Discover

'Founding Fathers' are persons instrumental in the establishment of an institution, usually a political institution, especially those connected to the origination of its ideals. The term is most often used in more reverential treatments of national history.

Contents

List by country or continent

South America

References

List by country or continent

===Afghanistan===
Ahmad Shah Durrani (1723-1773) unified the Pashtun tribes and founded Afghanistan in 1747.^[1]His mausoleum is in Kandahar, Afghanistan, where he is fondly known as Ahmad Shah Baba (''Father of Afghanistan'').^[2]
===Argentina===
José de San Martín (1778-1850) and Manuel Belgrano (1770-1820) are usually considered the founding fathers of Argentina.
===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.^[3]
===Bangladesh===
Sheikh Mujibur Rahman (1920-1975) is regarded as the "Father of the Nation" in Bangladesh. A charismatic politician and popularly called as "Bangabandhu" (friend of the Bengal)Newsweek magazine referred to him as the "poet of politics" when he was incarcerated by the Pakistani forces in 1971, the year of Bangladesh's independence from Pakistan. Though most part of Mujib's political career featured a struggle for democracy and defiance against military rule in the State of Pakistan, he banned all opposition political activities and introduced one party system (called BAKSAL-Bangladesh Farmers Workers Awami League) in the newly created state of Bangladesh. In the mid-night of August 15, 1975, a group of disgruntled army officers brutally killed him along with most of his family members at his residence in Dhaka (see Assassination of Sheikh Mujibur Rahman). His daughter Sheikh Hasina served as Bangladesh's Prime Minister during 1996-2001 and leader of opposition in the national Parliament during 1991-1996 and 2001-2006.In an opinion poll conducted by the BBC Radio in 2003, he was voted as the greatest Bangalee (a native of the Bengal)of all times.
===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 September 7, 1822, becoming himself the new independent country's emperor, titled as Pedro I of Brazil (1798-1834).^[4]
===Canada===
Canada has the "Fathers of Confederation" who attended the Charlottetown, Quebec, and London Conferences to set up the Canadian Confederation.^[5]
===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 Enríquez and Manuel Rodríguez (1785-1818).
===European Union===
Konrad Adenauer (1876-1967), Joseph Bech (1887-1975),^[6] 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), Mario Soares (born 1924), Paul-Henri Spaak (1899-1972), Altiero Spinelli (1907-1986), and Pierre Werner (1913-2002) have been referred to as the founding fathers of the European Union.^[7][8]
===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.
===Ghana===
Kwame Nkrumah (1909-1972) led the nation to its independence from the United Kingdom in 1957.
===India===
Mahatma Gandhi (1869-1948) is referred to as the founding father of India. He was one 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, is also considered a founding father^[9]. To a much lesser extent, it can also refer to Dr. Bhimrao Ramji Ambedkar (1891-1956), the architect of the Indian constitution^[10].
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 ^[11]. Ironically the Drafting Committee also included women, among its ranks.
===Italy===
Giuseppe Garibaldi (1807-1882), Count Camillo Benso (1810-1861), Giuseppe Mazzini (1805-1872) have been referred to as the founding fathers of the Kingdom of Italy.^[12]
===Namibia===
Sam Nujoma (born 1929) was named Namibias "Founding Father of the Nation" after the indepedence in 1990 ^[13]
===Netherlands===
Often Prince William I of Orange (1533-1584) is referred to as the ''vader des vaderlands'' or father of the fatherlands of the Netherlands.
===Norway===
Usually the Riksforsamlingen at Eidsvoll in 1814, consisting of 112 men from most of the country, in Norway often referred to as ''the Eidsvoll Fathers'' or ''the Fathers of the Constitution''.^[14]
===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.^[15]
===Pakistan===
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.
===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.
===Somalia===
Ahmad Gurey (1506-1543) and Mohammed Abdullah Hassan (1856-1920) are considered mainly as the founding fathers of Somali nationalism. He created among the sultanates of Darod what is today called Somalia. For instance, second President of Somalia Abdirashid Ali Shermarke was born in Hobyo to a wealthy family of the sultanate of Obbio.

South America

José de San Martín^[16], Simon Bolivar^[17], Jose Antonio Paez, Rafael Urdaneta, Francisco de Paula Santander^[18], Francisco de Miranda^[19] have been referred to as the founding fathers of the northern countries of South America (Venezuela, Colombia, Peru, Panama, Ecuador, Bolivia).
===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.
===Turkey===
Mustafa Kemal Atatürk (1881-1938) the founder of the Republic of Turkey and its first President.^[20]
===United States of America===
Main articles: Founding Fathers of the United States

The signatories of the Declaration of Independence are often called "Founders," and the delegates of the Philadelphia Convention which prepared the Constitution are often called "Framers." According to Joseph J. Ellis , this concept emerges in the 1820s as the last survivors died out. George Washington was always the dominant figure. He was joined by John Adams, Thomas Jefferson, and after that, James Madison, Alexander Hamilton, Benjamin Franklin, John Jay, and others. Ellis says the "the founders," or "the fathers" comprised an aggregate of semi-sacred figures whose particular accomplishments and singular achievements were decidedly less important than their sheer presence as a powerful but faceless symbol of past greatness. For the generation of national leaders coming of age in the 1820s and 1830s—men like Andrew Jackson, Henry Clay, Daniel Webster, Adam Smith, and John C. Calhoun—"the founders" represented a heroic but anonymous abstraction whose long shadow fell across all followers and whose legendary accomplishments defied comparison. "We can win no laurels in a war for independence," Webster acknowledged in 1825. "Earlier and worthier hands have gathered them all. Nor are there places for us ... [as] the founders of states. Our fathers have filled them. But there remains to us a great duty of defence and preservation."^[21]

References

1. CIA Factbook on Afghanistan
2. Nancy Dupree Nancy Hatch Dupree - An Historical Guide to Afghanistan (Chapter 16:Kandahar)
3. Sir Henry Parkes (1815–1896)
4. Bonifácio de Andrada e Silva, José
5. Fathers of Confederation
6. Luxembourg, Dumont, Patrick and Hirsh, Mario, , , European Journal of Political Research, 2003
7. European Audio Visual Service - Founding Fathers
8. Founding Fathers: Europeans Behind the Union
9. Gandhi & Nehru
10. [1]
11. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Indian_Constitution
12. V. Creation of the Italian Kingdom
13. [2]
14. Why did the Norwegian constitution of 1814 become a part of positive law in the nineteenth century?
15. NIGERIA'S FOUNDING FATHERS
16. In the Steps of Generals José de San Martín and Bernardo O’Higgins
17. Statue of Venezuela's founding father unveiled in Tehran in presence of Chavez
18. Bentham Ban Lifted
19. Francisco de Miranda and Andrés Bello lectures at The Bolívar Hall
20. Mustapha Kemal Ataturk: still worshipped after all these years
21. Joseph J. Ellis; ''Passionate Sage: The Character and Legacy of John Adams.'' (2001) p. 214.