List of national founders

"Founding fathers" redirects here. For information on the founding fathers of the United States, see Founding fathers of the United States. For information on the founding fathers of the European Union, see Founding fathers of the European Union

The following list of national founders is a record, by country, of people who were credited with establishing their nation. National founders are typically those who played an influential role in setting up the systems of governance, (i.e., political system form of government, and constitution), of the country.

Africa

Ghana

Kwame Nkrumah (1909–1972) led the nation to its independence from the United Kingdom in 1957.

Liberia

Joseph Jenkins Roberts (1809–1876) was born a free man of Black American descent. In 1829 his family moved to Liberia. In 1839, Roberts became Liberia's lieutenant governor and afterwards, its governor (1841–1848). He is known as the father of Liberia and officially declared Liberia's independence in 1847.

Namibia

Sam Nujoma of Namibia

Sam Nujoma (born 1929) was named Namibia's "Founding Father of the Nation" after the independence in 1990

Nigeria

Herbert Macaulay (1864–1946), Alvan Ikoku (1900–1971), Nnamdi Azikiwe (1904–1996), Obafemi Awolowo (1909–1987), Sir Ahmadu Bello (1910–1966), Sir Abubakar Tafawa Balewa (1912–1966), Murtala Mohammed (1938–1976), Aminu Kano (1920–1983), Joseph Tarka (1932–1980) and Dennis Osadebay (1911–1994) are considered founding fathers of Nigeria. The troika of Obafemi Awolowo, Nnamdi Azikiwe, and Ahmadu Bello negotiated Nigeria's independence from Britain, aided by such figures as Funmilayo Ransome Kuti.

Sierra Leone

Freetown, Sierra Leone was founded in part by an African American slave called Thomas Peters in 1792 who convinced British abolitionists to help settle 1,192 Black Americans who fought for the British in return for freedom. Peters alongside other Black Americans David George and Moses Wilkinson were influential in the establishment of Freetown, but it was Peters who is remembered today as the true influential leader and founder of Sierra Leone. A street was named for Thomas Peters in Freetown by the Krio Mayor Winstanley Bankole Johnson.

South Africa

Jan van Riebeeck (1619–1677) was the first Governor of the Cape and later of Batavia, he allowed for many more Europeans to go to the Cape, later leading to the foundation of the Cape Colony. Nelson Mandela (1918– ) was the former President of South Africa 1994–1999. He led the campaign to racially integrate the country. He was the leader of the African National Congress.

Americas

Simón Bolívar of Latin America

José de San Martín, Simón Bolívar, Antonio José de Sucre, Francisco de Paula Santander, Francisco de Miranda have been referred to as the founding fathers of the northern countries of South America (Venezuela, Colombia, Peru, Panama, Ecuador, Bolivia).

Argentina

José de San Martín (1778–1850) and Manuel Belgrano (1770–1820) are usually considered the founding fathers of Argentina.

Brazil

José Bonifácio de Andrada e Silva (1763–1838) is regarded as the "Patriarch of Independence" in Brazil. He was responsible to advise the so Prince Regent of Brazil, Pedro de Alcantara, about Portugal's intentions to downgrade Brazil to colonial status, after years the Portuguese American territory was already joint to the European metropolis as a united kingdom. This attitude convinced the Prince Regent to declare the independence of Brazil in 7 September 1822, becoming himself the new independent country's emperor, titled as Pedro I of Brazil (1798–1834).

Canada

Main article: Canadian Confederation

Canadian Fathers of Confederation

The name "Fathers of Confederation" is given to those who attended the Charlottetown and Quebec Conferences in 1864, and the London Conference of 1866, to establish the Canadian Confederation. There were 36 original Fathers of Confederation. The political leaders who brought the other provinces into Confederation after 1867 are also referred to as "Fathers of Confederation." Sir John A Macdonald, who served as the first prime minister of the new Confederation from 1867–1873 and 1878–1891, is often viewed as the Father Of the Nation akin to George Washington in the United States.

Chile

Bernardo O'Higgins (1778–1842) and José Miguel Carrera (1785–1821) are usually considered the founding fathers of Chile. Other people referred as founding fathers of Chile include Camilo Henríquez and Manuel Rodríguez (1785–1818).

Dominican Republic

Juan Pablo Duarte (1813–1876), Francisco del Rosario Sánchez (1817–1861) and Matías Ramón Mella (1816–1864) are considered the "Padres de la Patria" or Fathers of the Country. Duarte is featured on the $1 coin; Sanchez on the $5 coin and on the now discontinued $5 bill; Mella on the $10 coin and on the also discontinued $10 bill.

