The greatest people of the 19th century, Part I

Some time back I did a post with my choices for the greatest people of the 20th century.  Now I'll try it for the 19th century. (I would have done it a few days ago, but couldn't find the sheet I'd written the names on because it was under my desk!)

Napoleon Bonaparte (1769-1821).  A Corsican-born artillery officer who rose to general, First Consul of revolutionary France, and an emperor who dominated Europe.  Though eventually defeated, he changed the western world permanently.

Muhammad Ali Pasha (1769-1849). An Albanian soldier who took power in Egypt, routing Mamluke power and reducing Ottoman sovereignty to a dead letter, and also spurring modern Arab nationalism.

Klemens von Metternich (1773-1859). Austrian Foreign Minister from 1809 to 1848, he played a key role in creating the "balance of powers" system at the 1815 Congress of Vienna which largely kept the peace in Europe in the century after Napoleon's defeat.

J.M.W. Turner (1775-1849). An English painter whose revolutionary technique anticipated impressionism.

Simon Bolivar (1783-1830). President of Venezuela, who played a key role in Spanish-speaking Latin America's independence movement that made republican government dominant in the western hemisphere.

Abraham Lincoln (1809-65). President of the U.S.A. during a long, bloody civil war, he ultimately defeated the secessionist South, abolished slavery and confirmed the power of liberal central government in America.

Charles Darwin (1809-82). A British biologist who published The Origin of Species and The Descent of Man, revolutionizing natural history (and creating controversy) with the theory of evolution.

William Gladstone (1809-98). British Prime Minister for much of the late 19th century, he went from Peelite Tory to Liberal champion of free trade and liberal ideals.

Otto von Bismarck (1815-98). Prussian Chancellor who  created the united German Empire (under Prussian leadership) through a series of wars, and as German Chancellor asserted the Empire's power diplomatically through alliances and brokered peaces.

Emperor Alexander II of Russia (1818-81). A progressive autocrat who  succeeded to the throne after Crimean War reverses showed the need for reform, he abolished serfdom, expanded into central Asia and oversaw the beginning of Russia's industrial revolution.

Dowager Empress Cixi (1835-1908). The dominant figure in China's Qing Dynasty during its last half-century, when it tried to combine traditional power with pragmatic modernization.

I could mention a dozen more, and will next week.