People Who Changed the

World

Throughout the story of humans, there

PEOPLE WHO CHANGED have been many people who have made a

difference in the world. Some people made

THE WORLD huge differences, changing the course of

history and affecting huge numbers of

people. These cards tell their stories, and

explain how they changed the world.

 Napoleon Bonaparte

“‘Impossible’ is a word only to be found in the

dictionary of fools.”

Born in a quiet village in France, Napoleon

crowned himself as Emperor in 1804, and went
on to conquer most of Europe. Only a few
decades before, the people of France had risen
up in revolution and executed their royals.

Napoleon upheld the ideas of freedom, equality,

and brotherhood and wrote these into law in
France. He also remodelled France’s military,
church and school systems, and was a genius at
winning battles. He changed much of France
and made the country into a key European
power. As a young man, Napoleon was smart,
ambitious and proud. As he got older, he
became much more vain and felt the need to
show off his power. He was eventually exiled to
an island after his armies were defeated by the
British in 1815.

King Henry VIII

King Henry VIII changed the course of

history in 1534 by beginning the Church of
England, a slightly different Christian
church to that of the traditional Catholic
Church, which is based in Rome. Since,
there have been many conflicts between
these two versions of Christianity. Henry
began this church in order to make it legal
that he divorce his wife, Catherine of
Aragon, since she had not given birth to a
son for him (he wanted a male heir to
become king after him).

After he began the Protestant church, he

named himself head of the Church of
England and declared divorce legal. He
went on to marry Anne Boleyn, until she
too failed to bear him a son. He did this
several more times, in total marrying (and
divorcing/beheading) six women by the
time he himself died in 1547.
 Adolf Hitler

Adolf Hitler rose to power in Germany in

1934, and is responsible for the death and
torment of millions of people. A soldier in
the German army during WW1, Hitler’s
message of hate against Jews and the
Slavic peoples led him to write his famous
book, ‘Mein Kampf’ (‘My Stuggle’), and form
the Nazi party. Today, ‘Neo-Nazis’ still
follow Hitler and read his book.

Hitler blamed the Jews for the disgrace

Germany suffered after WW1, and argued
that certain people were born better,
smarter, stronger and more beautiful
depending on where they were from. These
racist views led to millions of ‘undesirables’
being rounded up and executed whilst he
was Führer of Germany. His actions
against other countries sparked WW2,
which Germany lost.

Martin Luther King, Jr

Until recently, black people in America had

very few rights at all. They didn’t even
have the right to vote - only a few hundred
years earlier, they’d been slaves taken
from Africa and sold as property to white
plantation owners in the New World.

Dr King was one of the key leaders in the

movement that led to black rights - the
Civil Rights movement - in the 1950s and
1960s. His ‘I have a dream’ speech was
attended by thousands of people, both
black and white, and inspired millions to
stand up for the vision he gave them of an
equal and fair future for America. A
talented speaker and visionary, his speech
and leadership led to the Civil Rights Act
of 1962, which gave black people some
important rights. However, racism still
exists in America and the rest of the
world. Dr King was assassinated in 1968.
 Winston Churchill

Churchill was Prime Minister of Britain

from 1940 to 1945, leading the country to
victory in WW2. He refused to surrender
to Nazi Germany, and was not afraid to say
unpopular truths. However, he was also an
inspirational speaker, and is remembered
as a very resilient and strong leader. This
quote, delivered over the radio when
people were worried that Britain would be
invaded, sums up his fighting spirit:

“We shall defend our island, whatever the

cost may be. We shall fight on the
beaches; we shall fight on the landing
grounds; we shall fight in the fields and in
the streets; we shall fight in the hills. We
shall never surrender.”

Julius Caesar

“I came. I saw. I conquered.”

Julius Caesar was a Roman Emperor whose

attempts to gain more power not only
ended in his assassination by his own
friends, but ultimately in the fall of the
Roman Empire itself.

Caesar was a skilled military general and

politician, who campaigned in Spain and
Egypt before coming back to Italy.
Refusing to give up his emergency powers,
he then fought another war in Italy so
that he would not have to give up his
power. Ultimately, his actions were greedy
and divided the Empire. Caesar was then
murdered by his own senators.
 Socrates

“The only true wisdom is in knowing that you

know nothing.”

Socrates lived in ancient Athens, and is

thought of as a very wise man. Socrates
asked lots of questions, which angered
many people. For example, Socrates would
annoy the government by questioning their
actions. He would challenge anything and
everyone with his questions. Many followed
him, including his successor, Plato, and
Aristotle, the man who taught Alexander
the Great.