Haiti

Toussaint Louverture (20 May 1743 – 8 April 1803) and Jean-Jacques Dessalines (20 September 1758 – 17 October 1806) were revolutionary and early political leaders of Haiti.

México

Miguel Hidalgo y Costilla are also considered founders and framers of the country Jose Maria Morelos, Josefa Ortiz de Dominguez, Leona Vicario, Guadalupe Victoria and Benito Juarez.

United States

Main article: Founding Fathers of the United States

Founding fathers of the United States.

Within the large group known as "the Founding Fathers", there are two key subsets, the Signers (who signed the Declaration of Independence in 1776) and the Framers (who were delegates to the Federal Convention and took part in framing or drafting the proposed Constitution of the United States). Some historians have suggested a revised definition of the "Founding Fathers", including a significantly broader group of not only the Signers and the Framers but also all those who, whether as politicians or jurists or statesmen or soldiers or diplomats or ordinary citizens, took part in winning American independence and creating the United States of America. The eminent American historian Richard B. Morris, in his 1973 book Seven Who Shaped Our Destiny: The Founding Fathers as Revolutionaries, identified the following seven figures as the key founding fathers: Benjamin Franklin, George Washington, John Adams, Thomas Jefferson, John Jay, James Madison, and Alexander Hamilton.

Asia

Afghanistan

Ahmad Shah Abdali (1723–1773) unified the Pashtun tribes and founded Afghanistan in 1747. His mausoleum is in Kandahar, Afghanistan, where he is fondly known as Ahmad Shah Baba (Father of Afghanistan).

Azerbaijan

Mammed Amin Rasulzade is the founding father of Azerbaijan. Mehemmed Emin Resulzade (Azerbaijani: Məhəmməd Əmin Axund Hacı Molla Ələkbər oğlu Rəsulzadə, Turkish: Mehmed Emin Resulzâde; 31 January 1884, Novkhana, near Baku — 6 March 1955, Ankara) was an Azerbaijani statesman, scholar, public figure and one of the founding political leaders of Azerbaijan Republic (1918–1920). His expression "Bir kərə yüksələn bayraq, bir daha enməz!" ("The flag once raised will never fall!") has become the motto of the independence movement in Azerbaijan in the 20th century.

Bangladesh

Sheikh Mujibur Rahman, the founding leader of Bangladesh.

Sheikh Mujibur Rahman (1920–1975), is generally considered as the founder of the People's Republic of Bangladesh and was also the first President of Bangladesh. A charismatic politician and popularly called "Bangabandhu" (friend of the Bengal), Mujib's political career featured a struggle for democracy and defiance against military rule in Pakistan. He declared Bangladesh's independence in March 1971 immediately after the Pakistan Army began its infamous Operation Searchlight massacre and was subsequently arrested and kept in solitary confinement in West Pakistan throughout the nine-month long bloody war. He was released in January 1972 and returned to Bangladesh to lead the newly independent country.

Mujib's administration would prove to be inept in governing the country wrecked by war and famine. In the mid-night of 15 August 1975, a group of disgruntled army officers brutally killed him along with most of his family members at his private residence in Dhaka.

In an opinion poll conducted by the BBC Bengali service in 2003, he was voted as the greatest Bengali of all times.

Bhutan

Shabdrung Ngawang Namgyal (1594–1651) fled Tibet and unified the fiefdoms of Bhutan. He established the dual system of shared power between secular and Buddhist leadership that continues as a tradition to the present.

Burma

General Aung San is the founding father of Burma (also known as Myanmar). Although he did not live to see the country's independence, he is credited in forming the basic structure of the independence movement and government. Aung San started his political career in 1930 as the editor of Rangoon University's Newspaper – where he accused one of the British administrators of misconduct. In late 1940 he went to Japanese controlled Taiwan and Xiamen to receive military training, and he led the Burmese National Army, spearheading the Japanese invasion of Burma. Later, he switched sides to the Allies, and helped in the Burma Campaign. After the war, he was appointed to the government of a returning British Administration, and was able to negotiate Burma's independence. He helped organized the Panglong Agreement in February 1947, achieving independence for all Burmese territories. However, on Saturday, 19 July 1947, Aung San, along with his cabinet ministers, was assassinated at the secretariat building in Rangoon.

