7 The 100 Most Influential World Leaders of All Time 7

raiding, destroying, and plundering. It was a minister of

the khan of the Naiman—the last important Mongol tribe

to resist Chinggis Khan—who taught him the uses of lit-

eracy and helped reduce the Mongol language to writing.

It was only after the war against Khwārezm, probably in

late 1222, that Chinggis Khan reportedly learned from

Muslim advisers the “meaning and importance of towns.”

And it was another adviser, formerly in the service of the

Jin emperor, who explained to him the uses of peasants

and craftsmen as producers of taxable goods. He had

intended to turn the cultivated fields of northern China

into grazing land for his horses.

Chinggis Khan chose his successor, his son Ögödei,

with great care, and passed an army and a state in full

vigour on to him. At the time of his death in 1227, Chinggis

Khan had conquered the landmass extending from Beijing

to the Caspian Sea, and his generals had raided Persia and

Russia. His successors would extend their power over the

whole of China, Persia, and most of Russia.

Hongwu

(b. Oct. 21, 1328, Haozhou [now Fengyang, Anhui Province],

China—d. June 24, 1398, Nanjing)

H

ongwu is the reign name of the Chinese emperor

who reigned from 1368 to 1398 and who founded the

Ming dynasty, which ruled China for nearly 300 years.

During his reign, the Hongwu emperor instituted military,

administrative, and educational reforms that centred

power in the emperor.

The future Hongwu emperor was born as Zhu

Chongba, a poor peasant in 1328. Orphaned at 16, he

became a monk to avoid starvation—a common practice

for the sons of poor peasants. In 1352 he joined a rebel