Eventually, Socrates was captured and put

on trial. He did not stop asking questions,
and was sentenced to death. He drank a cup
of poison called hemlock, teaching others to
carry on questioning even as he did this.

Charles Darwin

Darwin was a young man when the HMS

Beagle left England in 1831 to chart the
coasts of South America, Australia and
South Africa. Whilst on this voyage,
Darwin examined the ways different
animals, reptiles and birds lived.

Darwin is most famous for first publishing

the Theory of Evolution in his famous
book, ‘The Origin of Species’ in 1859. For
the first time, there was an explanation
for why creatures looked and lived that
way that they did. Until this moment,
religious ideas had explained this as “God
made it like that”. With Darwin’s ideas
about evolution, however, there was a clear
and proven link to how animals changed
over time to thrive in their environment.
The idea that mankind evolved from apes
rather than created ‘perfect’ by an all-
powerful God arose from this theory.
 Alexander the Great

“There is nothing impossible to him that

shall try.”

Alexander became king of Macedon in

336BC, at the age of 20. Two years later,
he defeated the Persians at the Battle of
the Granicus River, and began a military
campaign like no other. He took the Persian
Empire as his own and continued exploring
East, reaching as far as India and China
(they began in Greece, remember!) before
he died from poisoning.

Alexander changed the world by literally

conquering off the edge of the map - at
that time, hardly any of the world had
been recorded on maps, and Alexander had
to appoint people in his army to become
mapmakers as he went further East. The
maps they made, and the trade links and
cities they set up, changed how the East
interacted with the West for ever.

Confucius

“He who learns, but does not think, is lost.

He who thinks, but does not learn, is
doomed.”

If you go to school in China, Hong Kong,

Taiwan, Japan - anywhere in East Asia,
really - you will probably have heard of
Confucius. The insights of this Chinese
thinker have influenced Eastern culture
for literally thousands of years. Confucius
was a politician and philosopher whose
ideas were written down in ‘The Analects’
after his death in 479BC. His teachings
were all about the value of tradition, right
and wrong choices, the value of the family
and the importance of a fair and just
society.
 Abraham Lincoln

“Those who deny freedom to others

deserve it not for themselves.”

Lincoln is remembered as the President

who started a war to free the slaves. By
many, this is thought of as the moment
that defined the soul of America - a
country founded on the ideals of freedom
and equality, but which struggled to
actually achieve this for anyone who wasn’t
rich and white. In the South part of
America, slavery was crucial because this
was where most of the cotton and sugar
was farmed on plantations, and so free
workers were important.

Lincoln’s new laws resulted in the American

Civil War, where the South fought with
the North over the issue. Lincoln was
assassinated in 1865.

Muhammad

“There is no God but Allah, and Muhammad is

his messenger” - Muslim statement of faith

Muhammad is the founder of Islam, one of

the largest religions in the world. Like
Jesus in Christianity, he is seen as a
prophet - somebody who could talk to and
interpret the wishes of God.

Muhammad was born in 570 CE, almost 600

years after Jesus. Islam, Christianity and
Judaism are, in actual fact, all different
branches of the same faith, which began
with Abraham and split into different
cultures and parts of the world, with
different central figures. Muhammad is
seen as a man of great honesty and
wisdom, who conquered many lands for
Islam and set the example of how to be a
good Muslim.
 Jesus Christ

Most of what we know about Jesus comes

from the Bible. He was a Jewish preacher
and religious leader, and the religion of
Christianity is named after him. Jesus’
message was one of love, devotion and
acceptance, and he is said to have given his
own life for all of humankind. His example
inspired millions of people to continue to
spread this message.

Regardless of whether or not Jesus really

was able to perform the miracles he is said
to, the number of followers he had and the
stories about his life have changed the
world. Many wars have been fought in his
name, and Christian values lie at the heart
of the laws of some governments, for
example, America’s constitution.

Christopher Columbus

While the Vikings had discovered America

in their wanderings almost 500 years
earlier, Columbus was the first European
to settle the New World successfully. He
had actually been trying to reach India a
faster way when he stumbled across an
entirely new continent in 1492*. He
returned to Spain with the news, and
within decades Europeans had descended
upon the New World, conquering and
colonising. This changed everything, as new
trade links were set up, new species and
crops discovered, and the indigenous
cultures of the Americas were destroyed.

