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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 1 By country 1.1 Canada 1.2 European Union 1.3 German Federal Republic 1.4 India 1.5 Italy 1.6 Norway 1.7 Pakistan 1.8 Portugal 1.9 Somalia 1.10 South America 1.11 Swiss Confederation 1.12 United States of America 2 See also 3 References

Canada has the "Fathers of Confederation" who attended the Charlottetown, Quebec, and London Conferences to set up the Canadian Confederation.

Robert Schuman, Jean Monnet, Konrad Adenauer, Alcide De Gasperi, Mario Soares, Paul-Henri Spaak and Altiero Spinelli have been referred to as the founding fathers of the European Union.^{[citation needed]}

Otto von Bismarck, 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.

Mohandas Karamchand "Mahatma" Gandhi 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.

Giuseppe Garibaldi, Victor Emmanuel II, Count Cavour, Giuseppe Mazzini have been referred to as the founding fathers of the Kingdom of Italy.

Usually the Constitutional Assembly 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.

Main article: Mahomed Ali Jinnah

Pakistan's founding father is Mahomed Ali Jinnah, 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 and whose famous August 11 speech (see Quaid-e-Azam's 11th August speech) is still a charter for minorities' rights in Pakistan.

Count Henry from Burgundy (1066–1112), 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, Afonso I of Portugal (1109–1185), a Templar Brother (1129), 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.

Ahmed Gurey and Mohammed Abdullah Hassan known as "Mad Mullah" in World History are considered mainly as the founding fathers of Somali nationalism. He among the sultanates of Darod created what is today called Somalia. For instance, first Premier of Somalia Abdirashid Ali Sharmarke was born in Hobyo to a wealthy family of the sultanate of Obbio.

José de San Martín, Simon Bolivar, Jose Antonio Paez, Rafael Urdaneta, Francisco de Paula Santander, Francisco de Miranda have been referred to as the founding fathers of the northern countries of South America (Venezuela, Colombia, Peru, Panama, Ecuador, Bolivia).

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.

Main article: 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." ^[1]

• Father of the Nation