TOP TEN PROTESTS THAT SHOOK THE WORLD AND CHANGED HISTORY
Remonstrations, demonstrations, rebellion, and protests are nothing new in the history of human civilization. In fact, we can say that Protest is the younger brother of Government; for it dates as far back as when men have understood how to choose a style of government for themselves.
The current raging protest by the Nigerian Youths calling on the Government to scrap the Nigerian Police Rouge Unit known as Special Anti-Robbery Squad (SARS) for their extreme brutality trending #EndSARS all over the Social Media and on ground protests around the world.
1. THE STORMING OF THE BASTILLE (July 14, 1789)
Perhaps known as the greatest civil disobedience in the Contemporary History of Mankind, the Storming of The Bastille on the evening of July 14, 1789, triggered a series of protests that lasted for 10 years in France. And it kick-started what would later in history be known as The French Revolution.
It all started when a mob of peasant Parisians stormed the Bastille, a symbol of royal authority and luxury, beheaded the Bastille’s governor, freed the prisoners and sparked a series of other protests from Versailles, Paris, Marseille to Nice and other regions in France. What followed was a decade long rebellion against the King Louis XVI that overthrew the Monarchy and established a People’s Republic (with Napoleon Bonaparte stepping up as France’s Emperor).
The upheaval was caused by widespread discontent with the French monarchy and the poor economic policies of King Louis XVI. Extravagant spending by King Louis XVI and his predecessor had left the country on the brink of bankruptcy. Not only were the royal coffers depleted, but two decades of poor harvests, drought, cattle disease and skyrocketing bread prices had kindled unrest among peasants and the urban poor. Many expressed their desperation and resentment toward a regime that imposed heavy taxes – yet failed to provide any relief – by rioting, looting and striking.
Although it failed to achieve all of its goals and at times degenerated into a chaotic bloodbath, the French Revolution played a critical role in shaping modern nations by showing the world the power inherent in the will of the people.
2. THE BOSTON TEA PARTY
After order was restored in Beijing on June 4, protests of varying scales continued in some 80 other Chinese cities, outside the spotlight of the international press. In the British colony of Hong Kong, people again took to wearing black in solidarity with the demonstrators in Beijing. There were also protests in other countries, many adopting the use of black armbands as well. The Chinese government's response was widely denounced, particularly by Western governments and media. Criticism came from Western and Eastern Europe, North America, Australia and some west Asian and Latin American countries.
7. THE MONDAY DEMONSTRATIONS (OCTOBER 9, 1989 – NOVEMBER 9, 1989)
On Monday October 9, 1989 hundreds of Germans gathered in Leipzig to peacefully protest the communist regime. The next week, thousands more gathered in other cities throughout East Germany. The Monday Demonstrations continued every week until November 9, 1989 when the Berlin Wall fell.
Half a million gathered in a mass protest against the separation of the German land into East and West by the Soviets and the Western Allied Forces. After five days that people gathered in East Berlin in a mass protest, the Berlin Wall dividing communist East Germany from West Germany crumbled. East German leaders had tried to calm mounting protests by loosening the borders, making travel easier for East Germans. They had not intended to open the border up completely. The changes were meant to be fairly minor - but the way they were delivered had major consequences.
Removal of the Wall began on the evening of 9 November 1989 and continued over the following days and weeks, with people nicknamed Mauerspechte (wallpeckers) using various tools to chip off souvenirs, demolishing lengthy parts in the process, and creating several unofficial border crossings. Television coverage of citizens demolishing sections of the Wall on 9 November was soon followed by the East German regime announcing ten new border crossings, including the historically significant locations of Potsdamer Platz, Glienicker Brücke, and Bernauer Straße. Crowds gathered on both sides of the historic crossings waiting for hours to cheer the bulldozers that tore down portions of the Wall to reconnect the divided roads. While the Wall officially remained guarded at a decreasing intensity, new border crossings continued for some time. Initially the East German Border Troops attempted repairing damage done by the "wallpeckers"; gradually these attempts ceased, and guards became more lax, tolerating the increasing demolitions and "unauthorized" border crossing through the holes.
The East German authorities eased border restrictions, but this actually led to an acceleration of the Wende reform process culminating in the Two Plus Four Treaty under which Germany regained full sovereignty. This permitted German reunification on 3 October 1990, with the accession of the five re-established states of the former GDR. The fall of the Wall in 1989 became a symbol of the Fall of Communism, the Dissolution of the Soviet Union, German Reunification and Die Wende.
