Leonidas I and the 300 Spartans

King Leonidas I
(530-480 BCE)

Leonidas I was the son of the Spartan King Anaxandrides. He became king after the death of his older half-brother Cleomenes I in 490 BCE.

As a male Leonidas, went through mental and physical training. From childhood every Spartan boy goes through their horrible education system, the Agoge, in preparation to become a warrior for Sparta. Once in the Spartan forces they would become a Hoplite, a soldier armed with a round shield, spear and a iron short sword. The Hoplites form in a battle a phalanx, rows of hoplites stood directly next to each other making a wall of shields and spears. During a frontal attack, this wall provided significant protection to the warriors behind it. Although if the formation broke or the enemy attacked from the sides or the rear then the formation became useless. 

Ancient Hellas (Greece) was made up of several hundred City-States. Although most were divided they banded together to defend Hellas from a foreign invader, Persia. In 490 BCE the Persian King Darius I instigated an attempted a invasion, but a combined Hellenes (Greeks) force pushed back the Persian army at the Battle of Marathon. 

In 480 BCE, one of Darius' sons, Xerxes I, attempted an invasion of Hellas. Under Xerxes, the Persian army moved through the Hellas eastern coast, with the Persian navy moving parallel to the shore. To reach the lower half of Hellas the Persian's had to go through the coastal pass of Thermopylae.

Battle of Thermopylae 480 BCE

In the late summer of 480, Leonidas led 300 Spartans and 6,700 Hellenes forces in attempted to stop the Persians through the narrow pass. For two days the Hellenes defended the attacks of the numerous enemy. Although the Persians found a route over the mountains to the west, enabling them to surround the Hellenes forces. Most of the Hellenes forces fled rather then see certain death. Only an army of Spartans, Thespians and Thebans remained and all of them were slaughtered. The Persians found and beheaded Leonidas' corpse, insulting him by denying funerary rights.

After the Battle of Thermopylae, the Athenian navy defeated the Persians at the Battle of Salamis, sending the Persians back home. It took forty years before Sparta retrieved Leonidas' remains to bury him as well as having a shrine built in his honour.   

Mohandas Gandhi - "We shall either free India or die in the attempt..."

Lego Gandhi,
the lawyer, 1893.
(1869-1948)

On 2nd October 1869 in North West India, Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi was born in the State of Porbandar. His father worked in government as the Chief Minister of Porbandar. His mother was a strong Hindu, vegetarian. At the age of 13, Gandhi married Kasturba in 1883. 

In 1888, Gandhi was given a chance to study law at the Inner Temple in London. He moved to London and he became acquainted with Western clothing. He later joined a vegetarian movement and at the Theosophical Society helped him with traditional Hindu principals - Vegetarianism, no alcohol and sexual abstinence.

In 1893 Gandhi returned to India to practise as a lawyer but after he lost his first case, he was thrown out of office. Humiliated, Gandhi accepted a post in South Africa. When travelling across the country in a first class train carriage, he was removed because of his race. Appalled at his treatment of the Indians. So he started up a Indian Congress in Natal to fight racism using non-violent civil protests. He then took a vow of celibacy and began wearing the traditional white Indian dhoti robe.

In 1914, he lead 2,221 people from the working Indian classes on a march from Natal to Transvaal in an act of public disobedience against a £3 taxon people of Indian descent. Gandhi was arrested and sentenced to 9 months imprisonment but the strike spread and the British were forced to drop the tax and release Gandhi. 

Later in 1915, Gandhi returned to India. He was shocked at the overcrowding and poverty he encountered. Gandhi called for a day of protest against the Rowlatt Act which allowed the imprisonment of anyone who was suspected of terrorism. Thousands gathered in several cities but the protesters turned violent. In Amritsar, the military fired upon 20,000 protesters. About 400 where killed and 1,300 were wounded. After the massacre, Gandhi started to campaign for Indian Independence. 

"I wear the national dress 

because it is the most natural 

and the most becoming 

for an Indian." - Gandhi

In 1921, Gandhi became the leader of the Indian National Congress and campaigns for political independence from Britain. In response the British arrested Gandhi for sedition and he was imprisoned for 2 years.

In 1930, the British planned a conference in London to discuss India's future. They refused to allow any Indian presents in the talks to put their own opinions across. In retaliation to this, Gandhi started a campaign against Britain's Salt Laws, which outlawed Indians from collecting or selling salt and forced to pay heavily taxed British salt. He lead thousands on a 'March to the Sea' where the protesters boiled the Sea water to make illegal salt. Gandhi was arrested and the protest escalated, thousands refused to pay their taxes and rent. The British gave in and Gandhi was released and was allowed to go to London for the conference.

In 1931, Gandhi travelled to London for the Round Table Conference as a representative of the Indian National Congress. However, the British weren't ready to grant India Independence. They believed that Gandhi didn't have the whole of India's interests at heart. Despite the loss, Gandhi was allowed an audience with King George V and he visited mill workers at Lancashire. After his failure at the conference, Gandhi stepped down as leader of the Indian National Congress. 

"We shall either free India
or die in the attempt" - Gandhi

In 1942, Winston Churchill called on India for support in the war against Germany. Gandhi disliked the idea of sending Indian aid to the British, while India was subjugated by them. Gandhi planned a non-violent protest demanding the British to 'Quit India'. In response, Gandhi and his wife was imprisoned. A string of violent protests for Gandhi's release erupted across India. He was released in 1944 but his wife died months before.

In 1947, Britain began negotiations for the independence of India. The Mountbatten Plan outlined the formation of the two new independent states of India and Pakistan, divided along the religious region divide. Gandhi's vision of a united India and religion was destroyed. The state partition started mass killings and the migration of millions. Gandhi leafed Delhi and travelled to Calcutta in hope of settling the violence.

In 1948, Gandhi returned to Delhi to protect Muslims who stayed in India. However, on his way to prayer at Birla House he was shot dead by a Hindu extremist.