*America is named after the Italian explorer

Amerigo Vespucci, who was the first person to
realise that America was not India and was, in fact,
an entirely new territory. Columbus was also Italian
but his expedition was funded by the Spanish
Crown.
 William Shakespeare

Shakespeare was a master storyteller

during the Renaissance - before books and
films became the main way stories were
told, they wrote plays and acted out the
stories on stage.

Shakespeare is known as the most famous

and talented storyteller and playwright,
not only for his use of language, but also
for the ways he reinvented classic story
structures and characters.

Many of our stories today - for example,

‘The Lion King’ are reworkings of his plays,
written and performed in Elizabethan
England over 500 years ago.

Albert Einstein

Einstein was a master mathematician and

scientist. Even as he got older and famous,
he was always curious and obsessed with
asking the right questions to unlock the
secrets of the universe.

Einstein found school hard, and nobody

thought he would be a success when he got
older. However, he simply thought about
things differently. Much of what we know
about physics comes from Einstein’s ideas.

Einstein was born in Germany but moved to

America when Hitler came to power
(Einstein was Jewish and knew that if he
stayed in Germany, he would face the
discrimination of the Nazis). He died in
1955.
 George Washington

Just over 200 years ago, America (which,

back then, had only 13 states) was still a
colony owned by the British King. At the
time, however, Americans who felt that
they wanted to be their own country – who
called themselves ‘patriots’ – voted for
George Washington to lead their armies in
the American War of Independence.

When the Americans won this war, the

Founding Fathers wrote up the new laws
of their new country. America was to be a
place of freedom and equality, where
anyone could come and make their own life
(of course, with slavery, religious conflict,
and the persecution of the natives, this
did not happen right away!). Washington
was the first President of the United
States.

Saladin

About a thousand years ago, Christians in

Europe tried to capture the city of
Jerusalem - the ‘Holy Land’ - from the
Muslims who lived there. They tried
several times, marching across Europe to
attack the city. This long conflict is known
as ‘The Crusades’.

Saladin was the leader of the Muslim

forces during the Crusades. He was a very
honourable man and was able to reach a
truce with the Christian leaders on two
occasions, ending the conflicts and showing
mercy – something that the Christian
soldiers didn’t show the Muslims when they
had conquered Jerusalem the first time.
The major conflict over the city ended
when Saladin and Richard the Lionheart
agreed to stop the fighting. Christian
travellers could visit the city in peace, but
it remained occupied by the Muslims.
 King Richard the Lionheart

Though Richard was King of England, he was

actually French and spent very little of his
reign in England, instead spending most of it
fighting in the wars known as the Crusades.
These were wars fought over the city of
Jerusalem: Christian forces tried to capture
the ‘Holy Land’ from the Muslims, a conflict
that changed the world forever.

Richard ‘the Lionheart’ is so named for his

bravery, adventurous spirit and skill in battle.
However, he was not a good king, and thought
mostly of glory rather than of being a real
leader and taking care of his people. However,
in the years after his death he was thought of
as the best example of a ‘Holy Knight’ -
chivalrous, brave and devoted to his quest.
Many thought of him as a powerful crusader
and a man of God. In truth, he was selfish and
arrogant. He died after he was shot with a
crossbow while taunting the men on the walls
of a city he was attacking.

Leonardo da Vinci

Leonardo da Vinci was born in Florence,

Italy, during the Renaissance. He was a
polymath - somebody who was skilful and
creative in lots of different areas. Though
often thought of as an artist, he was also a
mathematician, musician, writer, scientist,
inventor, sculptor, and botanist.

Da Vinci was able to achieve an incredible

understanding of these areas by looking
deeply into them, by asking insightful
questions, and thinking across different
topics. As a result, he was able to write
down and create new inventions that would
change those topics forever.
 Karl Marx

Karl Marx thought deeply about how unfair it

was that some people are born rich, and others
poor. 200 years ago, the rich lived in huge
houses, ate well and wore fine clothes, while the
poor hungrily worked all day in factories for
hardly any money. The rich owned the factories
and took most of the money - the poor got
scraps.

Marx didn’t think that the way we use money

was working. He wanted to see a world in which
everyone was paid equally, and nobody was
richer than anyone else. Nobody would buy
their own house - instead, houses and food
would be given to families by the government.
He called his vision for the world ‘communism’ -
‘for the common good’.

Within the last century, some countries tried

out communism. It hasn’t worked very well.
Some important conflicts have resulted.

Steve Jobs

Steve jobs was in charge of Apple, the

computer company. He wanted to change
the world with technology. The first
computer was invented about 60 years ago,
and weighed almost 50 tonnes! Steve Jobs
knew that computers could be smaller,
faster, and could change the world.

