37 Facts About Basil Zaharoff

One of the richest men in the world during his lifetime, Zaharoff was described as both a "merchant of death" and a "mystery man of Europe".

Basil Zaharoff's success was forged through his cunning, often aggressive and sharp, business tactics.

Basil Zaharoff maintained close contacts with many powerful political leaders, including British Prime Minister David Lloyd George, Greek Prime Minister Eleftherios Venizelos and Ottoman Sultan Abdul Hamid II.

Basil Zaharoff's family lived in Russia for over two decades as exiles following the anti-Greek "Easter pogroms" of 1821.

Basil Zaharoff was summoned to court in London due to irregular exports of goods from Constantinople to London.

The eloquent Basil Zaharoff succeeded in convincing Skouloudis of the rightness of his London court case.

Basil Zaharoff was hired on 14 October 1877, beginning a spectacular career.

Basil Zaharoff did not make arms dealing his sole business at first.

Basil Zaharoff had a spell in the United States where he worked as a confidence man, and later as a salesman for a St Louis railcar business.

Basil Zaharoff sold munitions to many nations, including Great Britain, Germany, the Russian and Ottoman Empires, Greece, Spain, Japan and the United States.

Basil Zaharoff worked for Vickers, the munitions firm, from 1897 to 1927.

Basil Zaharoff is believed to have had a hand in the events surrounding Maxim's attempts to demonstrate his invention between 1886 and 1888.

From 1886 to 1889, at the same time that Basil Zaharoff got the Maxim machine gun, he managed to appropriate Isaac Peral's submarine; although these facts are less well known.

Basil Zaharoff then persuaded the Turks that the Greek submarine posed a threat, selling them two.

Basil Zaharoff found out quickly about this young Spanish Naval officer's invention.

Later on, during Peral's visit to London, Basil Zaharoff tried meeting with him unsuccessfully, with the help of one of Peral's Spanish Navy fellow officers.

Basil Zaharoff then got to work with his own Machiavellian plan.

Basil Zaharoff traveled to Spain several times between 1886 and 1890 with three objectives: boycott Peral's submarine, sell weapons to the Spanish Army, and acquire a Spanish munitions factory.

Basil Zaharoff was successful in all three objectives, mainly because his initiation of an amorous relationship with Pilar de Muguiro y Beruete opened many doors for him.

Basil Zaharoff was a personal friend and niece of Segismundo Moret, a leading Spanish progressive thinker and the Liberal Party Leader's right-hand man.

Also, the 1934 United States Senate Nye Committee Memorandum shows that Basil Zaharoff was paid considerable sums for transactions made between foreign companies and the Spanish Government.

In 1890, the Maxim-Nordenfelt association broke up, and Basil Zaharoff chose to go with Maxim.

Germany and the United Kingdom both sought improved naval capability, and Vickers, with Basil Zaharoff, were willing and able to service both sides.

Basil Zaharoff's response was to build a huge Russian arms production complex at Tsaritsyn as a subsidiary of Vickers.

In 1917 and 1918, on the behest of David Lloyd George, Basil Zaharoff initiated a series of secret peace negotiations with the Ottoman Empire, beginning on 18 July 1917.

The British hoped Basil Zaharoff could convince the Three Pashas to abandon the Central Powers and make a separate peace with the Allies.

Basil Zaharoff convinced Venizelos to attack but, after some impressive initial success, the Greek Army was eventually driven back.

Basil Zaharoff was involved in two more significant financial ventures in October 1920, becoming involved in the incorporation of a company that was a predecessor to oil giant BP.

Basil Zaharoff foresaw that there was a great future in the oil business.

Basil Zaharoff succeeded in returning the casino to profit again.

Basil Zaharoff was fascinated by aviation, and gave money and other support to pioneers in Great Britain, France and Russia.

Basil Zaharoff encouraged Hiram Maxim's attempt to build a flying machine, and claimed he and Maxim were the first men to be lifted off the earth, when Maxim tested his first "flying machine" at Bexley in 1894.

Basil Zaharoff was a good friend of fellow Greek Jacques Damala, from the noble Zaccaria de Damala family, and his wife, world famous stage actress Sarah Bernhardt, and took in Damala's illegitimate daughter with a theatre extra after she was left in a basket on Bernhardt's doorstep.

In September 1924, Basil Zaharoff, 74, married his mistress Maria del Pilar Antonia Angela Patrocinio Fermina Simona de Muguiro y Beruete, in her own right 1st Duchess de Villafranca de los Caballeros.

Basil Zaharoff then began selling his business assets and drafted his memoirs.

Basil Zaharoff apparently burnt the manuscript after it was stolen by a valet and recovered by police.

Princess Marthe Bibesco claimed Basil Zaharoff was an illegitimate son of her maternal grandfather.