Who was the most influential person of the last hundred years?

Many people have influenced the way the world has turned out. Who, in your opinion, has most influenced the world.

I pick the same person I said in another thread that I would like to go back and kill, Gavrilo Princip the Bosnian Serb who in June of 1914 killed Archduke Ferdinand of Austria/Hungary thereby setting off the chain of events that started WWI.

WWI not only changed the face of Europe, it also changed the face of the world. It was the beginning of the end of the mercantile system under which European countries had colonies around the world. It marked the beginning of the United States as a major player on the world stage. The peace ending it led directly to WWII which in turn led to the race for the atom bomb and the side benefits of atomic energy, jet air travel, the space race with all of its benefits to mankind.

Had not Princip fired that fatal shot the world of today would probably be very different.

 

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Me mum, for if it weren't for her, I wouldn't be here today.

 

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Princips mother.

 

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Those few people that will eventually be the ancestors of all future sapiens.

 

the wright brothers

 

Hitler

 

Hmmm, I suppose because of him, many countries borders shifted and new countries emerged.

 

Mustafa Kemal Ataturk, the founder of the Republic of Turkiye.
google him to find out more

 

Ataturk may havae been influential in the formation of modern, secular Turkey but do you really think he was the most influential person of the last hundred years?

 

After thinking about it Lenin deserves a nod since he helped form the Soviet Union and is one of the founders of communism that dominated most of the 20th century ideology based 3rd world nation wars. Plus the whole cold war thing.

 

huh? The guy was so influential that no one heard of him?

How about Jonas Salk?

 

Mustafa Kemal was a member of the Young Turks, a group of army officers who opposed the Ottoman Empire after WWI. He is the founding father of modern Turkey which he saw as a secular bulwark in a theocratic Muslim world. He was given the honoray title Ataturk (father of the Turks).

 

I thought that everyone had at least heard about him. He's one on a short list of 4 people who's name I heard more than the word function between 7-9 grade.

 

There have been many people that have changed the world in many areas

like physics, astronomy, history, religion and on and on. It is very hard to

say just one person has made a change affecting everyone in the past 100

years for I believe there have been hundreds or thousands of people who

have contributed much for the advancement of humanity.

 

Albert Einstein, of course. Without him there would be no nuclear power, no atomic bombs, no satelitte communications, no modern cosmology.

He shaped both science and history in a way that the world will never be the same again.

 

Uh, no. I couldn't tell you one person from Turkey, or one leader or the Ottoman Empire.

 

Ataturk is pretty famous, from an historical perspective. That Americans may not be all that familiar with him doesn't change that.

That being said, his influence was substantial on Turkey and by extension the region around Turkey, but I'm not sure that it has yet had a broad enough impact (despite monuments to him around the world) to have him dubbed "most influential."

 

I don't think the 20th century really got started until the First World War began. So one could argue Gavrilo Princip, a Bosnian Serb student who shot and killed Archduke Franz Ferdinand, heir to the Austro-Hungarian throne, in Sarajevo, is the most influential person. Think about it. That shot started WW1, which ended the world order that had existed since the Napoleonic Wars. The end of the First World War lay the groundwork for the second, which in turn, lay the groundwork for the Cold War...

 

Gavrilo Princip was just the first convenient excuse that was used by all interested parties. If it weren't him, it would be someone other

Don't be silly, the XX century started in 1901

 

I agree and that is almost exactly the point I tried to make when I began this thread.

Of course if one person didn't do something or act as the catalyst for something someone else would have taken their place, Avatar. The point is, that one person, in this case, Gavrilo Princip, did do it so in my opinion at least and in the opinion of Countezero, that person is the most influential of the last one hundred years.