Post here historical leaders who were of an ethnic minority (or foreign ethnic group) from the country that they ruled over.
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And President Dole of the Hawaiian Republic between the overthrow of the indigenous monarchy and the annexation.
Being a jackwagon here, but by Nicholas II, the Romanovs were far more German and Danish then they were Russian.
Poland had a German king in the form of Augustus II. A good chunk of the Polish nobility had German blood, or was entirely German.
Since I read Wrangel's memoirs recently, a good chunk of White leadership was of Non-Russian or half Russian origin.
Mikhail Drozdovsky: Russo-Ukrainian
Anton Denikin: Half Polish
Pyotr Wrangel: Baltic German (probably already mentioned in here somewhere)
Yevgeny Müller: Baltic German
Lavr Kornilov: (Possibly?) Kalmyk? Kazakh? Ethnic Siberian? Has an uncertain Central Asian background.
Mikhail Diterikhs: Pretty thoroughly Russified by his time, but still of German origin.
You could half-jokingly call the Eastern Front of World War One a civil war among the German nobility.
Poland had a German king in the form of Augustus II. A good chunk of the Polish nobility had German blood, or was entirely German.
Since I read Wrangel's memoirs recently, a good chunk of White leadership was of Non-Russian or half Russian origin.
Mikhail Drozdovsky: Russo-Ukrainian
Anton Denikin: Half Polish
Pyotr Wrangel: Baltic German (probably already mentioned in here somewhere)
Yevgeny Müller: Baltic German
Lavr Kornilov: (Possibly?) Kalmyk? Kazakh? Ethnic Siberian? Has an uncertain Central Asian background.
Mikhail Diterikhs: Pretty thoroughly Russified by his time, but still of German origin.
You could half-jokingly call the Eastern Front of World War One a civil war among the German nobility.
Ian Khama, former President of Botswana, has English ancestry from his mother.
There is a hypothetical timeline where Boris Johnson could have become POTUS due to his birth in the United States.
There is a hypothetical timeline where Boris Johnson could have become POTUS due to his birth in the United States.
Jean Chrétien of Canada. Quebecois leader of a nominally bilingual but de facto Anglophone nation.
Martin Van Buren of the United States, of Dutch descent, who make up less than 0.95% of the US today, not sure what the percentage was then.
Kim Jong-il of North Korea, kinda. He was a Koryosaram, born in the Russian SFSR.
Stalin, Georgian leader of the Soviet Union.
Naftali Bennett of Israel, Jewish, but of American descent. Benjamin Netanyahu is like the inverse, Israeli-born Jew but spent a large deal of his early life in the US.
Hitler, Austrian leader of Germany.
Tito of Yugoslavia, who was of Croat and Slovene descent (who made up about 19 and 7 percent of the country respectively).
Every South African leader prior to 1994.
Martin Van Buren of the United States, of Dutch descent, who make up less than 0.95% of the US today, not sure what the percentage was then.
Kim Jong-il of North Korea, kinda. He was a Koryosaram, born in the Russian SFSR.
Stalin, Georgian leader of the Soviet Union.
Naftali Bennett of Israel, Jewish, but of American descent. Benjamin Netanyahu is like the inverse, Israeli-born Jew but spent a large deal of his early life in the US.
Hitler, Austrian leader of Germany.
Tito of Yugoslavia, who was of Croat and Slovene descent (who made up about 19 and 7 percent of the country respectively).
Every South African leader prior to 1994.
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Guy Scott, Acting President of Zambia from 2014 to 2015 (previously Vice President to Michael Sata before Sata passed away in 2014).
Son of Scottish and English parents. Apparently President George W. Bush thought he being pranked when Scott was introduced as Zambia's VP during a meeting in 2012.
Sargon
Son of Scottish and English parents. Apparently President George W. Bush thought he being pranked when Scott was introduced as Zambia's VP during a meeting in 2012.
Sargon
You forgot the Dutch one: Orange (French) -Nassau (German) though technically it would be Von Amsberg (obviously German) right now after the house of the current king's father. The House of Savoie (Italy) is also a cadet branch of the Welfs (German) iirc
Hendrik Frensch Verwoerd was born in Amsterdam and his family emigrated to South Africa when he was 2 years old, he was more Dutch than your average Afrikaner
He was the first president to be born in the United States right? As in, he was born when the United States existed
And every one since #KhoisanGang
As for my own original additions to the list, I was told a while ago that Erdogan is a Laz, a small ethnic minority in Pontus in Turkey. A general rule for Dutch political figures is that if they're from one of the major cities of Holland, there's a fair chance he may be of a "Wallonian" family meaning that he is of Hugenot descent, who up untill the late Republic maintained their own seperate church. Finally, Pieter Sjoerds Gerbrandy, the WW2 exile-Dutch PM, was Frisian. And there's also a bit of a running joke that Joseph Goebbels was Limburgish because his mom was from there and he went to school in that Dutch province, but don't take that too serious
Former Prime Minister Boris Johnson of the UK, who is partly of Turkish descent. Not historical (unless you count the brief prime ministership and 2000s tenure), but an urban legend posits that Vladimir Putin is rumored to be of Georgian descent.
Yup, I think every US president aside from Van Buren and Trump are of British Isles descent in whole or in part, which would make every US president an ethnic minority since they only make up around 23% of the population today combined.
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Most of Iran's monarchs were ethnic minorities, at least in the western sense of the term. Current leader Khamenei is of Azeri descent.
Never heard about Putin's Georgian ancestry. But I have heard rumors that him has Ugric ancestors. Pretty reasonable since his family is from around St. Petersburg where was pretty strong Ugric population probably yet times of Peter the Great.
IIRC Safavids and Qajars were Azeris. Not sure what ethnic group Pahlavis were.
Reza Shah was Mazanderani, who most Iranians wouldn’t consider a separate ethnic group but westerners often portray them as one.
Benito Juarez was a Zapotec Indian. He was not even born a Spanish speaker yet he became President of Mexico.
(Arguably no national leader has ever come from humbler origins.)
(Arguably no national leader has ever come from humbler origins.)
Some people speculate that Ataturk had Albanian ancestry, so does he count? Speaking of which, the whole Ali dynasty of Egypt had Albanian roots.
Oh and Jerry Rawlings, former president of Ghana, had Ewe origins (Ewes are a minority in Ghana).
Oh and Jerry Rawlings, former president of Ghana, had Ewe origins (Ewes are a minority in Ghana).
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The same goes for Evo Morales, who is an Aymara. Speaking about Latin America, Bernardo O'Higgins had Irish ancestry, Alberto Fujimori is Japanese, and Nestor Kirchner is a descendant of Volga Germans.