Republic of China

Sun Yat-sen is revered as the "Father of the Country" (國父) in the Republic of China. However, following the Chinese Civil War, the country was split up into two states. The new nations were the modern day People's Republic of China, and the Republic of China, commonly referred to as Taiwan. Mao Zedong is commonly accredited with being the architect of the People's Republic of China. Chiang Kai-shek is accredited with being the first leader of the constitutional Republic of China.

India

Portrait of Gandhi

Mahatma Gandhi (1869–1948) is often referred to as the founding father of India. He was one of the top leaders of the Indian National Congress which struggled for the liberation of India from British rule. Jawaharlal Nehru (1889–1964), the first Prime Minister of India and Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel, India's First Deputy Prime Minister, are also considered as founding fathers. It also refers to Dr. Bhimrao Ramji Ambedkar (1891–1956), the architect of the Indian constitution, also an educationist, prominent political figure and India's first law minister. Indian constitution provided constitutional guarantees and protections for a wide range of civil liberties for individual citizens, including freedom of religion, the abolition of untouchability and the outlawing of all forms of discrimination. Ambedkar argued for extensive economic and social rights for yong boy. The Constitution was adopted on 9 August 1949 by the Constituent Assembly.

Although this usage is declining, when used in the plural, as the "Founding fathers" it usually refers to the members of the Constitutional Assembly's Draft Committee. Ironically the Drafting Committee also included women among its ranks.

Indonesia

Soekarno and Mohammad Hatta are the founding fathers of Indonesia. They both signed the Proclamation of Independence which then read by Soekarno, proclaiming the independence of Indonesia from the Netherlands on 17 August 1945. A day later, they were elected respectively as the first President and Vice President of Indonesia. As the Netherlands did not recognize the independece, both of them were prominent figures and were seen as symbol of unity among Indonesian people to fight against Dutch during the National Revolution from 1945 to 1949. In August 1949, Hatta headed a delegation to the Hague for a Round Table Conference which then led to the recognition of Indonesian independence by the Netherlands in 23 December 1949.

Iran

Cyrus the Great (600 BC – 530 BC) was the founder of the Persian Empire under the Achaemenid dynasty an empire without precedent—a first world-empire of historical importance and perhaps the most wealthy and magnificent in history.

Korea

Hwanung (환웅;桓雄) and his son Dangun Wanggeom (단군왕검; 檀君王儉) are legendary founders of Gojoseon, the first kingdom of Korea. The founding date is usually calculated as 3 October 2333 BC; 3 October is a South Korean national holiday known as Gaecheonjeol (개천절, 開天節, "Festival of the Opening of Heaven").

Malaysia

Tunku Abdul Rahman (8 February 1903 – 6 December 1990) usually known as "the Tunku" (a princely title in Malaysia), and also called Bapa Kemerdekaan (Father of Independence) or Bapa Malaysia (Father of Malaysia), was Chief Minister of the Federation of Malaya from 1955, and the country's first Prime Minister from independence in 1957. He remained Prime Minister after Sabah, Sarawak, and Singapore joined in 1963 to form Malaysia.

Mongolia

Genghis Khan posthumous portrait

Chinggis Khagan (c.1162–1227), who by uniting the nomadic tribes founded the Mongol Empire, is generally regarded as the father of modern-day Mongolia. Although downcast during the communist-era, Genghis Khan's reputation surged after the democratic revolution in 1990. Modern Mongolia is often called "Genghis's Mongolia".

Pakistan

Muhammad Ali Jinnah, as a young lawyer.

Pakistan's founding father is Muhammad Ali Jinnah (1876–1948), an Indian Muslim Barrister, originally from the Indian National Congress and later the Muslim League, who fought for the rights of Muslim minority in India, is widely held to be the creator of Pakistan. Jinnah is referred to as Quaid-e-Azam or the "Great Leader".

Mr. Jinnah started his career as firmly a secular Indian nationalist and later on was reluctantly converted to the cause of Muslim nationalism through the efforts of Aga Khan III, martyred Prime Minister Liaqat Ali Khan and Poet Philosopher Allama Iqbal all of whom are also revered to a certain extent as founding fathers. Aga Khan was also the founding president of the All India Muslim League. Choudhary Rahmat Ali coined the term Pakistan and is considered the father of the word "Pakistan". Muslim modernist and reformist Sir Syed Ahmed Khan, the founder of Aligarh Educational Movement, is sometimes referred to as the father of the Two-Nation Theory, the basic principle on which Pakistan was founded.

