| A | B |
|---|
| Loyola, Ignatius | (1491-1556) Founded the Society of Jesus, the Order of the Jesuits. He worked to combat the Protestant Reformation by providing strong Catholic leadership to monarchs across Europe. |
| Luther, Martin | (1483-1546) Theologian and religious reformer who started the Reformation with his 95 Theses which protested church corruption, namely the sale of indulgences. |
| Machiavelli, Niccolo | (1469-1527) Italian historian, statesman, and political philosopher of the Renaissance. His greatest work is The Prince, a book of political advice to rulers in which he describes the methods that a prince should use to acquire and maintain political power. This book was used to defend policies of despotism and tyranny. Machiavelli wrote that a ruler should take any action to remain in power, or that “the ends justifies the means.” |
| Magellan, Ferdinand | (1480?-1521) Spanish explorer who was the first to circumnavigate the globe. |
| Mandela, Nelson | (1918 - )A black South African leader who protested the policy of Apartheid and spent over thirty years in prison before becoming the first black president of South Africa. |
| Mansa Musa | Emperor of the kingdom of Mali in Africa. He made a famous pilgrimage to Mecca and established trade routes to the Middle East. |
| Mao Zedong | (1893-1976) Leader of the Communist Party in China that overthrew Jiang Jieshi and the Nationalists. Established China as the People’s Republic of China and ruled from 1949 until 1976. |
| Marco Polo | (1254-1324) Italian explorer and author. He made numerous trips to China and returned to Europe to write of his journeys. He is responsible for much of the knowledge exchanged between Europe and China during this time period. |
| Maria Teresa | An enlightened Despot who ruled the Austrian Empire. |
| Marx, Karl | (1818-1883), German political philosopher and writer. Coauthor with Friedrich Engels of The Communist Manifesto which described the new philosophy of scientific socialism, which is the basis for modern communism. |
| Maurya, Chandragupta | (?-286 BCE) First king of the Maurya dynasty in India. |
| Mazzini, Guiseppe | (1805-1872), Nationalistic leader in Italy, who started a group called Young Italy in 1831. Young Italy was a nationalistic movement that wanted to end foreign control of Italy. |
| Meiji | (1852-1912) Emperor of Japan from 1867 to 1912. He was responsible for the end of the Tokugawa Shogunate and the rapid modernization and industrialization of Japan. |
| Mencius | (371?-289 BCE), Chinese philosopher, who studied Confucianism. He later refined many of the ideas and spread them across China. Also known as Mengzi, or Meng-tzu. |
| Menes : | (3100? BCE) King of Upper Egypt, united the two kingdoms of Upper and Lower Egypt |
| Michelangelo | (1475-1564) An Italian sculptor, painter, poet, engineer, and architect. Famous works include the mural on the ceiling of the Sistine Chapel, and the sculpture of the biblical character David. |
| Milosevic, Slobodan | (1941- ) Former Yugoslavian President. He fought to keep non-Serbs from breaking away from Yugoslavia. During the 1990s, he used his army to terrorize ethnic Albanians in Kosovo, who were asking for self rule. The North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) finally put a stop to this violence, and Milosevic has since been arrested and awaits trial for war crimes. |
| Mohammed | Prophet of Allah; founder of Islam. |
| Mussolini, Benito | (1883-1945) Italian leader. He founded the Italian Fascist Party, and sided with Hitler and Germany in World War II. In 1945 he was overthrown and assassinated by the Italian Resistance. |
| Nasser, Gamal Abdel | (1918-1970) President of Egypt from 1956 to 1970. He was responsible for nationalizing the Suez Canal, and was an important leader to the Arab world. He was often at odds with the West and Israel. |
