7 The 100 Most Influential World Leaders of All Time 7

generous American aid he succeeded in the next two

decades in setting Taiwan on the road to modern economic

development. In 1955 the United States signed an agree-

ment with Chiang’s Nationalist government on Taiwan,

guaranteeing its defense. Beginning in 1972, however, the

value of this agreement and the future of Chiang’s govern-

ment were seriously called into question by the growing

cordiality between the United States and the People’s

Republic of China. Chiang did not live to see the United

States finally break diplomatic relations with Taiwan in

1979 in order to establish full relations with the People’s

Republic of China.

Jean monnet and

roBert sChuman

Respectively (b. Nov. 9, 1888, Cognac, France—d. March 16, 1979,

Houjarray); (b. June 29, 1886, Luxembourg—d. Sept. 4, 1963,

Metz, France)

F

rench statesmen Jean Monnet and Robert Schuman

can, in some ways, be considered the fathers of Europe,

having proposed the establishment of a common European

market for coal and steel, resulting in the creation of the

European Coal and Steel Community (ECSC), the fore-

runner of the European Union.

Jean Monnet

Monnet was a French political economist and diplomat.

During World War I, Monnet was the French representa-

tive on the Inter-Allied Maritime Commission, and after

the war he was deputy secretary-general of the League of

Nations from 1919 to 1923. Then, after reorganizing his

family’s brandy business, he became the European partner

of a New York investment bank in 1925.