Philippines

Jose Rizal did not live long enough to see the Philippine Declaration of Independence from Spain. or the subsequent defeat of the fledgling government by the United States, but he did play a prominent role in building a sense of national identity in the Philippines. A novelist and a critic, he wrote very influential books, so influential that he was exiled by the Spanish government to the southern Philippine island of Mindanao, and when he left exile, executed, on 30 December 1896. During the Philippine Commonwealth, which was still under the rule of the United States, he was declared the official National Hero of the Philippines and subsequent to Philippine Independence laws were passed requiring courses on Rizal in all secondary schools and colleges.

And Andres Bonifacio is considered as the father of Philippine Revolution. And De Facto national hero and unofficial President of the Philippines

Europe

See also: Founding fathers of the European Union

Benedict of Nursia delivers his rule to the Benedictines

Otto von Bismarck of Germany

One of the earliest people considered "father of Europe" is Benedict of Nursia — a 6th century Italian saint and the most important architect of Western monasticism. The Benedictines, the followers of his rule, have also been called "Fathers of European civilization." Another 6th century monk was Columbanus, the Irish missionary who Robert Schuman considered a patron saint for all involved in the construction of a unified Europe. In 2008, Pope Benedict XVI said that "along with the Irishmen of his time", Columbanus "was aware of the cultural unity of Europe":

"With his spiritual energy, with his faith, with his love for God and for his neighbor, he truly became one of the fathers of Europe: He shows us even today the roots from which our Europe can be reborn."

There are a number of men in modern times who have been considered founding fathers of European unity or, what is now, the European Union. These include Konrad Adenauer (1876–1967), Joseph Bech (1887–1975), Winston Churchill (1874–1965), Count Richard Coudenhove-Kalergi (1894–1972), Alcide De Gasperi (1881–1954), Jacques Delors (born 1925), Sicco Mansholt (1908–1995), Jean Monnet (1888–1979), Lorenzo Natali, Robert Schuman (1886–1963), Mário Soares (born 1924), Paul-Henri Spaak (1899–1972), Altiero Spinelli (1907–1986), and Pierre Werner (1913–2002).

Albania

Gjergj Kastrioti Skanderbeg was a prominent historical figure in the history of Albania and of the Albanian people. He is the national hero of the Albanians. Ismail Qemali Hero of Albania was a distinguished leader of the Albanian national movement, founder of the modern Albanian state and its first head of state and government.

Bohemia

Although the first known ruler of Bohemia was Bořivoj I, the real unifier of various Slavic tribes in Bohemia and creator of nation was Duke Boleslaus I. Emperor Charles IV is regarded "Father of the Homeland" in the Czech Republic, because during his time the kingdom of Bohemia experienced the greatest prosperity. Tomas Garrigue Masaryk (1850-1937) is widely revered as the Liberator President who played the chief role in the 1918 melding of Bohemia, Moravia, Slovakia and Ruthenia into the Czechoslovak Republic, and who served as President of the Republic from 1918 to 1935.

Bulgaria

Asparuh established the First Bulgarian Empire in 681. Modern day Bulgaria is a direct successor of this state.

Croatia

Tomislav of Croatia united all Croatian lands into one kingdom in 925, when he was crowned as the first Croatian king in Delminium, today Tomislavgrad in Bosnia and Herzegovina.

Germany

Otto von Bismarck (1815–1898), the "Iron Chancellor", engineered the unification of the numerous states of Germany. Modern, democratic Germany was decisively shaped by the "Fathers of the Basic Law" in the 1948 Constitutional Convention at Herrenchiemsee and by the first Federal Chancellor, Konrad Adenauer.

Greece

Rigas Feraios (1757–1798) was a Greek writer and revolutionary, an eminent figure of the Greek Enlightenment, remembered as a Greek national hero, the first victim of the uprising against the Ottoman Empire and a forerunner of the Greek War of Independence.

Hungary

According to Anonymus the fejedelem who made the Magyars settle into the Carpathian Basin in 896 A.D. was Árpád. His dynasty reigned over the Hungarian Kingdom from the ninth century until 1301. In Hungary Stephen I of Hungary is commonly regarded as the founder of the nation. He was Hungary's first king and united the Magyar people into the Kingdom of Hungary which grew out to be one of the largest monarchies in medieval Europe. Amongst others, Lajos Kossuth is supposed to be the Pater Patriae. He is known as the leader of the Hungarian Revolution of 1848 against the Habsburg royalists, and therefore founder of the modern Hungarian republic.

