History’s biggest Badasses
Hari Singh Nalwa
Hari Singh Nalwa was a leading general of the Sikh Empire who secured its northwest frontier and halted repeated Afghan incursions into Punjab. Serving under Maharaja Ranjit Singh, he became a symbol of Sikh military power and frontier rule, remembered for his campaigns from Kashmir to the Khyber Pass.
Rank - 143
John Hunyadi
John Hunyadi (c. 1407–1456) was a Hungarian military commander and crusader who repeatedly halted Ottoman expansion into Central Europe. His decisive defense of Belgrade in 1456 delayed Ottoman advances for decades and cemented his reputation as the Balkans’ last great shield.
Rank - 144
Lê Lợi
Lê Lợi (1385–1433) was a Vietnamese patriot-king who led the Lam Sơn uprising and successfully expelled Ming Chinese rule from Vietnam in the early 15th century. He founded the Later Lê dynasty, securing Vietnamese independence and shaping the nation’s political identity for centuries.
Rank - 145
Tipu Sultan
When the walls of Seringapatam fell, he didn’t flee—he fought until the tiger stripes faded from his own blood.
Rank - 146
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
Tiglath-Pileser I
Tiglath-Pileser I was an Assyrian king of the 12th century BCE who expanded his empire through relentless military campaigns and the calculated use of terror as state policy. His meticulously recorded conquests turned violence into propaganda and set the template for later Assyrian imperial power.
Rank - 149
Baldwin I of Jerusalem
Baldwin I of Jerusalem was the first king of the Crusader Kingdom of Jerusalem, a hard-edged Frankish warlord who turned conquest into governance. He secured and expanded the kingdom through relentless warfare, political pragmatism, and a clear-eyed understanding that survival mattered more than sanctity.
Rank - 150
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
Mustafa Kemal Atatürk
Mustafa Kemal Atatürk was the soldier-statesman who crushed an invasion at Gallipoli and then dismantled a collapsing empire to build a fiercely secular modern Turkey.
Rank - 154
Carl Gustaf Emil Mannerheim
Finnish marshal who led the defense of Finland during the Winter War and preserved the nation’s independence against overwhelming Soviet force.
Rank - 155
Audie Murphy
At Holtzwihr, Audie Murphy climbed a burning tank destroyer and dared an armored battalion to try and take it back.
Rank - 156
Bayinnaung
Bayinnaung rose from minor nobility to command an empire that dominated Burma, Siam, Lan Na, and Laos.
Rank - 158
Pachacuti Inca Yupanqui
He rebuilt the Andes into an orderly machine and made the world climb with him.
Rank - 159
Topa Inca Yupanqui
He conquered the Andes with mathematics, sunlight, and an unreasonable sense of direction.
Rank - 160
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
Stefan Dušan 'the Mighty'
Stefan Dušan rode through the Balkan smoke like a man convinced the world was one good conquest away from making sense, leaving empires, enemies, and common sense trampled under his horse’s hooves.
Rank - 165
Mahāpadma Nanda
He built an empire by removing every man who thought birth alone made him safe, and the silence he left behind still sounds like power sharpening its teeth.
Rank - 166
John Churchill, Duke of Marlborough
The general who won with charm, math, and other forms of subtle violence.
Rank - 167
Leonidas I
Leonidas I, the third son who was never meant to be king, died in a narrow pass at Thermopylae turning a doomed delay into a legend sharp enough to outlive the empire that killed him.
Rank - 169
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