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Title:List of Historically Informed Political Leaders
Date of publishing:February 08, 2023
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List of Historically Informed Political Leaders

 

(Last updated 2 December 2024)


PRESENTATION
There are two lists:
(1) Main List of Political Leaders (1900–Present)
(2) List of Political Leaders (before 1900).

DEFINITION
Political leaders are called “political leaders with distinct historical consciousness” or “historically informed political leaders” or “historically oriented political leaders” if they meet one or more of the following criteria before, during, or after their political career:

(1) They received a formal history education;
(2) They wrote a historical work;
(3) They gave important speeches with substantial historical content;
(4) They displayed a sustained interest in history in other demonstrable ways.

DISCLAIMER
NCH does not necessarily share the views, historical or otherwise, or approve the actions of the persons on this list.

SOURCE
This list is an update of the list first published in Antoon De Baets, “The Historian-King: Political Leaders, Historical Consciousness, and Wise Government,” in Stefan Berger, ed., The Engaged Historian: Perspectives on the Intersections of Politics, Activism and the Historical Profession (New York and Oxford: Berghahn, 2019), 98–105.



MAIN LIST OF POLITICAL LEADERS (1900–PRESENT)

Albania
Enver Hoxha
Aleksander Meksi

Angola
João Lourenço

Argentina
Bartolomé Mitre Martínez
Juan Domingo Perón

Armenia
Levon Ter-Petrosian

Australia
Alfred Deakin
Paul Hasluck
Gough Whitlam
Paul Keating
John Howard
Kevin Rudd

Azerbaijan
Abulfaz Elchibey
Haydar Aliyev
Ilham Aliyev

Belarus
Aleksandr Lukashenko

Bolivia
Carlos Mesa Gisbert

Brazil
Jânio Quadros
Dilma Rousseff
Jair Bolsonaro

Bulgaria
Ivan Geshov
Bogdan Filov
Todor Zhivkov
Nikolai Todorov
Zhelyu Zhelev
Georgi Parvanov
Sergey Stanishev

Burma/Myanmar
U Nu
Maung Maung

Cambodia
Norodom Sihanouk
Pol Pot

Canada
Lester Pearson
Joe Clark
Justin Trudeau

Chile
Luis Barros Borgoño
Eduardo Frei
Augusto Pinochet

China
Sun Yat-sen
Chiang Kai-shek
Mao Zedong
Zhou Enlai
Hu Yaobang
Xi Jinping

Colombia
Eduardo Santos

Costa Rica
Cleto González Víquez
Luis Guillermo Solís Rivera
Carlos Alvarado Quesada

Croatia
Franjo Tudjman

Cuba
Alfredo Zayas y Alfonso
Fidel Castro Ruz

Cyprus
Demetris Christofias

Czechoslovakia
Tomáš Masaryk
Gustav Husák

Czech Republic
Václav Havel
Petr Pithart
Petr Fiala

Denmark
Niels Neergaard
Margrethe II

Dominican Republic
Juan Bosch

Egypt
Gamal Abdel Nasser

Estonia
Lennart Meri
Mart Laar

Ethiopia
Haile Selassie

France
Jean Jaurès
Louis Barthou
Pierre Mendès-France
Charles de Gaulle
Maurice Couve de Murville
François Mitterrand
Edouard Balladur
Jacques Chirac
Dominique de Villepin
François Hollande
Emmanuel Macron

Georgia
Zviad Ghamsakhurdia

Germany
Wilhelm II
Adolf Hitler

    East Germany
Walter Ulbricht
    West Germany
Konrad Adenauer
Theodor Heuss
Willy Brandt
Helmut Kohl
Richard von Weizsäcker
Angela Merkel
Joachim Gauck

Greece
Eleftherios Venizelos
Spyridon Lambros
Themistocles Sophoulis
Panayotis Kanellopoulos
Spyridon Markezinis
Kostas Karamanlis

Grenada
George Brizan

Guatemala
Jacobo Árbenz Guzmán

Guyana
Cheddie Jagan

Haiti
Jean-François Duvalier
Leslie Manigat

Hungary
József Antall
Viktor Orbán

Iceland
Kristján Eldjárn
Guðni Johannesson

India
Jawaharlal Nehru
Rajendra Prasad
Indira Gandhi
Pranab Mukherjee
Narendra Modi