Ireland

The Irish Free State was established after the Irish War of Independence (1919–21), in which Michael Collins and Eamon de Valera were key leaders. However, they became antagonists in the Irish Civil War (1922–23), in which Collins was killed and de Valera defeated. For decades, the inheritors of the opposing factions bypassed these sensitivities to honour the earlier leaders of the Easter Rising of 1916, in particular the seven signatories of the Proclamation of the Irish Republic: Patrick Pearse, James Connolly, Éamonn Ceannt, Tom Clarke, Seán Mac Diarmada, Thomas MacDonagh, and Joseph Mary Plunkett.

Italy

Giuseppe Garibaldi the "Hero of the Two Worlds"

Giuseppe Garibaldi (1807–1882), Count Camillo Benso di Cavour (1810–1861), Giuseppe Mazzini (1805–1872) have been referred to as the founding fathers of the Kingdom of Italy. In some extent, also King Victor Emmanuel II of Italy.

The members of the Assemblea Costituente (the Constitutional Assembly of 1946–1947, which wrote the Constitution of the newborn Italian Republic) are considered as the "fathers" of the Italian Republic.

Norway

Usually the Norwegian Constituent Assembly at Eidsvoll in 1814, consisting of 112 men from most of the country, in Norway often referred to as the Eidsvoll Men or the Fathers of the Constitution.

Netherlands

Prince William I of Orange (1533–1584) or William the Silent, is known as the father of the Netherlands. He led the Dutch in their Revolt against Spain for their independence. Today he is often called Vader des Vaderlands which in English means, Father of the Fatherland.

Poland

Mieszko I of Poland

Mieszko I (b. ca. 920/45 – d. 25 May 992), the first historical ruler of Poland, Mieszko I is considered as the de facto creator of the Polish state. He was a Duke of the Polans from about 960 until his death. Mieszko I's marriage in 965 to the Přemyslid princess Dobrawa and his baptism in 966 put him and his country in the cultural sphere of Western Christianity. According to existing sources, Mieszko I was a wise politician, a talented military leader and charismatic ruler. He successfully used diplomacy, concluding an alliance with Bohemia first, and then with Sweden and the Holy Roman Empire. In foreign policy, he placed the interests of his country foremost, even entering into agreements with former enemies. On his death, he left to his sons a country of greatly expanded territory, with a well-established position in Europe. Mieszko I also appeared as "Dagome" in a papal document from about 1085, called "Dagome iudex", which mentions a gift or dedication of Mieszko's land to the Pope (the act took place almost a hundred years earlier).

Portugal

Henry of Burgundy (1066–1112), was appointed Count of Portugal as a reward for military services to Kingdom of León, and with the purpose of expanding the territory southwards. And, more importantly, his son, Count Afonso I of Portugal (1109–1185), a Templar Brother who took control of the county after Henry died and was recognized by the Holy See, in 1179, as the first King of Portugal, through the Manifestis Probatum bull.

Russia

Russia has passed through various stages of its history, thus its founding fathers might have various historic backgrounds, with common features like the idea of strong central power, the idea of spiritual mission of Russia, and the idea of the Motherland

• Peter the Great – first Russian Emperor, great reformer of Russia in the Western (previously Dutch) style, creator of the modern Army and of the Navy, leader of Russia through the victorious war with Sweden, founder of Saint-Petersburg

San Marino

Saint Marinus was the founder of the world's oldest surviving republic, San Marino, in 301. Tradition holds that he was a stonemason by trade who came from the island of Rab on the other side of the Adriatic Sea (modern Croatia), fleeing persecution for his Christian beliefs in the Diocletianic Persecution.

Serbia

• the Unknown Archont in the 7th century.

Slovenia

• Valuk

Valuk (Wallucus dux Winedorum), Slavic prince around 631 in oldcarantania space inside the Eastern Alps.

• Ulrich II of Cilli

Ulrich II of Cilli was the most powerful member of the Cilli family. He held a large influence in many courts, which originated from the relationships the Cilli family had made in the past. He tried to get regency of Hungary, Bohemia and Austria through control over Ladislas the Posthumous, at the time a minor. With such ambitions he got many opponents and rivals, such as the Hunyadi family. After an unsuccessful claim to the Bosnian crown, Cilli obtained some territories in Croatia and Slavonia and finally succeeded in forcing Frederick III, Holy Roman Emperor to hand over (1452) the boy king Ladislas the Posthumous to his keeping. Thus, Ulrich II became practically the ruler of Hungary.

