During the history of the world, everything that has happened and everyone who has lived has shaped the world into what it is today. One given event or person influences one group of people and a single part of the world. Another event or person influences other people and places. Most events and people have a limited effect over a small scope of the culture of the world. There have been a few events or people, however, that have had such a broad scope and lasting affect that they could be considered to have affected almost every aspect of the world.

The tenth most influential person or event in the history of the world is: Charles Darwin. In 1859, Darwin wrote a book entitled Origin of Species. In it he explained his theories of natural selection in the environment. He explained that animals reproduce in a much greater number than can be supported by the environment, and those which are least fit to survive will be killed off. He also explained how over time the environment could modify an individual organism, and that organism would pass on its modified traits. Darwin was influential because he, before any other scientist, came up with these theories that have today proven to be true. He is also important because his theories for the environment have been widely applied to the social aspects of human life. They have been used to predict what people, countries, or businesses would rise or fall, and many times, Darwin’s theories have proved to be right in the human world also.

The ninth most influential person or event in the history of the world is: Karl Marx. He was the first person to come up with and express his ideas about the most perfect theoretical government. It was called Communism. He was the first person to recognize that a perfect government even existed, let alone give the steps a nation will make before they can reach it. Marx was the first person to say that history followed scientific laws just as nature did. It was many, many years, even, before people took Darwin’s theories of nature an applied them to human history nearly as well as Marx applied his own knowledge and theories.

The eighth most influential person or event in the history of the world is: Albert Einstein. In 1905, a twenty-six-year-old unknown named Albert Einstein working in a Swiss patent office published a paper entitled "Special Theory of Relativity." In it, Einstein stated that light did not follow some of Newton’s fundamental laws of motion, that nothing can move faster than the speed of light, and that mass, energy, space, and time are related far more than had been previously thought. Einstein was influential because he was one of the first people to challenge laws of science that had been accepted for many years. He didn’t just accept the idea that light would follow all of Newton’s laws. He tested it for himself. He was also influential because, unlike many other scientists of the time, Einstein never set foot inside a laboratory. He did not need to. He believed that if one could develop and prove a theory mathematically (as he did his theory of relativity), one did not need to experiment with it in the lab. Einstein’s and his work is also considered very influential because the basic principles of his theory led to the electron microscope, television, the electric eye, and the atom bomb. Einstein was way ahead of his scientific time. If he had not developed the theories that he did, the Manhattan Project and the atomic bomb would probably be non-existent, and Hiroshima would not be nearly as famous.

The seventh most influential person or event in the history of the world is: the invention of the Gutenberg movable type printing press. In 1455, Johann Gutenberg introduced modern mass printing by his invention of the movable type printing press. Before Gutenberg, books were expensive and hard to come by. Scribes had to write by hand everything in a book whether it be fifty or two thousand pages. Books were chained to the shelves where they were stored to keep people from stealing them. The movable type printing press is so important because, after Gutenberg invented it, books could be produced at little more than the cost of the paper they were printed on. Countless hours no longer had to be spent to produce works for others to read. Another reason the movable type printing press is so influential is because it allowed many more people to learn to read. Before Gutenberg, only the rich, upper class was taught to read. The lower class could not afford books to read out of. After Gutenberg, books were much more available to lower class. They could buy them and learn to read. The literacy rate of the world skyrocketed after the movable type printing press was put into wide use. Mark Twain once called printing "the incomparably greatest event in the history of the world," but on this list it remains number seven.

The sixth most influential person or event in the history of the world is: Martin Luther. In 1517, Martin Luther posted his 95 Theses. This was the beginning of Protestantism away from the Holy Roman Catholic Church. Before Luther, few had challenged the authority of the Catholic Church. Luther is influential because he was really the first to, in essence, tell how corrupt the Catholic Church was at the time. News of his challenge spread fast, and after a few days, all of Europe knew about Martin Luther. Before him, there had been some who protested against the Catholic Church and had followers, but no one was as widely known or publicized. Luther was the man component in the beginnings of Protestantism. Luther was acknowledged as the leader of the Reformation. The protester was no longer an insider, but rather the spiritual had of a new Church. Others had been rebels, but none had been real leaders.

The fifth most influential person or event in the history of the world is: the Nazi Holocaust. During World War II between 1941 and 1945, over twenty million people were killed by Adolf Hitler and his German soldiers. Hitler’s main goal was the extermination of all the Jews in Europe. The purpose was almost fulfilled. Out of an estimated 8.3 million Jews living in German-occupied Europe after 1939, about 6 million were killed. Although they were the chief targets, Jews were not the only ones. Gypsies, Slavs, and homosexuals were also singled out for special treatment. It is believed that an additional 16 million Poles and Russians were also killed during this five-year spree of slaughter. It is apparently obvious why the Holocaust is so significant. The mass murder of over 20 million people can not be labeled as just another event. It was the first time in history that an individual had come close to almost completely exterminating a race.

