Generalissimo

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Generalissimo or Generalissimus is a military rank of the highest degree, superior to a Field Marshal or Grand Admiral. Similar to the German Reichsmarschall or the British Marshal of the Empire. The rank was historically given to a military officer leading an entire army or the entire armed forces, only subordinated to the Sovereign. The contemporary use of "generalissimo", has in the English language come to refer to a military officer who has obtained political power by a military coup, or in some cases one who has suspended pre-existing constitutional mechanisms in order to retain power by means of a military hierarchy.

Some historical dictators have awarded themselves titles literally containing the word "generalissimo". For instance, Francisco Franco, Chief of State of the Spanish State, also proclaimed himself Generalísimo de los Ejércitos Españoles, or "Generalissimo of the Spanish Armies", a title which expressed his supreme command of the Army, Navy, and Air Force. (Franco's opponents derided his minister Ramón Serrano Suñer as el cuñadísimo, a play on cuñado—Spanish for brother-in-law, his relationship to Franco.) Joseph Stalin bore it as a title of rank, Generalissimo of the Soviet Union, above the rank of Marshal of the Soviet Union, after being appointed to the position on June 27, 1945 (at the conclusion of World War II on the Eastern Front). He was the only man ever to hold the rank. Chiang Kai-shek also used the term, although he was technically a general special class or "five-star general".

Inhabitants of developed English-speaking countries are often familiar with the term generalissimo in reference to twentieth-century military rulers of countries in Latin America (where the term caudillo is more appropriate). Consequently, the term commonly evokes the image of corrupt dictatorships and so-called "banana republics", and should be used with caution or not at all when referring to bearers of unique or honorific military titles in other languages. It is also generally not used to refer to monarchs in feudal Europe or to similar political-military hierarchies in other nations (such as the Shoguns of Japanese history). To the extent that "generalissimo" is used in an honorific or neutral sense, it is usually applied not to persons of rank comparable to their contemporaries (such as the five-star generals of the twentieth century U. S.) but to holders of extraordinary ranks such as General of the Armies (awarded to John J. Pershing, and in retrospect to George Washington).

1 Famous generalissimos
2 See also

[edit] Famous generalissimos

Reichsmarschall Hermann Göring.

[edit] The Holy Roman Empire / Austrian Empire

Albrecht von Wallenstein (1583–1634)
Raimondo Montecuccoli (1609–1680)
Prince Eugene of Savoy (1663–1736)
Leopold Josef Graf Daun (1705–1766)
Josef Wenzel, Prince of Liechtenstein (1696–1772)
Archduke Charles of Austria (1771–1847)
Karl zu Schwarzenberg (1771–1820)

[edit] Mexico

Antonio López de Santa Anna y Pérez de Lebrón (1794–1876)

[edit] North Korea

Kim Il-sung (1912–1994)

[edit] Russia and the Soviet Union

Aleksei Shein (1662–1700)
Aleksandr Danilovich Menshikov (1673–1729)
Anthony Ulrich II, Duke of Brunswick-Lüneburg (1714–1776)
Aleksandr Suvorov (1729–1800)
Joseph Stalin (1879–1953)

(There were four holders of the Russian rank or title "generalissimus" prior to Stalin. Menshikov both commanded military forces and ruled absolutely; two others, Aleksei Shein and Aleksandr Suvorov, were principally field commanders rather than political figures, and hence are listed below. Anthony Ulrich II, Duke of Brunswick-Lüneburg (1714–1776), was appointed generalissimus by his wife Anna Leopoldovna but neither commanded nor ruled.)

[edit] Spain

Don Juan de Austria (1547–1578)
Francisco Franco (1892–1975)

[edit] Sweden

Lennart Torstenson (1603–1651)
Crown Prince Carl Johan of Sweden and Norway (Jean-Baptiste Bernadotte), later Charles XIV John of Sweden and Norway (1763–1844)

[edit] United States of America

George Washington, General of the Armies of the United States (1732–1799)
John J. Pershing, General of the Armies of the United States (1860–1948)

General John Joseph Pershing

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(On October 11, 1976, by Act of Congress, Washington was posthumously appointed "to the grade of "General of the Armies of the United States". The appointment was backdated to July 4, 1776 and was a designation that, by law, made George Washington the most-senior United States military officer)