The 100, a ranking of the most influential people in history

The 100, a ranking of the most influential people in history is a book written in 1978 by Michael H. Hart, an American astrophysicist. It is a list of the hundred people who, according to the author, have been the most influential in the history of humanity. The list is (according to the author's own confession) absolutely personal and his own, so it should not be considered a source of true information due to the various statistical and historical inconsistencies that it presents.

Inclusion criteria

Among the criteria that Michael Hart took into account to make his list are:

• anonymous characters (the discoverer of fire, wheel, etc) are not accepted;
• people are judged for their actions, and not for the ease that others had carried them out (they would not be worth arguments of the type "if Christopher Columbus had not arrived in America, he would have already done another");
• that their actions had a known or valueable impact (it would not be worth the Vikings arriving in America before Columbus, as that barely influenced history);
• the number of people on which it was influenced, to what extent and over how long, or how many of those achievements have now stood. It also tended to favor those characters who had performed acts whose repercussions were universal (highly widespread or scientific religions) against those who only exerted a more or less local influence (religions circumscribed to a geographical or political area of great relevance in their respective countries).

From the list, it is worth noting the relevant qualitative role of religious figures (the top ten on the list are mostly of this type) and scientists, the scarce presence of writers or artists compared to the high number of scientific or political figures- military, the abundance of European and/or Anglo-Saxon personalities in contrast to the African ones (a curious fact that Hart mentions is the relatively high number of Scots), although there are also plenty of Asians, and the presence of only two women. According to Michael Hart, these facts are not due to the author's ideological criteria, but to what he believes has been the history of the world, where women have had little political or social relevance, Europeans and Americans have controlled the world order, religious leaders have exerted great influence over time and on large numbers of people, and artists, unfortunately, have not been as relevant as politicians or the military.

On the other hand, the choice of Muhammad as first on the list might come as a surprise. The explanation, according to Michael Hart, is that Muhammad not only created Islamism, but was the main person responsible for its spread, and in turn generated a military movement that would change history. On the other hand, in the case of Jesus Christ, the diffusion carried out in life was limited to a few disciples, and Saint Paul was the main person responsible for its initial diffusion, which would make it the majority religion in future times ―apart from not having a clear military movement as a consequence, the political repercussion of Christianity would not become palpable until Constantine the Great. The fact that Jesus Christ and Saint Paul have to share that credit makes their position less, and therefore, according to Hart, this first position corresponds to Muhammad. Although the relationship between the inclusion in the list and the religions to which its members belong has been widely discussed, in reality almost half of the first 50 characters are related to science and technology.

As for representatives of the Spanish-speaking community (to which the Spanish Wikipedia is directed), the list includes only four Spaniards (Francisco Pizarro, Hernán Cortés and the Catholic Monarchs), one Italian-Spanish (Christopher Columbus) and only a South American, Simón Bolívar. The original list included one more Spaniard, the painter Pablo Picasso.

Editions

The book was republished in 1992 with some modifications. Most of them were influenced by the fall of communism (the posts of Karl Marx, Lenin or Mao Zedong fell drastically, although Stalin's hardly changed, and Mikhail Gorbachev entered the list), some reconsiderations or the correction of oversights (Ernest Rutherford, in fact, was not on the original list due to the author's unintentional and confessed forgetfulness), and other criteria. For example, Picasso, Becquerel and Niels Bohr left the list, but Henry Ford and the aforementioned Rutherford and Gorbachev entered.