In 1456 after the death of his rival John Hunyadi, Ulrich II was named Captain General of Hungary, an office previously held by John Hunyadi. That initiated a plot by the Hunyadi family against Ulrich II, and he was assassinated on 8 November, in Belgrade.

With the death of Ulrich II the male line of the Counts of Cilli died out, and after a war of succession all of their estates and property were handed over to the Habsburgs on the basis of the inheritance agreement.

• Erazem Lauger

The castle became known as the seat of Knight Erazem Lueger (or Luegger), owner of the castle in 15th century, and a renowned robber baron. He was the son of the Imperial Governor of Trieste, Nikolaj Lueger. According to legend, Erazem came into conflict with the Habsburg establishment, when he killed the commander of the Imperial army Marshall Pappencheim, who had offended the honour of Erazem's deceased friend, Andrej Baumkircher of Vipava. Fleeing from the revenge of the Holy Roman Emperor Frederick III, Erazem settled in the family fortress of Predjama. He allied himself with the Hungarian king Matthias Corvinus, and started to attack Habsburg estates and towns in Carniola, turning into some kind of local Robin Hood. The Imperial forces sent the Governor of Trieste, Andrej Ravbar, to siege the castle. After a long siege, Erazem was betrayed by one of his men and killed.

• Primož Trubar

In the years 1520–1521 he attended school in Rijeka, in 1522–1524 he continued his education in Salzburg. From there he went to Trieste under the tutorship of the Roman Catholic bishop Pietro Bonomo, where he got in touch with the Humanist writers, in particular Erasmus of Rotterdam. In 1528 he enrolled at the University of Vienna, but did not complete his studies. In 1530 he returned to the Slovene Lands and became a preacher. He gradually leaned towards the Protestantism and was in 1547 expelled from Ljubljana.

While a Protestant preacher in Rothenburg, Germany, he wrote first two books in Slovene, Catechismus and Abecedarium, which were published in 1550 in Tübingen, Germany. In the following years, he authored around 25 more books in Slovenian; the most important of them is the translation of the complete New Testament, which he started while living in Kempten im Allgäu.

• Matija Majar – Ziljski

Matija Majar was a Carinthian Slovene Roman Catholic priest and political activist, most famous as the author of the idea of a United Slovenia. In the early days of the revolution of 1848, Majar formulated and published a political manifesto demanding the unification of all Slovene Lands into one single politically autonomous administrative entity, called Slovenia. In the following months, Majar's manifesto was elaborated into a program known under the name of United Slovenia.

Because of his radical political activity, Majar was transferred from Klagenfurt to the remote parish of Hohenthurn (Template:Lang-sl) on the border with Friuli. After more than decade in isolation, in 1867 Majar took part in a journey to Moscow later nicknamed the "Slav Pilgrimage", where he presented the valley of the Gail river at the Ethnographic Exhibition.

• Anton Korošec

In 1907, Korošec was elected to the Reichsrat as a member of the Slovenian People's Party, where, as president of the Yugoslav Club, he read out the May Declaration, which called for all South Slavs to be unified in one state unit within the Austro-Hungarian monarchy. Following the break-up of Austria-Hungary, the National Council of Slovenes, Croats and Serbs, of which Korošec was the president, declared the creation of the State of Slovenes, Croats and Serbs on 29 October 1918. Earlier, Korošec and Nikola Pašić had agreed on the terms of the Geneva Declaration, in which the Kingdom of Serbia recognized the equal rights of the different components of such a state should it join with it in a confederation. From the very beginning however, Serbs and Croats favoured central control and the subsequent Kingdom of Serbs, Croats and Slovenes was a unitary monarchy.

• Milan Kučan

Slovenia was the first of the federal units of Yugoslavia to introduce multi-party democracy and the first multi-party elections were held in April 1990. Kučan was elected President of the Presidency, then a collective body, in 1990, in a ballot against the DEMOS candidate Jože Pučnik.

Kučan strongly opposed the preservation of Yugoslavia through violent means. After the concept of a loose confederation had failed to gain support by the republics of Yugoslavia, Kučan favoured a controlled process of non-violent disassociation that would enable the collaboration of the former Yugoslav nations on a new, different basis.

Slovenia declared its independence on 25 June 1991. In his speech on the occasion, Kučan ended with the words that remained famous: "Today dreams are allowed, tomorrow is a new day." The celebrations were brutally interrupted by the aggression of the Yugoslav Army and the Ten-Day War started. At the peace talks began at Brioni, with the European Community as a mediator, the Army started its withdrawal from Slovenia. Kučan represented Slovenia at the peace conference on former Yugoslavia in the Hague and Brussels which concluded that the former Yugoslav nations were free to determine their future as independent states. On 22 May 1992 Kučan represented Slovenia as it became a new member of the United Nations.