The fourth most influential person or event in the history of the world is: the Crusades. Since the death of Christ, Christians have thought of Palestine and other places connected with the life of Jesus as the Holy Land. In the seventh century, Muslim Arabs conquered Palestine. Christianity was tolerated, but Christians had to pay a special tax to the Muslim Arabs. In the eleventh century, the Seljuk Turks took Palestine and conditions for non-Muslims greatly worsened. Christians believed they had a claim to the land, and the Muslims believed they had a claim to the land. In 1095, the first in a series of Crusades was called where Christians tried to retake the Holy Land from the Muslims. During the Crusades, thousands of knights, soldiers, merchants, and peasants lost their lives on the march or in battle. The Crusades are important because they are a prime example of how strong a hold religion has on many people’s lives. It is the root of their very being. Not many times people are willing to die with no guarantee that they would be helping anything, but many did in the Crusades because it was for their religion, and they did not think twice about doing it. The Crusades showed how big a part religion is in many people’s lives. They put religion above everything – above their property, above their family, even above themselves (which is a hard thing to get one to do).

The third most influential person or event in the history of the world is: the founding of Islam. Mohammed is the founder of Islam, and his teachings were few and simple. He taught that there was but one god (Allah) and he is all powerful, Allah created the universe, there would be a final judgment day where there was reward and punishment, and he preached against immorality and cruelty. The founding of Islam is an important event in the history of the world because of the great number of people it has affected. Islam is the world’s second largest religion with 500 million followers. It is by far the dominant religion in the Middle East. Also, it is an important event because of the Crusades. Islam was half the reason for the Crusades. If there had been no Islam, the Christians wouldn’t have had the land taken away from them, and so they wouldn’t have to fight to try to get it back.

The second most influential person or event in the history of the world is: the invention of the modern alphabet. In about 1000 BC, the Phoenicians invented the modern alphabet. Most letters in our English alphabet are simplifications of what were ancient drawings of animals or objects. A capital Q, for instance, represents a monkey. An M was first an owl and later meant "water." Picture writing that was commonly used before 1000 BC became too cumbersome for daily use. Eventually, from pictures letters were developed that could, when put together in different orders, mean any one certain thing. The invention of the modern alphabet is significant because almost every language in the world today uses the alphabet developed by the Phoenicians as its basis for writing. If this system had not been invented, every nation that developed a language might have developed their own alphabet also. We might be struggling just to understand what another group has said to us in a simple letter. Without the alphabet, science and religion in a nation become small and will eventually disintegrate because there is no way to easily let others know about scientific discoveries, and it is extremely hard to bring people into a religion where they cannot read the text of which they praying. Dr. Isaac Taylor, famed scholar and author, says that almost any other writing system that could be developed would be so hard to different and hard to understand that only the upper class would be able to get the schooling to learn it. Then, he says, "the very art of writing, instead of being the most effective of all the means of progress, becomes one of the most powerful of the instruments by which the masses of mankind can be held enslaved."

And finally, the most influential person or event in the history of the world is: Jesus Christ. Jesus is the founder of Christianity. He taught the belief in one God and the love of God, compassion for others, obedience to the Ten Commandments and Hebrew law, the promise of eternal life, and the belief in Jesus as the Son of God. Jesus is the most important person in the history of the world for reasons that are simple. First, because of the religion He founded, the Crusades took place where Christians were fighting to get back the land where He lived. Second, he is important because of the sheer number of followers of Christianity. It is the largest religion in the world with one billion followers. That is the number of followers that are presently alive today. The number of Christians that have lived in the past is innumerable. Jesus has touched countless people’s lives. He is also important because even though Islam and Judaism do not believe that Jesus is the Son of God, both religions do recognize him as a great prophet. He is involved in all three major world religions, and therefore is a part of presently almost two billion people’s lives. Jesus’ teachings, though, are unique in that Jesus taught love of everyone, regardless of social class or status. He said that anyone could be forgiven for anything that they did; all they had to do was ask. Christianity is unique in that it is the only major world religion that believes in a risen savior. In Christianity, Jesus was crucified on the cross and rose into Heaven three days later. No other major religion believes that their messiah died and then rose from the dead. For these reasons, Jesus Christ is the most important, influential person to ever walk this earth.

This group of people and events is like no other. It has single-handedly shaped most of the world into what it is today. If one single event or person was missing from history, everything, even the other events on the list, that followed it would be changed, in some cases drastically. The world has been permanently altered from event to event, some events causing others to occur, and the world is definitely not the same place it was when history began. One thing has stayed consistent throughout all of the events and changing times, though. That is change itself...it is constant and steadfast.