Indonesia
Sukarno

Iran
Mohammed Reza Pahlavi
Haji Ali Razmara
Ruhollah Khomeini

Iraq
Saddam Husayn

Ireland
Douglas Hyde
Michael Higgins

Israel
David Ben Gurion
Itzhak Ben-Zvi
Ariel Sharon

Italy
Benito Mussolini
Luigi Einaudi
Amintore Fanfani
Giovanni Spadolini

Ivory Coast
Laurent Gbagbo

Jamaica
Michael Manley

Japan
Yoshihito
Yasuhiro Nakasone
Shinzō Abe
Naruhito

Kenya
Jomo Kenyatta
Mwai Kibaki

Korea, North
Kim Il-Sung
Kim Jong-il

Kosovo
Hashim Thaçi

Laos
Katay Don Sasorith

Libya
Muammar al-Qaddafi

Lithuania
Vytautas Landsbergis

Malawi
Hastings Kamuzu Banda

Maldives
Kenereege Mohamed Nasheed

Mali
Alpha Konaré

Malta
Ugo Mifsud Bonnici

Mexico
José López Portillo

Netherlands
Jan Peter Balkenende
Willem-Alexander van Oranje
Mark Rutte

New Zealand
Bernard Fergusson
Jacinda Ardern

Oman
Qaboos bin Said Al Said

Pakistan
Mohammad Ali Jinnah
Benazir Bhutto
Imran Khan

Palestinian Authority
Mahmoud Abbas

Panama
Ricardo Joaquín Alfaro Jované

Paraguay
Cecilio Baez González
Juan Natalicio González Paredes

Philippines
Ferdinand Marcos
Bongbong Marcos


Poland
Jan Kucharzewski
Henryk Jabłoński
Mieczysław Rakowski
Lech Kaczyński
Jaroslaw Kaczyński
Donald Tusk
Bronisław Komorowski
Mateusz Morawiecki

Portugal
António Salazar
Marcelo Caetano
Mário Soares

Romania
Nicolae Iorga
Nicolae Ceauşescu

Russia
Vladimir Putin

Senegal
Leopold Sédar Senghor

Serbia
Stojan Novaković

South Africa
Nelson Mandela

Spain
Niceto Alcalá-Zamora y Torres

Sweden
Nils Edén
Gustav VI Adolf

Tajikistan
Emomali Rahmonov

Tanzania
Julius Nyerere

Trinidad and Tobago
Eric Williams

Tunisia
Habib Bourguiba

Turkey
Mustafa Kemal Pasha (Atatürk)
Şemsettin Günaltay
Bülent Ecevit
Turgut Özal
Recep Tayyip Erdoğan

Turkmenistan
Saparmurat Niyazov

Ukraine
Mykhailo Hrushevsky
Victor Yushchenko
Volodymyr Zelensky

United Kingdom
George V
Elizabeth II
Winston Churchill
Margaret Thatcher
Gordon Brown
Boris Johnson
Charles III

United States
Theodore Roosevelt
Woodrow Wilson
Franklin Roosevelt
Harry Truman
Dwight Eisenhower
John Kennedy
Jimmy Carter
Bill Clinton
George W. Bush
Barack Obama
Donald Trump
Joe Biden

Uruguay
Eduardo Víctor Haedo
Yamandú Orsi Martínez

USSR
Vladimir Lenin
Joseph Stalin
Nikita Khrushchev
Mikhail Gorbachev
Gennady Yanayev

Uzbekistan
Islam Karimov

Vatican
Pius XII

Venezuela
José Gil Fortoul
Hugo Chávez Frías

Vietnam
Tran Trong Kim
Ho Chi Minh

Zimbabwe
Robert Mugabe

 



LIST OF POLITICAL LEADERS (BEFORE 1900)

Albania
Ali Pasha of Tepelena [Ali Pasha of Yannina] (1740–1822)

Argentina
Domingo Faustino Sarmiento (1811–1888)

Byzantian Empire
Constantine VII Porphyrogenitus (905–959)

Denmark
Christian IV (1577–1648)

England
Elisabeth I (1533–1603)

France
Napoleon (1769–1821)
Napoleon III (1808–1873)

Germany
Frederick II the Great of Prussia (1712–1786)
Maximilian II of Bavaria (1811–1864)
Catharina Paulowna of Württemberg (1788–1819)
Otto von Bismarck

Greece/Macedonia
Alexander the Great (356–323 BCE)

India
Babur (1483–1530)

Italy / Rome
Julius Cesar (ca. 100–44 BCE)
Claudius (10 BCE–54 CE)
Macchiavelli (1469–1527)

Mexico
Lucas Alamán (1792–1853)

Netherlands
Maurits of Nassau (1567–1625)
Queen Sophie (1818–1877)

Philippines
José Rizal (1861–1896)

Romania
Kogalniceanu, Mihail (Ilie) (1817–1891)

Russia
Catherina the Great (1729–1796)

Spain
Alfonso X el Sabio (1220–1284)
Cánovas del Castillo, Antonio (1828–1897)
Castelar y Ripoll Emilio (1832–1899)

Sweden
Gustavus II Adolphus (1594–1632)

Thailand    
Mongkut Rama IV (1804–1868)

United States
Thomas Jefferson (1743–1826)
James Garfield (1831–1881)