After the independence and the international recognition of Slovenia, Kučan was elected as the first President of Slovenia in 1992 with the support of the citizens list. He won another five-year term in 1997–2002, running again as an independent and again winning the majority in the first round.

• Alojz Peterle

Peterle became prime minister of Slovenia in May 1990 after parliamentary elections of April 1990 won by the DEMOS coalition (which included Christian Democrats and was created in the opposition to the Communist rule). In 1991, the DEMOS-led Slovene Parliament declared the country's independence from Yugoslavia, in compliance with the result of a referendum held in December the previous year. He served as prime minister until May 1992, when due to an internal crisis in the DEMOS coalition, a new coalition government under Janez Drnovšek was established by a constructive vote of no confidence.

• France Bučar

France Bučar is a Slovenian politician, legal expert and author. Between 1990 and 1992, he served as the first chairman of the freely elected Slovenian Parliament. He was the one to formally declare the independence of Slovenia on 25 June 1991. He is considered as one of the founding fathers of Slovenian democracy and independence. He is also considered, together with Peter Jambrek, as the main author of the current Slovenian constitution.

After 1968, he published numerous articles criticizing the establishment of large business systems in Yugoslavia, the frequent changes in the legal framework and the lack of clear responsibilities in decision making processes. In 1976, he was fired from the University and was not allowed to publish anything for five years.

In the 1980s, he started collaborating with the alternative journal Nova revija. In early 1988, he was invited to speak at the European Parliament; he caused a scandal in Yugoslavia by proposing to block all economic aid to the socialist countries of Eastern Europe in order to force them to adopt economic and political reform.

In 1989, he was among the co-founders of the Slovenian Democratic Union, one of the first opposition parties to the Communist regime in Slovenia. After the victory of the DEMOS coalition in the first free elections in Slovenia in 1990, Bučar was elected as the Chairman of the Slovenian National Assembly. As the president of the Parliament and member of the Constitution Committee, Bučar had a crucial role in the adoption of the new Slovenian constitution. During this period, Bučar insisted on providing a sound legal basis for Slovenia's independence from Yugoslavia, and rejected all voluntaristic political actions, gaining a label of legalist.

• Janez Drnovšek (17 May 1950 – 23 February 2008)

Janez Drnovšek was a Slovenian liberal politician, President of Yugoslavia (1989–1990), Prime Minister of Slovenia (1992–2002) and President of Slovenia (2002–2007). He was born in Celje, then part of the Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia, today in Slovenia. He died on 23 February 2008 in Zaplana.

In 1989 Stane Dolanc, the Slovenian representative to the collective presidency of Yugoslavia, retired. The Slovenian Communist Party, aware of upcoming democratisation, decided to organize elections between two candidates for the position. Drnovšek, until then rather unknown to the public, defeated Marko Bulc, the Party's preferred candidate. The Communist leaderships of other Yugoslav republics did not agree with this new way of selecting the representative to the Collective Presidency, so the Slovenian Republic Parliament had to confirm the result of the elections. Drnovšek served as chairman of the Collective Presidency from 1989 until 1990. While he was chairman of the presidency, he was also chairman of the Non-Aligned Movement and the commander of the Yugoslav People's Army. Until the collapse of the Communist regime he was an active member of the Communist Party. After the democratic changes in Slovenia, the country seceded from Yugoslavia. Following the Ten Day War, Drnovšek used his position in the Collective Presidency to help mediate the Brioni Agreement and to negotiate a peaceful withdrawal of Yugoslav army from Slovenia.

In 1992, after a Government crisis in the DEMOS coalition, which had won the first democratic elections in Slovenia in 1990 and led the country to independence, Drnovšek became the second Prime Minister of independent Slovenia. He was chosen as a compromise candidate and an expert in economic policy and his bi-partisan government was supported both by the left and centrist wing of the dissolved DEMOS coalition (the Social Democratic Party of Slovenia and the Greens of Slovenia) and by two parties that derived from organizations of the former Communist regime (the Liberal Democratic Party and the Party of Democratic Reform).

Shortly afterwards, Drnovšek was elected president of the Liberal Democratic Party (Liberalno demokratska stranka – LDS), the legal successor of Association of Socialist Youth of Slovenia (Zveza socialistične mladine Slovenije – ZSMS), the youth fraction of the Communist Party of Slovenia.

