End of an era

As of Inauguration Day, 2009, Barack Obama will arguably be the most powerful human being on the planet (though you could make a case for Hu Jintao). Either way, think about this:

This is the first time in hundreds of years that the most powerful person in the world is not a white man.

How many years? Well, I'd argue that it's been 427. In the year 1581, Phillip II of the House of Hapsburg, King of Spain, inherited the throne of Portugal, and gained unified control over the only two global maritime empires of the age. He was the first to boast that his empire was one "on which the sun never sets."

Who besides Phillip II could have been the most powerful man in the world in 1581? The Ottoman Sultan had the best army, but had been crushed by new Spanish naval technology at the Battle of Lepanto in 1571. The Chinese Ming dynasty was in terminal decline (Chinese power would not recover until the 21st century!). And there really was no one else.

So from 1581 to 2008, the title of "most powerful person in the world," though often contested, was held by a succession of European kings and emperors and czars, and then by American presidents (or possibly, for short periods of time, Soviet premiers). All of them white men.

Straight up until January 20, 2009. 427 years.