Most Influential People in History

How to read the ranking

Hart ranked people by historical influence, not by virtue, popularity or current moral approval. That distinction matters. A person can be influential because a religion, invention, empire, scientific theory or political movement changed the lives of millions.

Frequent fields of influence

Politics

Science

Religion

Philosophy

Medicine

Empire

Technology

The full Top 100 table

Rank	Name	Field	Short impact
1	Muhammad	Religion / politics	Founder of Islam and central figure in a religious and political order that reshaped large parts of world history.
2	Isaac Newton	Science	Mechanics, gravitation and mathematical natural philosophy.
3	Jesus	Religion	Origin figure of Christianity and its ethical, religious and institutional traditions.
4	Siddhartha Gautama	Religion / philosophy	Founder of Buddhism and its major teaching traditions.
5	Confucius	Philosophy / state	Shaped East Asian ethics, education and political culture.
6	Paul the Apostle	Religion	Spread and theological formation of early Christianity.
7	Cai Lun	Technology	Paper as a medium for administration, education and knowledge transmission.
8	Johannes Gutenberg	Technology / media	Movable-type printing and the acceleration of written communication.
9	Christopher Columbus	Exploration / empire	Atlantic expansion and permanent connection between hemispheres.
10	Albert Einstein	Science	Relativity and a new understanding of space, time and energy.
11	Louis Pasteur	Medicine	Germ theory, vaccination and modern microbiology.
12	Galileo Galilei	Science	Experimental physics and support for the heliocentric worldview.
13	Aristotle	Philosophy / science	Logic, natural philosophy and education traditions across centuries.
14	Euclid	Mathematics	Axiomatic geometry as a model of rigorous knowledge.
15	Moses	Religion / law	Monotheistic law tradition and foundational role in Judaism.
16	Charles Darwin	Science	Evolution by natural selection.
17	Qin Shi Huang	State / empire	Unification of China and centralized imperial institutions.
18	Augustus Caesar	Politics / empire	Formation of the Roman Principate and the Pax Romana.
19	Nicolaus Copernicus	Science	Heliocentric model and a starting point of the Scientific Revolution.
20	Antoine Lavoisier	Science	Modern chemistry, conservation of mass and systematic nomenclature.
21	Constantine the Great	Politics / religion	Christianization of imperial power structures in the Roman world.
22	James Watt	Technology	Improved steam engine and industrial production.
23	Michael Faraday	Science / technology	Electromagnetism as a foundation of electrical technology.
24	James Clerk Maxwell	Science	Mathematical synthesis of electromagnetism.
25	Martin Luther	Religion / media	Reformation and new church and political orders.
26	George Washington	Politics	Founding figure of the United States and model of republican transfer of power.
27	Karl Marx	Politics / economics	Critique of capitalism and global socialist movements.
28	Orville and Wilbur Wright	Technology	Powered flight as a new transport and military technology.
29	Genghis Khan	Empire	Mongol expansion and Eurasian interconnection.
30	Adam Smith	Economics	Market theory and modern political economy.
31	Edward de Vere / Shakespeare	Literature	Influence of the Shakespeare canon; Hart follows the disputed Oxfordian thesis here.
32	John Dalton	Science	Atomic theory in modern chemistry.
33	Alexander the Great	Empire / culture	Hellenistic spread of Greek culture.
34	Napoleon Bonaparte	Politics / military	Napoleonic reforms, the Civil Code and European reordering.
35	Thomas Edison	Technology / industry	Electrical infrastructure, invention laboratories and mass innovation.
36	Antony van Leeuwenhoek	Science	Microscopy and discovery of microbial worlds.
37	William T. G. Morton	Medicine	Anesthesia as a basis of modern surgery.
38	Guglielmo Marconi	Communication	Wireless telegraphy and global radio communication.
39	Adolf Hitler	Politics / war	Destructive influence through National Socialism, World War II and the Holocaust.
40	Plato	Philosophy	Foundational questions of state, knowledge and ethics.
41	Oliver Cromwell	Politics	English revolution and the conflict between Parliament and monarchy.
42	Alexander Graham Bell	Communication	Telephony and long-distance communication.
43	Alexander Fleming	Medicine	Penicillin and antibiotic therapy.
44	John Locke	Philosophy / politics	Liberalism, rights and social contract theory.
45	Ludwig van Beethoven	Music	Expansion of musical expression and form.
46	Werner Heisenberg	Science	Quantum mechanics and the uncertainty principle.
47	Louis Daguerre	Media	Photography and a new image culture.
