Who was the greatest ever military commander, strategist ?

Answer 1

Sun Tzu (who wrote The Art Of War). Ancient Chinese warrior (500BC) who first wrote about warfare.

"The oldest military Treastise in the world"

Answer 2

Of ancient times you would have to put Alexander the Great as one of if not the best commander. The amount of the globe he dominated with the limited resources under his command was incredible, most of which he did before he was 30. Many historian's also claim he may have been a closet homosexual, even though he fathered children.

Of more modern times, you would have to put the Duke of Wellington. He with allied armies ended the reign of Napoleon in Europe, if he like Hitler had left Russia alone chances are the Europe of today would all be speaking French.

Sheshadri K: this is for you, whoever gave you the idea Hitler was a good strategist? At the fall of Berlin, he was ordering around non existing battle groups to protect himself from the Russians, why do you think so many high up military personnel were involved in the assassination attempt...

Answer 3

Gaius Jullius Caesar
Scipio Africanus
Napoleon Bonaparte
Stonewall Jackson
Paul Hausser
Hannibal Barca
Erwin Rommel
George Patton
Omar Bradley
ALexander the Great
Robert E. Lee


I liked Caesar's empire building scheme, his exploits in Germania and Britain.

Answer 4

Genghis Khan - his Mongal Empire (1296-1368) is the largest contiguous empire in world history. Starting with the invasion of Western Xia and Jin Dynasty in northern China and consolidating through numerous conquests including the Khwarezmid Empire in Persia, Mongol rule across the Eurasian landmass radically altered the demography and geopolitics of these areas. The Mongol Empire ended up ruling, or at least briefly conquering, large parts of modern day China, Mongolia, Russia, Azerbaijan, Armenia, Georgia, Iraq, Iran, Turkey, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Uzbekistan, Pakistan, Tajikistan, Afghanistan, Turkmenistan, Moldova, and Kuwait.

Positive perception of Genghis Khan

Negative views of Genghis Khan are very persistent with histories written by many different people from various different geographical regions, but some historians are looking into positive aspects of Genghis Khan's conquests. Genghis Khan is sometimes credited with bringing the Silk Route under one cohesive political environment. Theoretically this allowed increased communication and trade between the West, Middle East and Asia by expanding the horizon of all three areas. In more recent times some historians point out that Genghis Khan instituted certain levels of meritocracy in his rule and was quite tolerant of many religions.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Genghis_Khan

Answer 5

Got to be Wellington. He was the only one to consistently beat the French armies time after time. His use of defensive tactics and terrain (look at the lines of torres vedra) meant that he would not waste the lives of his men needlessly, his troops knew this and responded with increased morale and determination. Even before the penninsular war he had defeated a modern Indian army of over 100 000 men with only 23000 of his own at the battle of Assaye.
marshal Zhukov was also a military genius without him and the red army the allies could well of lost the war, 90% of german casualties were on the Eastern Front where battles raged that made D-Day look like a skirmish.
Guderian rather than Rommell was the master of tank warfare whose greatest achievement was the blitzkrieg on France and the low countries.
To those who said Patton. WHAT THE F**K ARE YOU ON. This guy was a one dimensional tactician who relied on aggression over skill and wasted lives neddlessly. He was more worried about his ego, his image and his conflict with Monty than his own troops, look at the time he hit his own shell shocked soldiers and called them cowards. This guy should of been a Sgt not a general.

Answer 6

General Robert E Lee[General] Commander of the Army of Northern Virginia and General Nathan Bedford Forrest.Two GREAT commanders who with limited resources,including manpower,gave the South a fighting chance.

Answer 7

Alexander the Great springs to mind, after all he did accomplish quite a bit in a short time, with limited resources. However Hannibal conquered insurmountable odds when he took on the Roman Empire, fought huge battle serverly outnumbered, and slaughtered the romans to a man. He was defeated in the end, and went to Persia, his death was uneventful. Julius Ceasar was also a good battlefield general, but maybe not as good as AG. In modern times, I would go with Eisenhower, after all he tricked Rommel, commanded Montgomery, orchestrated the D-day invasion, liberated France(ignored the advice of that retard DeGaul, moron), decimated german forces, with less than half projected causulties. There are many good military commanders. My hat goes off to anyone who can formulate a plan to defeat the enemy and send their countrymen and allies to their death, it must weigh on their soul. The good ones anyway.

Answer 8

I am not a historian, but I would have to answer by suggesting the name of Alexander the Great. Some of the things his small army achieved are almost too much to be believed. His army defeated armies more than ten times as large. How? I do not know all the stuff the ancient scholars know about this, but some ancient historians will tell you Alexander was the most amazingly successful military commander ever.

Answer 9

In My opinion of the ancient world, Alexander& Hanibal.
Of moderen times Manstien, Gaurdian, Zhukov, and Eisenhower
My overall winner I would say would be Alexander though, as he conquered all with relitivley small numbers of troops and importantly held the terratory gained.

Answer 10

Alexander the Great
Julis Ceaser
Gengis Khan
Drake
Wellington
Napolian
Nelson
Hitler
Montgomery
Rommel
Patton