoly over salt in India. It was lead by Gandhi, and many historians consider this incident to be the beginning of Gandhi’s dominance of the Indian nationalist movement. Gandhi was shadowed throughout the Salt March by western reporters, something Gandhi insisted on, knowing how the pictures would affect people’s mentalities in Europe and America. The Salt March coverage catapulted Gandhi to international renown.

Haile Selassie was the ruler of Ethiopia from 1916 to 1974; he first ruled as regent, then as emperor. Selassie is widely credited with preserving Ethiopia’s independence. He was also an internationally-minded leader who contributed heavily to the founding of the United Nations and ensured Ethiopia’s status as a charter member.

The two primary leaders of the Italian unification movement were Camillo di Cavour and Giuseppe Garibaldi; however, the two men differed greatly in circumstance and organizational efforts. Whereas Garibaldi was most prominent in Southern Italy and notable for his ability to work “outside of the system,” Cavour was much more significant in Northern Italy and, as Prime Minister of Piedmont, able to work effectively within the system. Cavour was the first Prime Minister of Italy.

Tsar Alexander II is generally remembered as a liberalizing monarch who effected widespread social, economic, and political upheaval during his reign. He is most often remembered for his 1861 Emancipation of the Serfs Act. Prior to Alexander’s interference, the Russian economy had functioned much like a European medieval feudal system with the serf-peasantry comprable to slaves.

The Committee of Public Safety was the de facto government of Paris, and France, at the height of the French Revolution and the Reign of Terror. In December of 1793, the Committee conferred formal executive power to itself and Robespierre became something of a totalitarian dictator, summarily executing any and all suspected opposition. Sadly for Robespierre, the abuses of his reign were too much for the exhausted people of Paris to endure, and he was himself deposed and executed the following year, thus ending the Reign of Terror and the Committee’s power over France.

The Congress of Vienna was held in 1815, immediately following the climax of the Napoleonic Wars. The Wars had ended with the defeat of Napoleon and the French Empire, and the victorious European powers sought to ensure a lasting peace in Europe as well as maintenance of the traditional forms of power (monarchy, aristocracy, and suppression of individual freedoms). The Congress was attended by the four major European powers at the time: Russia, Prussia, Austria, and Britain. The French were also invited to attend so long as they abandoned their recent republican tendencies. Russia was represented by Tsar Alexander I, Prussia by Prince Karl von Hardenberg, Austria by Foreign Minister Metternich, Britain by Foreign Secretary Castlereagh, and France by Foreign Minister Talleyrand, who was there representing newly instated King Louis XVIII.

Zheng He was a Chinese naval commander in the fourteenth century who famously explored much of South East Asia, South Asia, the Middle East, and East Africa. He was for a long time forgotten in his own country, but rose to prominence in the twentieth century as is now seen as a Columbus-like figure; indeed, many historians believe it is possible that Zheng He may have arrived in the New World a full century before Europeans did, although this is primarily conjecture.

Thomas Malthus was a writer and philosopher who lived in England during the late eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries. He is most widely remembered for his essay titled An Essay on the Principle of Population. In this essay, he states that sooner or later the population of the earth would exceed the supply of resources needed to keep the population alive. In what is known as a "Malthusian catastrophe," he predicted that the continuing rise in population would precede a period of intense warfare and famine, which would then bring the population back to more manageable levels. His views were influential and affected the economic and sociopolitical thinking of his time.

Following his return to Russia from exile in the spring of 1917, Lenin published his famous April Theses, in which he promised the Russian people “Peace! Land! Bread!” During World War One, the Russian people suffered horribly in unprecedented numbers; when Lenin returned to Russia, a large portion of the Russian population was ready for an end to the war with the Central Powers ("Peace!"); an end to the abhorrent policies of land distribution that saw the majority of the population unable to own property ("Land!"); and an end to the widespread famine that had gripped Russia in the previous two years ("Bread!").

Toussaint Louverture was the leader of the Haitian Revolution. He was a freed former slave who incited the Haitian slave community to rebellion against the French authorities. He was eventually captured and taken to France, where he died shortly after, but his legacy lived on and France was unable to suppress the rebellion, primarily due to massive losses sustained from Yellow Fever. Haiti has been an independent nation ever since.

David Livingstone and Henry Morton Stanley were two British explorers and missionaries who explored vast swathes of Central Africa and, amongst other things, established that Lake Tanganyika was not the source of the Nile River. (The source of the Nile River was a topic of much interest in the late-nineteenth century Europe.)

Pedro II was the most famous King of the Brazilian monarchy and his reign lasted for much of the Nineteenth Century. However, he was not king at the turn of the century. Roosevelt was an American President during the Great Depression and World War Two; Pol Pot was a Cambodian ruler in the mid-twentieth century who is most often remembered for the terrible atrocities and genocide committed under his direction; Josef Stalin was the leader of the Socialist Party of the Soviet Union in the decades immediately before, during, and after World War Two; Nikita Khrushchev succeeded Josef Stalin in the 1950s.

Hatshepsut reigned over Ancient Egypt from 1508-1458 B.C.E. She is both one of the most successful pharaohs of Egyptian history and one of the earliest known female rulers with which history is familiar.

Hammurabi is the most famous of the Babylonian Kings who ruled vast areas of Ancient Mesopotamia from about 1850 B.C.E. until the Sack of Babylon in 1531 B.C.E. He is mostly remembered for the introduction of Hammurabi’s Code of Laws - one of the earliest known established legal codes in world history.

Queen Victoria reigned over Britain from 1837-1901; Andrew Jackson was President of the United States from 1829-1837; Pedro II reigned over the nation of Brazil for the majority of the Nineteenth Century; Napoleon Bonaparte was Emperor of France from 1804-1814. Of these options only Frederick the Great, King of Prussia, was not in power in the Nineteenth Century. Frederick reigned over Prussia from 1740-1786.

The Medici family was an aristocratic family and banking dynasty that rose to prominence in fourteenth-century Florence under the leadership of Cosimo de Medici. The Medici family would go on to produce several popes, two queens of France, and the dynasty that ruled over Grand Duchy of Tuscany for two hundred years.

Frederick the Great reigned over the Kingdom of Prussia from 1740 to 1786 and, along with Catherine the Great, is most commonly remembered as an “enlightened despot”; Catherine, for her own part, reigned as Tsarina of Russia from 1762 to 1796; William Pitt the Younger served as British Prime Minister at various times throughout the late eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries; and Louis XIV reigned over France for an astonishing seventy-two years from 1643 until his death in 1715. Of the presented answer choices, only King Charles II of England did not rule in the eighteenth century. Charles II reigned over England, Ireland, and Scotland at a time of great upheaval in British history. Depending on who you ask, his reign even began in 1649, following the execution of his father at the climax of the English Civil War, or, more practically, in 1660, following the death of Oliver Cromwell.