Today, almost everyone has a smartphone

that we can use to text, call, find jobs,
manage our calendars, listen to music, play
games, share our work, and surf the
internet. Only a few years ago, all of these
things would have needed a different
device. Before that, we relied on paper or
couldn’t do these things. Technology has
changed the world, and Steve Jobs is seen
as one of the most inventive and visionary
leaders of this change.
 Josephine Baker

“To realise our dreams, we must decide

to wake up”

Josepine Baker was an entertainer, activist,

and secret agent for the French Resistance

during World War 2. She became famous

for her incredible performances, but she

devoted her life to the idea that people of

all nationalities can live peacefully together.

She fought against fascism in Europe during

World War II and racism in the United

States.

Katie Bauman

Katie Bauman is a computer scientist, who

is known as the leader of the first team to

work out how to take a photo of a dead

star - otherwise known as a ‘Black Hole’.

This was an amazing feat that is shaping

our understanding of how Black Holes

work. She must have understood the maths

and the science very well in order to do

this.
 Elizabeth Eckford

Not so long ago in America, it was crazy to

think that black people could go to

university. But in 1957, nine brave tudents,

including Elizabeth Eckford, went to a

university in a place called Little Rock. There

was a nasty crowd outside, jeering at them

and calling them all sorts of names. But they

went inside anyway - this photo was taken of

her and quickly became famous. It helped

the Civil Rights movement and, five years

later, a law was passed that gave black

people the right to vote.

Indira Gandhi

“Forgiveness is a virtue of the brave”

Indira Gandhi was the first, and so far

only, Prime Minister of India. She was

assassinated in 1984, after solving many

problems and changing the politics of the

area forever.
 Anne Boleyn

King Henry VIII wanted to marry Anne

Boleyn but was already married. This

meant he had to divorce his wife,

Catherine, but this wasn’t allowed by the

Catholic church. To get around this, he

began a new church, the Church of

England, which has changed the Christian

religion and its impact in the world

forever. Henry wanting to have a male

baby to become king after him was the

cause of all this, and his plan with Anne

was how he tried to make it happen.

NASA’s ‘Hidden Figures’

In 1969, the first human walked on the

moon. Before this, they sent one into space

- he orbited the earth 3 times and came

back safely. Katherine Johnson, Dorothy

Vaughan and Mary Jackson are known as

NASA’s ‘hidden figures’ - the brains that

made this possible. They were amazing

mathematicians, without whom the journey

into space would not have happened.

 Cleopatra

Cleopatra is one of the best-known women in

history, famed for her supposed beauty and

intellect, and her love affairs with Julius

Caesar and Mark Antony. Through working

with the powerful Roman Empire, she built

up the Egyptian economy, establishing trade

with many Arab nations. She was a popular

ruler among the people of Egypt both

because she embraced the Egyptian culture

and because the country was prosperous

during her rule.

Marie Curie

“The more we understand,

The less we will be afraid of.”

Marie Curie was a scientist. She is remembered

for her discovery of radioactivity - she found

the elements radium and polonium, and carried

out the first research into the treatment of

cancer tumours with radiation. This changed

medicine, and particularly what we know about

treating cancer, forever. She also helped design

the X-Ray.
 Coco Chanel

“Beauty begins the moment you decide to be

yourself.”

Born about 130 years ago in France, ‘Little

Coco’ Chanel became a fashion icon and

changed the world forever through the

creativity and flair in her clothes designs. A

talented and playful young lady, she thought

differently about clothes and materials.

Perhaps most importantly, she encouraged

and inspired millions of women to be

themselves and start their own businesses in

a time where this was difficult

Queen Victoria

“The important thing is not what they think

of me, but what of I think of them.”

Victoria was queen of Great Britain from

1837-1901, a period in which the world

changed forever. In this time, important

changed happened in Britain - for example,

the invention of the train – as well as

overseas. During Victoria’s reign Britain

took control of many other countries and

established the largest empire the world

has ever seen. Almost the entire world was

changed in this period.

 Malala Yousafzai

“When the whole world is silent, even one voice

becomes powerful.”

When the Taliban took control of parts of

Pakistan, they banned television and music, and

said that girls could not go to school. Malala

made some speeches about girls’ right to

education, and quickly became a target of the

Taliban. In 2012 she was nearly killed by a gun

shot wound to the head when one of them

attacked her on a bus. She moved to England

and continued to speak out against oppression,

inspiring millions. She was given the Nobel

Peace Prize in 2014.

