How did Napoleon and Bismarck rise from their military ranks to become the most important French and German rulers in modern history? Napoleon, was an outsider from an island of which most French people had never heard about but came to be Emperor of the French and ruled most of the Western World in the early 1800s while Bismarck was a nobleman and experienced soldier but conquered the highest position in power under the King of Prussia then created the German Empire. Last, consider their respective legacies [achievements and mistakes].

Who was most influential in the History of West and why?