48	Simon Bolivar	Politics	Independence movements in South America.
49	Rene Descartes	Philosophy / mathematics	Rationalism and analytic geometry.
50	Michelangelo	Art	Renaissance art and European visual language.
51	Pope Urban II	Religion / war	Call for the First Crusade.
52	Umar ibn al-Khattab	Politics / religion	Early Islamic expansion and administration.
53	Ashoka	Empire / religion	Maurya rule and patronage of Buddhism.
54	Augustine of Hippo	Religion / philosophy	Christian theology and Western thought.
55	William Harvey	Medicine	Blood circulation and modern physiology.
56	Ernest Rutherford	Science	Nuclear model of the atom and nuclear physics.
57	John Calvin	Religion	Reformed theology and Protestant traditions.
58	Gregor Mendel	Science	Foundations of genetics.
59	Max Planck	Science	Quantum theory.
60	Joseph Lister	Medicine	Antisepsis and safer surgery.
61	Nikolaus August Otto	Technology	Four-stroke engine and motorization.
62	Francisco Pizarro	Empire	Spanish conquest of the Inca Empire.
63	Hernan Cortes	Empire	Spanish conquest of the Aztec Empire.
64	Thomas Jefferson	Politics	Declaration of Independence and republican ideals.
65	Isabella I of Castile	Politics / empire	Spanish consolidation, expansion and support for Columbus.
66	Joseph Stalin	Politics	Soviet industrialization, repression and World War II order.
67	Julius Caesar	Politics / empire	End of the Roman Republic and the political model of Caesarism.
68	William the Conqueror	Politics	Norman conquest of England.
69	Sigmund Freud	Science / culture	Psychoanalysis and a new model of the human mind.
70	Edward Jenner	Medicine	Smallpox vaccination and vaccine medicine.
71	Wilhelm Conrad Roentgen	Science / medicine	X-rays and medical imaging.
72	Johann Sebastian Bach	Music	Musical form, counterpoint and composition tradition.
73	Laozi	Philosophy / religion	Daoist tradition.
74	Voltaire	Enlightenment	Religious criticism, tolerance and Enlightenment thought.
75	Johannes Kepler	Science	Laws of planetary motion and mathematical astronomy.
76	Enrico Fermi	Science	Nuclear physics and reactor development.
77	Leonhard Euler	Mathematics	Mathematical notation, analysis and mechanics.
78	Jean-Jacques Rousseau	Philosophy / politics	Popular sovereignty and modern political theory.
79	Niccolo Machiavelli	Politics	Realist analysis of power.
80	Thomas Malthus	Demography / economics	Population theory and resource debates.
81	John F. Kennedy	Politics	Cold War politics, spaceflight and symbolic leadership.
82	Gregory Pincus	Medicine / society	Development of the birth-control pill.
83	Mani	Religion	Manichaeism as a late-antique world religion.
84	Vladimir Lenin	Politics	Bolshevik Revolution and communist state formation.
85	Sui Wen Ti	State	Reunification of China under the Sui dynasty.
86	Vasco da Gama	Exploration / trade	Sea route to India and global trade shifts.
87	Cyrus the Great	Empire	Achaemenid Empire and imperial administration.
88	Peter the Great	Politics	Modernization and expansion of Russia.
89	Mao Zedong	Politics	Communist revolution in China.
90	Francis Bacon	Science / philosophy	Empirical method and a program for science.
91	Henry Ford	Industry	Assembly-line production and mass mobility.
92	Mencius	Philosophy	Confucian moral and political thought.
93	Zoroaster	Religion	Zoroastrianism and dualistic religious ideas.
94	Elizabeth I	Politics / culture	English state formation and Elizabethan culture.
95	Mikhail Gorbachev	Politics	Reforms, end of the Cold War and dissolution of the USSR.
96	Menes	State	Traditional figure of Egyptian unification.
97	Charlemagne	Empire / culture	Carolingian state building and educational reforms.
98	Homer	Literature	The Iliad, the Odyssey and ancient cultural memory.
99	Justinian I	Law / empire	Corpus iuris civilis and Byzantine imperial policy.
100	Mahavira	Religion	Central figure of Jainism.

What is problematic about the list?

It reflects one author's perspective, education and source base.
Women are heavily underrepresented.
Many regions outside Europe, West Asia and East Asia appear only thinly.
The ranking mixes individual action with the later power of institutions and movements.
Destructive influence is still influence, but it must be described clearly.

Sources

FAQ

Is Hart's ranking objective?

No. It is a subjective ranking by one author and should be read as a discussion framework, not final truth.

Does influence mean positive impact?

No. Influence means historical change. Some figures are listed because of destructive consequences.

Why does Shakespeare appear as Edward de Vere?

Hart followed the disputed Oxfordian view in his revised edition. The mainstream scholarly position identifies William Shakespeare of Stratford as the author.