Emmeline Pankhurst

“I would rather be a rebel than a slave.”

Emmeline Pankhurst was born in England in

1858. As she grew older, Emmeline noticed

that women were treated differently to men

and became motivated to help change that. In

1903 she, along with her daughters Sylvia and

Christabel, founded the Women's Social and

Political Union (WSPU). She was arrested

several times for demonstrating about

Women’s Rights, leading to some important

changes in England’s laws.

 Benazir Bhutto

“You can imprison a man, but not an idea.

You can exile a man, but not an idea.

You can kill a man, but not an idea.”

Benazir Bhutto was prime minister in Pakistan

before she was assassinated in 2007. She

endured house arrest and exile throughout her

political career, overcame the powerful mullahs’

objections to a woman’s ruling an Islamic nation,

and won admirers all over the world for her

political skills and compassion. Even after her

death, she serves as the ultimate mentor to

Pakistani girls and women who want to set the

course of their lives for themselves, instead of

having it dictated to them.

Ellen Degeneres

“The truth is, we are all one connected thing.

We are all from the same exact molecules.”

Ellen is an American comedian, television host,

actress, writer, and producer. She did the voice

of Dori in ‘Finding Nemo’. Ellen is funny, bright

and charismatic, and is probably the most well-

known lesbian in the USA. She married actress

Portia de Rossi in 2008. She has done a lot for

gay and lesbian rights, both as an activist and

by giving them voice on her popular show.

 Isabel the Catholic

Isabella I of Castile was queen from 1474 to

1505, and she had to fight a civil war to

secure her throne. Bold, strategic, and

steady, Isabella navigated an unlikely rise to

the throne and ushered in a golden age for

Spain. She unified the country, parts of which

had been controlled by the Moors, and

sponsored voyages overseas (like Columbus’

trip to America). This strengthened Spain into

an economic and dominant world power,

enabling the spread of Christianity and the

colonization of a New World.

Juana Azurduy

Juana Azurduy de Padilla was a guerrilla military

leader from Chuquisaca, Bolivia (a country in

South America). The Spanish had settled there

and mixed with the natives, imposing a caste

system which privileged the white Spaniards

over the natives. Juana fought for Bolivian

independence alongside her husband, Manuel

Ascencio Padilla, earning the rank of Lieutenant

Colonel in the fight to push the Spanish out of

the territory. During an 1815 battle at Pintatora,

Azurduy left the battlefield to give birth to her

fourth son. In an act that would become legend,

she returned just hours later to the front lines

to rally her troops, and personally captured the

standard of the defeated Spanish forces.

 Florence Nightingale

“Let us never consider ourselves finished… we

must be learning all our lives.”

Florence Nightingale is known as the founder

of modern nursing. She was born in Italy to an

English family, and they came back to England

in 1821. Florence dedicated her life to the

treatment of the sick and frail, changed the

design of hospitals, and developed the field of

preventive medicine (medicine that stops

problems before they happen). She also made

rules on workplace safety and hygiene for

nurses, determined to stop germs spreading

infections and disease.

Joan of Arc

“All battles are first won or lost

in the mind”

Joan of Arc is is considered a heroine of France

for her role during the Hundred Years’ War

(1337-1453). She was made into a saint after

her death. In this war, England was fighting

France. By 1429, the French were losing; the

English were besieging the city of Orleans. Joan

led an army to fight them. She managed to make

the army believe in her and she helped to lead

them to victories that lifted the siege. This was

a major turning point in the war. Had she not

done this, England may have won this war instead

of France.
 Amelia Earhart

“Fear takes you to where your courage is.”

Amelia Earhart was an American aviator who

set many flying records and championed the

advancement of women in aviation. She became

the first woman to fly solo across the Atlantic

Ocean, and the first person ever to fly solo

from Hawaii to the U.S. mainland. Part of

Amelia’s legacy is through her work to

motivate women to pursue their careers and

her support of the Equal Rights Amendment as

well.

Rosa Parks

“To bring about change, you must not be afraid to

take the first step.

We will fail when we fail to try.”

Just 60 years ago in America, black people had to

sit at the back of the bus while the white people

had seats at the front. Rosa Parks started

something huge in the struggle for racial equality

when she refused to give up her bus seat to a

white man in Montgomery, Alabama. She was

arrested, so 17,000 black citizens in Montgomery

stopped using the buses. This was an event that

we call the ‘Montgomery Bus Boycott’. This

eventually led to some important Civil Rights laws

being changed in America.