Featured
Sonni Ali was the ruthless 15th-century warlord-king of Songhai who carved an empire out of West Africa with cavalry, river fleets, and a famously uncompromising taste for conquest.
Rank - 177
Bartholomew “Black Bart” Roberts was the ruthless, impeccably dressed Welsh pirate who terrorized the Atlantic before dying in a blaze of cannon fire in 1722.
Rank - 178
Arturo Prat Chacón was the Chilean naval officer who turned a hopeless battle into a national legend, dying in a single leap that defined a country’s idea of courage.
Rank - 180
Artemisia I of Caria led her boat through the chaos of Salamis, proving that cunning could strike harder than any bronze ram.
Rank - 196
Smedley D. Butler was a two-time Medal of Honor–winning U.S. Marine who spent decades fighting America’s overseas wars during the age of imperial expansion. After retiring, he became one of the nation’s fiercest critics of war profiteering, condemning the very system that had made him famous.
Rank - 148