1/ Erwin Rommel
2/ Hannibal Barca
3/ Horatio Nelson
4/ Henry V
5/ Napolion Bonapart

The above are sort of in order.

This is not my subject but I'll have a shot anyway. In no particular order.

Alexander the Great
Hannibal the Great
Charlemagne
Julius Caesar
Genghis Khan

They all changed the course of world history & helped make it into what we know today. Not only geat military leaders but they also influenced civilisation itself by establishing law & order, however brutal some might seem today. There are many more to choose from, some far more recent, but these might not even have existed or been in a position to change anything if this had not been the case. That's my theory & I'm sticking to it.

In no particular order:

Karl Doenitz
Mao Tse Tung
Ghengis Khan
Von Clauswitz
Sun Tzu
Custer

I suppose the argument could be made that Mao and Von Clauswitz are really variations of Sun Tzu's philosophies, but the applications seem important to me.

Keeping in mind the original question criteria (mlitary (leaders?) who most influenced the world) and not necessarily the most successful I would have to go with with (chronological order):

Alexander the Great (d. 323 BC) - Basically stomped across the entire known world before his death at age 32.  He just didn't realize how big the world was so he turned around when he reached India.  He might have gone further but he died.

Julius Caesar (d. 44 BC) - The Roman conqueror.  Extended the Roman Empire to its greatest extent.  His adopted son/nephew Augustus finally pacified the conquered territories to bring them fully into the empire.

William, Duke of Normandy (d. 1087) - Have you ever heard of the Norman Conquest?

Napoleon Bonaparte (d. 1821).  Sort of.  The end result of the Napoleonic Wars was the treaty of Austria (and as a side effect the Treaty of Ghent guaranteeing American independence) which resulted in world peace for 100 years, until WWI.

Adolf Hitler (d. 1945) - Yes, he was a military leader.  Masterminded the blitzkrieg into Poland and France.  His final military offensive, which almost succeded, was the Battle of the Bulge (1944).  Why was he influential?  Because he commanded the last and largest war of the last century.  You could say that Josef Stalin was his equal because his army defeated Hitler's and his influence extended into the Cold War of the 1950-60's - but it's a judgment call.

Who doesn't get my vote.

Rommel, Hannibal - losing generals don't influence history.

Quote:


For some reason, that's one year that pops into my mind... although 1493 is a bit more relevant to me ..

I was reading that William actually had a claim to the English "throne" such as it existed at the time, so that when Harold proclaimed himself king, William went to 'defend' his claim.  Like you say, Harold was fresh from a battle with the Vikings, and the rest, as we say, is history.

Hagar hit the nail on the head.  William's influence was more in the social/cultural (do you eat pig or pork deer or venison) fields rather than military.  He ordered the first comprehensive census - the Domesday Book - that still exists.

I never thought of William the Conqueror as a military genius  and to be honest I have no idea what his military abilities may have been.  The question was about influential military commanders and I think you would have to agree that he was influential.

A. Hitler was not a particularly competent military commander but he made my list over several other WWII era commanders (Eisenhower, Stalin, Zukov, Patton) because he had a greater individual influence than any of them.

But Harald never attacked.  He turned up at Battle Abbey (lol) and formed a shield wall.  The Normans rather sportingly obliged by repeatedly attacking it.

If the theigns had kept a tighter control over their men we would have a slightly different history.

Will