Shaka
c. 1787 – 1828 · 41 years · Zululand · Africa
Revolutionised Zulu warfare with the short spear and 'bull horn' formation, building a powerful kingdom in southern Africa; killed by his brothers.
Wikipedia (Russian) · Wikipedia (English) · 19th century
Portrait: James King · Public domain · Wikimedia Commons
Contemporaries around the world
Europe
- Johann Wolfgang von Goethe — German poet and thinker, 38 years older
- Ludwig van Beethoven — German composer, 17 years older
- Napoleon Bonaparte — Emperor of the French, 18 years older
- Charles Darwin — naturalist, author of evolutionary theory, 22 years younger
- Karl Marx — philosopher and economist, 31 years younger
- Francis II — last Holy Roman Emperor, who dissolved the empire in 1806, 19 years older
Eastern Europe & Russia
- Alexander Pushkin — Russian poet, 12 years younger
- Alexander I — emperor who defeated Napoleon, 10 years older
- Nicholas I — emperor who crushed the Decembrist revolt, 9 years younger
- Mikhail Kutuzov — Russian field marshal, 42 years older
- Paul I — emperor who reformed the succession law, killed by conspirators, 33 years older
- Alexander Suvorov — Russian generalissimo, 57 years older
Middle East
- Mahmud II — sultan who destroyed the Janissaries, 2 years older
- Selim III — reforming Ottoman sultan, 26 years older
- Mustafa IV — sultan who overthrew the reformer Selim III, 8 years older
Africa
- Muhammad Ali of Egypt — ruler of Egypt, 18 years older
- David Livingstone — explorer of Africa and missionary, 26 years younger
- Ranavalona I — Queen of Madagascar, 9 years older
- Moshoeshoe I — founder of Lesotho, 1 year older
- Usman dan Fodio — founder of the Sokoto Caliphate, 33 years older
Asia
- Katsushika Hokusai — Japanese artist, 27 years older
- Tokugawa Ienari — longest-serving shogun, for half a century, 14 years older
- Qianlong Emperor — Qing emperor of China, 76 years older
- Tipu Sultan — ruler of Mysore, 36 years older
- Tokugawa Ieyoshi — shogun who died just after the Black Ships arrived, 6 years younger
Americas
- Simón Bolívar — liberator of South America, 4 years older
- Abraham Lincoln — 16th President of the United States, 22 years younger
- George Washington — first President of the United States, 55 years older
- Andrew Jackson — 7th US president, the Trail of Tears and the Jacksonian era, 20 years older
- José de San Martín — liberator of Argentina, Chile and Peru, 9 years older
- Thomas Jefferson — third President of the United States, 44 years older
Oceania
- Kamehameha I — first King of Hawaii, 29 years older
- Hongi Hika — Ngāpuhi Māori chief, 15 years older
- Arthur Phillip — first Governor of New South Wales, 49 years older
- Bennelong — Aboriginal intermediary, 23 years older
- Truganini — Aboriginal Tasmanian woman, 25 years younger
- Henry Parkes — Premier of New South Wales, 'Father of Federation', 28 years younger
The world in their lifetime
- 1787 US Constitution — aged 0, Americas
- 1788 First Fleet arrives in Australia — aged 1, Oceania
- 1789 Storming of the Bastille — aged 2, Europe
- 1789 Declaration of the Rights of Man and of the Citizen — aged 2, Europe
- 1791–1804 Haitian Revolution — aged 4, Americas
- 1796 Jenner's first vaccination — aged 9, Europe
- 1798 Battle of the Pyramids — aged 11, Africa
- 1803 Louisiana Purchase — aged 16, Americas
- 1804 Coronation of Napoleon — aged 17, Europe
- 1804–1813 First Serbian Uprising — aged 17, Europe
- 1804–1903 Usman dan Fodio's jihad and the Sokoto Caliphate — aged 17, Africa
- 1805–1848 Muhammad Ali becomes ruler of Egypt — aged 18, Africa
- 1805 Battle of Trafalgar — aged 18, Europe
- 1810–1826 Spanish American wars of independence — aged 23, Americas
- 1812 Napoleon's invasion of Russia — aged 25, Eastern Europe & Russia
- 1814–1815 Congress of Vienna — aged 27, Europe
- 1815 Eruption of Mount Tambora — aged 28, Asia
- 1815 Battle of Waterloo — aged 28, Europe
- 1816 Year Without a Summer — aged 29, Europe
- 1817–1824 First cholera pandemic — aged 30, Asia
- 1817 San Martín's Crossing of the Andes — aged 30, Americas
- 1819 Raffles founds modern Singapore — aged 32, Asia
- 1822 Independence of Brazil — aged 35, Americas
- 1828 Treaty of Turkmenchay — aged 41, Middle East