who had the greatest impact on 20th century history?

who had the greatest impact on the 20th century?

  • Churchill, Winston

    Votes: 9 7.6%
  • Einstein, Albert

    Votes: 6 5.1%
  • Ford, Henry

    Votes: 2 1.7%
  • Gandhi, Mahatma

    Votes: 1 0.8%
  • Gates, Bill

    Votes: 3 2.5%
  • Gorbachev, Mikhail

    Votes: 0 0.0%
  • Hitler, Adolf

    Votes: 36 30.5%
  • King, Martin Luther Jr.

    Votes: 0 0.0%
  • Lenin, Vladimir

    Votes: 29 24.6%
  • Marconi, Guglielmo

    Votes: 1 0.8%
  • Oppenheimer, Robert J.

    Votes: 5 4.2%
  • Roosevelt, Franklin D.

    Votes: 6 5.1%
  • Stalin, Joesph

    Votes: 6 5.1%
  • Wright brothers

    Votes: 3 2.5%
  • Zedong, Mao

    Votes: 1 0.8%
  • none of the above

    Votes: 10 8.5%

  • Total voters
    118
  • Poll closed .
Did M. Gandhi have that much impact beyond liberating one (big) country? He got killed quickly and didn't get to run it and he didn't seem to have inspired a lot of non-violent independence movements that I can recall.
 

boredatwork

Banned
  • Henry Ford - for the modern economic system
  • JP Morgan - same, in many ways
  • Gavirilio Princep - as noted above, sparked the crazy years
  • John Paul 2 - had as big or bigger a role than Reagan in closing out the 20th century
  • Hewlett & Packard - for the circuit chip
  • Elvis - rock and roll
  • Mussolini - for making absolutism & totalitarianism glamorous
  • Oppenheimer - almost - definitely would've gotten the title if more than 2 nukes were used
  • Mao - for changing the destiny of china - 1 Bn people (at least) directly impacted by his actions
  • Ghandi - ditto, but for India, also for breaking what remained of the british empire.
  • Lenin &/or Trostky - for communism
  • Wilson - for creating war socialism - cited by Lenin, Hitler, and Mao as an inspiration, also for influencing outcome of WW1 and encouraging the dissolution of the Ottoman & AH empires.
 
Gavrilo Princip had by far the greatest impact of any individual in the 20th century. Literally every major event after 1914 can be traced directly back to his assassination of Franz Ferdinand.

Interesting and true observation. However, this presumes that nothing else would have eventually caused the outbreak of WW1. Also, we need to remember that there were many instances when cooler heads in Vienna, Berlin, Moscow, France, and London could have prevented the war, or at least limited its scope.
 

nbcman

Donor
German Chancellor von Bethmann-Hollweg/Wilhelm II. Their guarantee to support Austria-Hungary emboldened AH to press onward to war before WWI.
 
Decided to bring this thread back on the radar screen. Bit surprised that Hitler is leading with Lenin on his heels. Churchill must be spinning in his grave.
 
Gavrilo Princip, his shot that killed Archduke Francis and his wife set off a whole chain of events that started World War I which then led to many things such as Communism, World War II, Cold War, decolonization and even the Middle East problems of today among other things. Then again, had it not been him, ot could have been somebody else or some other event, but I would pick Gavrilo Princip as the person who has had the greatest impact on the 20'th Century and even 21st so far.
 
I voted for Hitler for a specific reasons:

Imagine: A man who aspires to become artist, later have turn to lead Germany in 12 years. A man who tried to extreminate the Jews in Europe. A man who aspires to dominate the world in 1000 years.

Hitler would have made a strong second choice to Princip, if there was no "none of the above," he would get my vote. As another stated, Hitler really made fascism and eugenics unpopular plus as a result of the Holocaust, you get Israel created from it. Plus look at debates, Hitler is responsible for Godwin's Law since if there are significant disagreements, the result is one party calling the one or comparing him/her to "Hitler." :cool::eek::D

Plus you get sites like www.catsthatlooklikehitler.com I mean if it wasn't for him, you'd get www.catsthatlooklikecharliechaplin.com, it doesn't have the same effect. :D
 
Come on hands down the man who had the most wide spread impact through out the 20th century was Winston Churchill.

From the Boer War, the First World War, the Second World War and the start of the Cold War Churchill was involved. He influenced the independence of Ireland and India, Middle East borders, US involvement outside the western hemisphere.
 
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