Post here historical leaders who were of an ethnic minority (or foreign ethnic group) from the country that they ruled over.

[Wendell]

I think there are Malay and other dynasties in the East Indies that assert descent from Indians or Arabs and numerous princely states in India had Turkic or Afghan roots. If I recall correctly, Janjira was ruled by an African dynasty.

 

[Crazy Boris]

I think there are Malay and other dynasties in the East Indies that assert descent from Indians or Arabs and numerous princely states in India had Turkic or Afghan roots. If I recall correctly, Janjira was ruled by an African dynasty.

I think the house of Bolkiah (Brunei) has Arab roots

the Najahids of Yemen were, like the rajahs of Janjira, Ethiopian

 

[TickTock The Witch's Dead]

The Mughal dynasty that ruled India was of Turco-Mongol origin.

 

[Crazy Boris]

I’ve just realized that given how diverse the country is, with no real majority to speak of, every US president would count. A lot of leaders from the Americas probably would but I’m not gonna compare every country’s demographics and the ethnic backgrounds of every single one of their leaders

...not tonight anyways, maybe later

 

[9 Fanged Hummingbird]

I’ve just realized that given how diverse the country is, with no real majority to speak of, every US president would count. A lot of leaders from the Americas probably would but I’m not gonna compare every country’s demographics and the ethnic backgrounds of every single one of their leaders

...not tonight anyways, maybe later

The majority of American citizens in our early history were of English descent, and likewise most presidents have been Anglo-Americans.

 

[Tibi088]

Nicolas Sarkozy is of hungarian (his surname definately), greek jewish and french origin.

 

[athgtq16129]

I’ve just realized that given how diverse the country is, with no real majority to speak of, every US president would count. A lot of leaders from the Americas probably would but I’m not gonna compare every country’s demographics and the ethnic backgrounds of every single one of their leaders

...not tonight anyways, maybe later

I already wrote this two times on the thread, but I am letting people type in examples anyways, like for example, I had no idea that Fulgencio Batista had Chinese roots, and that Guyana had a Jewish president.

In this list, I do not plan to count:

• People from "Conquest dynasties", like the Hellenistic kingdoms, the non-Han dynasties of China, etc.
• People from countries that are extremely diverse and at least de-jure do not have a single dominant ethnic group that outnumbers all the others.
• Countries where having leaders and national figures of various different ethnic groups was never a big deal to begin with (i.e. India, Pakistan, Nigeria, pretty much all countries in the Americas, etc.)

But for the sake of learning new stuff, you can cite people that you think are interesting nonetheless, as long as these examples do not clutter the main topic this thread.

Yeah, and Pablo Kuczynski is of German Jewish and French heritage, but I don't really like citing examples of new world countries, since they're all settler states made up of immigrants, I'm Brazilian and I have around 8 ethnic groups in my ancestry that I was able to track down, probably more that have been lost to history.

I also do not like examples of "conquest dynasties", or else every single official of the Yuan and Qing dynasties would have to be cited in here.

 

[Wendell]

I’ve just realized that given how diverse the country is, with no real majority to speak of, every US president would count. A lot of leaders from the Americas probably would but I’m not gonna compare every country’s demographics and the ethnic backgrounds of every single one of their leaders

...not tonight anyways, maybe later

People of Arab descent have been the leaders of Latin American countries including El Salvador's current president.

 

[Domrémy-Scorniçesti Axis]

Juscelino Kubitschek was of Czech Romani descent, while Joseph Stalin was Georgian and Fulgencio Batista the only mestizo president in Cuban history.

 

[athgtq16129]

People of Arab descent have been the leaders of Latin American countries including El Salvador's current president.

And also Brazil's Michel Temer, the Lebanese diaspora in South America is huge.

Also fun trivia that I should share: At least in my case, my uncle told me that my Lebanese ancestors were classified as Turks when they arrived in Brazil probably after WW1 (mainly due to the Great Famine of Mount Lebanon), as back then Lebanon was still a de-jure part of the Ottoman Empire up until 1918(?), or even after WW1 it still took a while for Brazil to be aware that Lebanon was no longer a part of the Ottoman Empire, and later Turkey.

 

[Jürgen]

Former Prime Minister Boris Johnson of the UK, who is partly of Turkish descent.

Having aTurkish great grandfather do not make someone Turkish.

 

[Ironshark]

Vicente Fox of Mexico was of German and American descent .Fuchs became Fox

Vicente Guerro was Black

Bennet parents came from America and he's even said to have negotiated with bibi in English

disraeli ethnically was jewish

 

[Crazy Boris]

Vicente Guerro was Black

We actually don't know Guerrero's ethnic origin for certain, it's speculated he had African roots, but never confirmed

 

[Vinization]

The emperors of the Tang Dynasty had nomadic ancestry AFAIK, even if they were thoroughly sinicized.

Would I be right in assuming the Yuan and Qing dynasties were foreigners to most of their subjects?

Lastly, the Mughal emperors were of Central Asian origin.

 

[Crazy Boris]

Can't believe I forgot this one, but the Trieu dynasty of Nanyue/Vietnam had roots in Hebei

 

[Caledon]

If you play around with the rules of dominant ethnic groups and people having to care about the leader's origin, you could argue for including John F. Kennedy.

I was going to mention him if he hadn't come up. The fact that he was Catholic was a pretty big deal at the time, so I'd definitely include him.

Interestingly, according to the 'pedia, he was the second president with Irish ancestry. First was Andrew Jackson:

Ancestral background of presidents of the United States - Wikipedia

en.wikipedia.org

 

[Jürgen]

A lot of people these kind of identities are pretty meaningless, having a German great grandfather doesn’t make you German. I think people should look at meaningful minority identities.

 

[Crazy Boris]

A lot of people these kind of identities are pretty meaningless, having a German great grandfather doesn’t make you German. I think people should look at meaningful minority identities.

What makes an identity “meaningful”? Most Irish-Americans are over a century separated from the Emerald Isle, but they still have a strong sense of being Irish. They can’t really be said to be culturally Irish, and most are only partially Irish by descent, but you ask them and they’ll still call themselves Irish, and they do indeed have some heritage from Ireland.

 

[Jürgen]

What makes an identity “meaningful”? Most Irish-Americans are over a century separated from the Emerald Isle, but they still have a strong sense of being Irish. They can’t really be said to be culturally Irish, and most are only partially Irish by descent, but you ask them and they’ll still call themselves Irish, and they do indeed have some heritage from Ireland.

Kennedy meaningfully belonged to a minority, Biden does not at least not in 2020. When Kennedy was elected president there was a cost of being being an Irish Catholic, while in none of Biden’s presidential campaigns have it been brought up.

Trump as example is far more foreign than either Biden or even Kennedy with two grandparents born in Germany and a mother born in Scotland, but Trump it have never been anything which really affected Trump among the general population, through it’s a other case among his fellow rich New Yorkers, who see this third generation rich Ivy League guy as nouveau riche because of his origin.

 

[comrade cat]

Indonesia have a history of the "king's" second in command/right hand man being from minority group. This is extremely useful for the "king" because the fact of the right hand man being from minority group curtailed his ability to usurp power. In modern time, ones of the most memorable name that comes to my mind are

• Leonardus Benjamin "Benny" Moerdani, a Catholic who served as chief of the armed forces (de-facto second most powerful position in the country during the new order regime) for much of the 1980s
• (to dwell a bit into current politics) Luhut Binsar Panjaitan, an ethnic Batak Protestant who is widely seen as the most powerful minister in Jokowi's cabinet and his de-facto right hand man.