Alexander I
1777 – 1825 · 48 years · Saint Petersburg · Eastern Europe & Russia
Reign: 1801 – 1825 (Rus and Russia)
Grandson of Catherine the Great, he began his reign with liberal reforms and created the ministries. He led Russia in the Patriotic War of 1812, entered Paris with the Allies and initiated the Holy Alliance.
Wikipedia (Russian) · Wikipedia (English) · 18th century
Portrait: Alexander Molinari · Public domain · Wikimedia Commons
Contemporaries around the world
Europe
- Johann Wolfgang von Goethe — German poet and thinker, 28 years older
- Ludwig van Beethoven — German composer, 7 years older
- Napoleon Bonaparte — Emperor of the French, 8 years older
- Charles Darwin — naturalist, author of evolutionary theory, 32 years younger
- Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart — Austrian composer, 21 years older
- Francis II — last Holy Roman Emperor, who dissolved the empire in 1806, 9 years older
Eastern Europe & Russia
- Alexander Pushkin — Russian poet, 22 years younger
- Catherine the Great — Empress of Russia, 48 years older
- Mikhail Kutuzov — Russian field marshal, 32 years older
- Nicholas I — emperor who crushed the Decembrist revolt, 19 years younger
- Paul I — emperor who reformed the succession law, killed by conspirators, 23 years older
- Alexander Suvorov — Russian generalissimo, 47 years older
Middle East
- Mahmud II — sultan who destroyed the Janissaries, 8 years younger
- Selim III — reforming Ottoman sultan, 16 years older
- Mustafa IV — sultan who overthrew the reformer Selim III, 2 years younger
- Muhammad ibn Abd al-Wahhab — Islamic religious reformer, 74 years older
- Abdul Hamid I — sultan of the Küçük Kaynarca peace and the loss of Crimea, 52 years older
Africa
- Muhammad Ali of Egypt — ruler of Egypt, 8 years older
- Shaka — King of the Zulu, 10 years younger
- David Livingstone — explorer of Africa and missionary, 36 years younger
- Ranavalona I — Queen of Madagascar, 1 year younger
- Usman dan Fodio — founder of the Sokoto Caliphate, 23 years older
- Moshoeshoe I — founder of Lesotho, 9 years younger
Asia
- Katsushika Hokusai — Japanese artist, 17 years older
- Tokugawa Ienari — longest-serving shogun, for half a century, 4 years older
- Qianlong Emperor — Qing emperor of China, 66 years older
- Tipu Sultan — ruler of Mysore, 26 years older
- Tokugawa Ieyoshi — shogun who died just after the Black Ships arrived, 16 years younger
Americas
- Simón Bolívar — liberator of South America, 6 years younger
- George Washington — first President of the United States, 45 years older
- Abraham Lincoln — 16th President of the United States, 32 years younger
- Benjamin Franklin — American scientist and statesman, 71 years older
- Thomas Jefferson — third President of the United States, 34 years older
- Andrew Jackson — 7th US president, the Trail of Tears and the Jacksonian era, 10 years older
Oceania
- Kamehameha I — first King of Hawaii, 19 years older
- Hongi Hika — Ngāpuhi Māori chief, 5 years older
- Arthur Phillip — first Governor of New South Wales, 39 years older
- Bennelong — Aboriginal intermediary, 13 years older
- Truganini — Aboriginal Tasmanian woman, 35 years younger
- Henry Parkes — Premier of New South Wales, 'Father of Federation', 38 years younger
The world in their lifetime
- 1783–1784 Laki eruption — aged 6, Europe
- 1783 Russian annexation of Crimea (1783) — aged 6, Eastern Europe & Russia
- 1783 First manned balloon flight — aged 6, Europe
- 1787 US Constitution — aged 10, Americas
- 1788 First Fleet arrives in Australia — aged 11, Oceania
- 1789 Storming of the Bastille — aged 12, Europe
- 1789 Declaration of the Rights of Man and of the Citizen — aged 12, Europe
- 1791–1804 Haitian Revolution — aged 14, Americas
- 1796 Jenner's first vaccination — aged 19, Europe
- 1798 Battle of the Pyramids — aged 21, Africa
- 1803 Louisiana Purchase — aged 26, Americas
- 1804 Coronation of Napoleon — aged 27, Europe
- 1804–1813 First Serbian Uprising — aged 27, Europe
- 1804–1903 Usman dan Fodio's jihad and the Sokoto Caliphate — aged 27, Africa
- 1805–1848 Muhammad Ali becomes ruler of Egypt — aged 28, Africa
- 1805 Battle of Trafalgar — aged 28, Europe
- 1810–1826 Spanish American wars of independence — aged 33, Americas
- 1812 Napoleon's invasion of Russia — aged 35, Eastern Europe & Russia
- 1814–1815 Congress of Vienna — aged 37, Europe
- 1815 Eruption of Mount Tambora — aged 38, Asia
- 1815 Battle of Waterloo — aged 38, Europe
- 1816 Year Without a Summer — aged 39, Europe
- 1817–1824 First cholera pandemic — aged 40, Asia
- 1817 San Martín's Crossing of the Andes — aged 40, Americas
- 1819 Raffles founds modern Singapore — aged 42, Asia
- 1822 Independence of Brazil — aged 45, Americas