History’s biggest Badasses
Smedley D. Butler
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
Georgios Karaiskakis
Greek revolutionary commander of the War of Independence, famed for ruthless guerrilla tactics, obscene candor, and battlefield brilliance. A klepht turned national hero who fought the Ottoman Empire with ambushes, audacity, and a terminal disregard for authority.
Rank - 151
Haji Murad
Mountain warlord, double-crossing survivor, and nightmare of the Russian Empire. He fought for faith, power, and family in that order—then died doing all three at once, proving the Caucasus never belonged to anyone who wanted it neatly.
Rank - 153
Moulay Ismail ibn Sharif
Moulay Ismail ruled Morocco like a furnace with a crown, forging unity through terror, the Black Guard, and a fifty-year rei gn where mercy was the only thing he never built.
Rank - 163
Askia Muhmmad I
Askia Muhammad I rose from seasoned commander to empire-shaping monarch, forging the largest realm in West African history through ruthless discipline, political precision, and relentless conquest.
Rank - 164
Vlad III Tepes
Vlad III Țepeș turned a bleeding borderland into a kingdom defended by terror, crafting a legacy where strategy and brutality became the same blade.
Rank - 168
Banda Singh Bahadur
Banda Singh Bahadur was a fearless Sikh revolutionary who rose from ascetic origins to lead a populist uprising that shattered Mughal power and redefined resistance in 18th-century India.
Rank - 170
Abd el-Krim
Abd el-Krim was the Amazigh strategist who united the Rif tribes, shattered Spain at Annual, and became a defining symbol of 20th-century anti-colonial resistance.
Rank - 171
Adrian Carton de Wiart
A walking catalogue of injuries, Adrian Carton de Wiart charged through the twentieth century’s worst battles with the attitude of a man personally offended by mortality.
Rank - 175
Bartholomew “Black Bart” Roberts
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
Otto Skorzeny
Otto Skorzeny (1908–1975) was an Austrian SS commando famed for his audacious World War II special operations.
Rank - 179
Ernesto “Che” Guevara
Che Guevara was an Argentine revolutionary and guerrilla commander who became both a symbol of global rebellion and a cautionary tale of how conviction can burn a man alive from the inside out.
Rank - 181
Paul Emil von Lettow-Vorbeck
In the steaming chaos of East Africa, Paul von Lettow-Vorbeck fought the entire British Empire to a standstill with nothing but mosquitoes, discipline, and pure Prussian spite.
Rank - 185
Cúchulainn
He died on his feet so Ireland wouldn’t have to—but she did anyway, again and again, just to keep him company.
Rank - 190
Dihya (al-Kahina)
Defiant to her final breath, Dihya united the Berber tribes and turned the desert itself into a weapon against the invading Caliphate.
Rank - 193
Zenobia of Palmyra
She turned a desert outpost into an empire, crowned herself against Rome, and rode into history as the queen who made rebellion look divine.
Rank - 197
Vercingetorix
Vercingetorix burned his world to save it—and when the ashes settled, even Caesar couldn’t put out the legend.
Rank - 198
Hernan Cortés
The bastard who burned his ships and an empire with them, Hernán Cortés turned ambition into apocalypse and called it salvation.
Rank - 200