Niccolò Machiavelli
1469 – 1527 · 58 years · Florence · Europe
In The Prince he separated politics from morality, judging a ruler by whether he keeps power and the state. The word "Machiavellian" comes from his name.
Wikipedia (Russian) · Wikipedia (English) · 15th century
Portrait: Santi di Tito · Public domain · Wikimedia Commons
Contemporaries around the world
Europe
- Nicolaus Copernicus — astronomer, 4 years younger
- Michelangelo — sculptor, painter and architect, 6 years younger
- Leonardo da Vinci — painter, scientist and inventor, 17 years older
- Martin Luther — church reformer, 14 years younger
- Maximilian I — "the Last Knight", who raised the Habsburgs through shrewd marriages, 10 years older
- Henry VII — founder of the Tudor dynasty who ended the Wars of the Roses, 12 years older
Eastern Europe & Russia
- Vasily III — grand prince who completed the unification of the Russian lands, 10 years younger
- Ivan III — Grand Prince of Moscow, 29 years older
- Sophia Palaiologina — Grand Princess of Moscow, 14 years older
Middle East
- Mehmed II — Ottoman sultan, 37 years older
- Selim I the Grim — sultan who took Cairo and Mecca, 1 year younger
- Suleiman the Magnificent — Ottoman sultan, 25 years younger
- Hurrem Sultan (Roxelana) — wife of Sultan Suleiman I, 36 years younger
- Bayezid II — sultan who took in the Jews expelled from Spain, 22 years older
Africa
- Askia Muhammad I — Emperor of Songhai, 26 years older
- Ahmad ibn Ibrahim al-Ghazi — Adal imam and general, 37 years younger
Asia
- Guru Nanak — founder of Sikhism, born the same year
- Vasco da Gama — navigator, born the same year
- Babur — founder of the Mughal Empire, 14 years younger
- Ashikaga Yoshimasa — shogun of the Ōnin War and the Silver Pavilion, 33 years older
- Wang Yangming — Chinese Neo-Confucian philosopher, 3 years younger
- Ashikaga Yoshitane — shogun who held office twice and was driven out twice, 3 years older
Americas
- Christopher Columbus — navigator, 18 years older
- Moctezuma II — Aztec emperor, 3 years older
- Amerigo Vespucci — navigator, 15 years older
- Bartolomé de las Casas — friar and defender of Native Americans, 15 years younger
- Hernán Cortés — conquistador, 16 years younger
- Ferdinand Magellan — navigator, 11 years younger
The world in their lifetime
- c. 1469 Afanasy Nikitin's journey to India — aged 0, Eastern Europe & Russia
- 1478 Annexation of Novgorod by Moscow — aged 9, Eastern Europe & Russia
- 1480 Great Stand on the Ugra River — aged 11, Eastern Europe & Russia
- 1488 Dias rounds the Cape of Good Hope — aged 19, Africa
- 1492 Columbus reaches the Americas — aged 23, Americas
- 1492 Fall of Granada — aged 23, Europe
- 1494 Treaty of Tordesillas — aged 25, Europe
- 1498 Vasco da Gama reaches India — aged 29, Asia
- 1501 Founding of Safavid Iran — aged 32, Middle East
- 1508–1512 Sistine Chapel ceiling — aged 39, Europe
- 1511 Portuguese capture of Malacca — aged 42, Asia
- 1517 Luther's Ninety-five Theses — aged 48, Europe
- 1519–1522 Magellan's circumnavigation — aged 50, Americas
- 1520–1566 Reign of Suleiman the Magnificent — aged 51, Middle East
- 1521 Fall of Tenochtitlan — aged 52, Americas
- 1526–1867 Atlantic slave trade — aged 57, Whole world
- 1526 First Battle of Panipat — aged 57, Asia
- 1526 Battle of Mohács — aged 57, Eastern Europe & Russia