In 1992, the Liberal Democratic Party under Drnovšek's leadership won the parliamentary elections. He headed the government until May 2000, when he stepped down due to disagreements with the Slovenian People's Party. After less than six months in opposition, Drnovšek returned to power in Autumn of 2000, after his party gained a clear victory in the parliamentary elections.

Drnovšek's governments guided Slovenia's political and economic reconstruction. He successfully tackled the twin tasks of reorienting Slovenia's trade away from the wreckage of the old Yugoslavia towards the West and replacing the ineffective Communist-era business model with more market-based mechanisms.

Unlike the other five former Yugoslav republics which were run for much of the 1990s by charismatic and frequently authoritarian presidents, Slovenia under Drnovšek's premiership quickly emerged from the break-up of the federation as a functioning parliamentary democracy. Drnovšek's political strategy was concentrated on broad coalitions, transcending idological and programmatic divisions between parties.

Contrary to some other former Communist countries in Eastern Europe, the economic and social transformation in Slovenia pursued by Drnovšek's governments followed a gradualist approach.

Drnovšek was a staunch supporter of Slovenia's entry in the European Union and NATO and was largely responsible for Slovenia's successful bid for membership in both of those organizations.

On 16 June 2001, he helped to arrange the first meeting of the U.S. President George W. Bush with the Russian President Vladimir Putin.

Swiss Confederation

Both the anonymous Eidgenossen who drew up the Federal Charter of 1291, or the liberal statesmen who helped found the modern Swiss Confederation in 1848 can be considered the founding fathers of Switzerland. Among the latter, those who became the first members of the Swiss Federal Council were perhaps the most notable: Ulrich Ochsenbein, Jakob Stämpfli, Jonas Furrer, Martin J. Munzinger, Daniel-Henri Druey, Friedrich Frey-Herosé, Wilhelm Matthias Naeff and Stefano Franscini.

Spain

The Catholic Monarchs (15th century). Unification of Spain, both coming from the noble House of Trastámara.

Charles I of Spain (1500–1558). First monarch of the Spanish realms and emperor of the Spanish Empire.

Turkey

File:Ataturk and flag of Turkey.jpg

Mustafa Kemal Atatürk is Founder of Modern Turkey. "Father of the Turks"

George Tupou I founded the modern Kingdom of Tonga.

Mustafa Kemal Atatürk (1881–1938) the founder of the Republic of Turkey and its first President.

Ukraine

• Bohdan Khmelnytsky – (c. 1595 – 6 August 1657) was a hetman of the Zaporozhian Cossack Hetmanate of Ukraine. He led an uprising against the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth magnates (1648–1654) which resulted in the creation of a Cossack state.

Wales

Magnus Maximus (ca. 335 – 28 August 388). According to Welsh tradition, Magnus Maximus (Welsh: Macsen-Wledig) was a Roman General who was proclaimed Emperor of Rome by his soldiers in Britain in 383. As such, he was the first "Romano-Britain" ruler of Britain and Rome itself (although he was born in the Roman province of Hispania and was only stationed in Britain in 380.) His mytho-heroic founding of Wales is celebrated in the modern Welsh anthem Yma o Hyd by Dafydd Iwan. Other traditional "founding" heroes of Wales include Boudica, Owen Glendower, and Llywelyn the Last.

Oceania

Australia

Sir Henry Parkes (1815–1896) is regarded as the "Father of Federation" in Australia. During the late 19th century, he was the strongest proponent for a federation of Australian territories. Unfortunately he died before Australia federated, and never got to see his plan come to fruition. Other founders of Australia can be regarded as Captain James Cook, the Englishman who claimed Australia; Captain Arthur Phillip, the first governor of New South Wales and founder of the first colony; and Sir Edmund Barton, the first Australian Prime Minister.

Fiji

Ratu Sir Kamisese Mara is widely viewed as the "Founding Father" of an independent Fiji.

Federated States of Micronesia

Chief Justice Andon Amaraich is regarded as "one of the founding fathers of the Federated States of Micronesia".

Papua New Guinea

Grand Chief Sir Michael Somare is viewed as the "Founding Father" of Papua New Guinea. The leading figure during the country's transition to independence from Australia, he was Papua New Guinea's first Prime Minister.

Tonga

King George Tupou I, who united his country and established the contemporary Kingdom of Tonga, has been described as Tonga's "founding father".