List of the most influential people in the history of humanity

1. Mohammed, founder of Islam.
2. Isaac Newton, English scientist.
3. Jesus Christ, founder of Christianity.
4. Buddha, founder of Buddhism.
5. Confucius, founder of Confucianism.
6. Paul of Tarsus, Apostle and Holy Christian, promoter of Christianity.
7. Cai Lun, inventor of paper.
8. Johannes Gutenberg, reinventor of the printing press (invented in 1048 by the Chinese Bi Sheng).
9. Christopher Columbus, first European to make America known in Europe.
10. Albert Einstein, German scientist.
11. Louis Pasteur, French biochemical.
12. Galileo Galilei, Italian scientist.
13. Aristotle, Greek philosopher.
14. Euclides, Greek mathematician.
15. Moses, the most important prophet for Judaism.
16. Charles Darwin, British biologist.
17. Qin Shi Huang, first emperor and unifying China.
18. Augustus, first Roman emperor.
19. Nicolas Copernicus, Polish astronomer.
20. Antoine Lavoisier, French chemist.
21. Constantine the Great, Roman emperor.
22. James Watt, British scientist and inventor.
23. Michael Faraday, British scientist and inventor.
24. James Clerk Maxwell, British physicist.
25. Martin Luther, creator of Protestantism.
26. George Washington, American politician.
27. Karl Marx, German philosopher.
28. Brothers Wright, Orville and Wilbur, creators of the first airplane.
29. Genghis Khan, Mongolian military leader.
30. Adam Smith, British economist.
31. William Shakespeare, British writer.
32. John Dalton, British scientist.
33. Alexander the Great, Greek politician and military.
34. Napoleon, French politician and military.
35. Nikola Tesla, Austrian-American inventor.
36. Anton van Leeuwenhoek, Dutch scientist, microscope inventor.
37. William Morton, anesthesia inventor.
38. Guillermo Marconi, Italian inventor.
39. Adolf Hitler, German dictator.
40. Plato, Greek philosopher.
41. Oliver Cromwell, British politician.
42. Alexander Graham Bell, Scottish scientist, patented the phone in the United States.
43. Alexander Fleming, Scottish scientist, penicillin discoverer.
44. John Locke, British philosopher.
45. Ludwig van Beethoven, German musician.
46. Werner Heisenberg, German scientist.
47. Louis Daguerre, French scenographer, main inventor of photography.
48. Simon Bolivar, Venezuelan military, South American independentist leader, father of six nations.
49. René Descartes, French philosopher.
50. Michelangelo, sculptor, painter and Italian architect.
51. Urban II, Italian pope, who impulsed the First Crusade.
52. Omar, Arab military, political descendant of Mohammed, a great military and political driver of Islam.
53. Ashoka, Indian emperor, chief diffuser of Buddhism after Buddha.
54. Augustine of Hippo, an Algerian religious and philosopher, a Christian saint.
55. William Harvey, English doctor, discoverer of major blood circulation.
56. Ernest Rutherford, New Zealand physicist.
57. Juan Calvino, French theologian, creator of Calvinist religion.
58. Gregor Mendel, discoverer of the laws of genetic inheritance.
59. Max Planck, German physicist.
60. Joseph Lister, asepsia booster in surgical operations.
61. Nikolaus August Otto, creator of the internal combustion engine.
62. Francisco Pizarro, Spanish, conqueror of the Inca Empire.
63. Hernán Cortés, Spanish, conqueror of the Aztec empire.
64. Thomas Jefferson, American politician and philosopher.
65. Isabella the Catholic, although also Fernando, Spanish kings.
66. Iosif Stalin, Soviet communist dictator.
67. Julius Caesar, Roman politician and military.
68. William I, English king.
69. Sigmund Freud, Austrian doctor, father of psychoanalysis.
70. Edward Jenner, inventor of the smallpox vaccine.
71. Wilhelm Röntgen, X-ray discoverer.
72. Johann Sebastian Bach, German musician.
73. Lao Tse, Chinese philosopher.
74. Voltaire (François Marie Arouet), a French philosopher.
75. Johannes Kepler, German astronomer.
76. Enrico Fermi, inventor of the first atomic energy-based reactor, considered the father of the atomic bomb.
77. Leonhard Euler, Swiss mathematician.
78. Jean-Jacques Rousseau, Swiss philosopher.
79. Nicolas Machiavelli, Italian politician and philosopher.
80. Thomas Malthus, British economist, author of the first book on the consequences of population growth (first demographer).
81. John F. Kennedy, U.S. President, the main contribution on the list is to start the space program.
82. Gregory Pincus, creator of the birth control pill.
83. Mani, an Iranian religious, creator of Maniism.
84. Lenin (Vladimir Illich Uliánov), Russian politician, installer of communism in Russia.
85. Sui Went-Ti, China unifier after Shih Huang-Ti.
86. Vasco de Gama, a Portuguese navy, demonstrated that it could be reached in India bordering Africa, opening an alternative to the classic Ruta de las Especias.
87. Cyrus II the Great, Persian Emperor.
88. Peter I of Russia, Russian emperor, considered the great modernizer of this country.
89. Mao Zedong, or Mao Tse-tung, dictator who installed communism in China.
90. Francis Bacon, a British philosopher, father of the scientific method.
91. Henry Ford, inventor of chain and automobile production.
92. Mencio, confusing philosopher.
93. Zoroastro, father of Zoroastrianism, religion of Persian origin.
94. Isabel I, English queen.
95. Mikhail Gorbachev dismantled communism from within in the Soviet Union.
96. Menes, first Pharaoh of unified Egypt.
97. Charlemagne, creator of an empire that would include current France and Germany and which served as inspiration for subsequent attempts at European unification.
98. Homer, Greek blind poet, author of the Iliad and the Odyssey.
99. Justinian I, Byzantine emperor.
100. Mahavira, an Indian religious, founder of the Yainist religion.

Omissions

As the list is the result of the personal reflections of its author, there are varied opinions and considerations about who deserves to have been included and who does not appear and conversely, who does not deserve to be mentioned among the 100. Michael Hart explains at the end of his book some criteria to leave out some characters, of which we only mention a few: Leonardo Da Vinci is not included because, despite his genius, his great discoveries were not helpful since his manuscripts were not brought to light in due course, which implies that his studies were rediscovered as time passed. Thus, his efforts would have been somewhat in vain for humanity (in the sense of influencing it), since his ideas remained in the shadows for more than three centuries; Marie Curie is an example for scientists and feminists, but her discoveries, although very relevant, are not enough to be included in the list; Henri Becquerel discovered radioactivity, but he didn't really investigate much more about the phenomenon, etc.

Bibliographic information

In English

• Hart, Michael H. (1978). The 100: a ranking of the most influential persons in history. Original from the University of Michigan (1st edition). Carol Pub. Group. p. 572. |fechaacceso= requires |url= (help)

• Hart, Michael H. (1992). The 100 - Revised. Revised and illustrated reprint (2nd edition). pp. 556. ISBN 9780806513508. Consultation on 22 December 2012.

In Spanish

• Hart, Michael H. (1995). The 100: a "ranking" of the 100 most influential characters in history. Translated by Guggenheimer, Richard Charles. Anaya & Mario Muchnik. p. 581. ISBN 97884792060. |fechaacceso= requires |url= (help)