8. SOUTH AFRICAN DAY OF PROTEST (26, June 1960)
Sometimes, it’s more effective not to hit the streets in protest. In 1950, Nelson Mandela’s African National Congress called on workers to stay home in protest of the Apartheid government’s proposal to introduce a law that would allow it to investigate (and potentially prohibit) any political organization.
Hundreds of thousands of South Africans took part in the ‘Stay at Home’ protest, and the method was so impactful that it was used several times over the next decade.
9. THE ARAB SPRING (December 2010 – October 2013)
Starting in Tunisia in December 2010, the Arab world saw a string of political demonstrations and revolts.
The most famous might have happened in Tahrir (Liberation) Square in January 2011 where more than a million Egyptians gathered to force President Mubarak to step down. But protests rang out through North Africa and the Middle East for several years.
The Tunisian fruit vendor who started it all and the hundreds of thousands that followed his lead inspired Time Magazine to name ‘The Protester’ their Person of the Year in 2011.
10. EUROMAIDAN (November 21, 2013 – February 22, 2014)
After the Orange Revolution of 2004, Kiev’s main square set the scene for another huge protest in the winter of 2013-2014 when hundreds of thousands of Ukrainians protested the government’s refusal to sign an agreement associating Ukraine with the European Union.
Government snipers opened fire on the protesters, who camped out in Maidan Square and used make-shift shields and burning tires to create smoke screens against the snipers.
Meanwhile, Russian forces annexed Crimea from Ukraine and combined Russian-separatist forces sparked a war in the East of the country that continues today.
Here are the Top Ten Protests like this that changed the course of Contemporary History as we know it:
1. THE STORMING OF THE BASTILLE (July 14, 1789)
Perhaps known as the greatest civil disobedience in the Contemporary History of Mankind, the Storming of The Bastille on the evening of July 14, 1789, triggered a series of protests that lasted for 10 years in France. And it kick-started what would later in history be known as The French Revolution.
It all started when a mob of peasant Parisians stormed the Bastille, a symbol of royal authority and luxury, beheaded the Bastille’s governor, freed the prisoners and sparked a series of other protests from Versailles, Paris, Marseille to Nice and other regions in France. What followed was a decade long rebellion against the King Louis XVI that overthrew the Monarchy and established a People’s Republic (with Napoleon Bonaparte stepping up as France’s Emperor).
The upheaval was caused by widespread discontent with the French monarchy and the poor economic policies of King Louis XVI. Extravagant spending by King Louis XVI and his predecessor had left the country on the brink of bankruptcy. Not only were the royal coffers depleted, but two decades of poor harvests, drought, cattle disease and skyrocketing bread prices had kindled unrest among peasants and the urban poor. Many expressed their desperation and resentment toward a regime that imposed heavy taxes – yet failed to provide any relief – by rioting, looting and striking.
Although it failed to achieve all of its goals and at times degenerated into a chaotic bloodbath, the French Revolution played a critical role in shaping modern nations by showing the world the power inherent in the will of the people.
2. THE BOSTON TEA PARTY
Despite its quaint-sounding name, the 1773 "tea party" was in fact a bitter reaction to harsh new British taxation acts. Over the course of three hours on Dec. 16, more than 100 colonists secretly boarded three British ships arriving in harbor and dumped 45 tons of tea into the water. The unorthodox protest was a key precursor to the American Revolution.
3. GANDHI’S SALT MARCH (March – April 1930)
3. GANDHI’S SALT MARCH (March – April 1930)
The Salt March took place from March to April 1930. It was an act of civil disobedience led by Mohandas Gandhi to protest against the British rule in India. He wanted to collect salt from the sea in defiance of the British government.
Under the British rule, Indians were prohibited from collecting or selling salt and the staple mineral and was heavily taxed. During the march, thousands of Indians followed Gandhi from his religious retreat near Ahmedabad to the Arabian Sea coast, a distance of some 240 miles. Gandhi was arrested for his efforts with some other 60,000 people who marched with him, but the Salt March established him as a force to be reckoned with in the struggle against British colonizers.
The protest continued until Gandhi was granted bargaining rights at a negotiation in London. India didn’t see freedom until 1947, but the salt (his brand of civil disobedience) established Gandhi as a force to be reckoned with and set a powerful precedent for future nonviolent protestors, including Martin Luther King Jr.
4. THE MARCH ON WASHINGTON (August 28, 1963)
Under the British rule, Indians were prohibited from collecting or selling salt and the staple mineral and was heavily taxed. During the march, thousands of Indians followed Gandhi from his religious retreat near Ahmedabad to the Arabian Sea coast, a distance of some 240 miles. Gandhi was arrested for his efforts with some other 60,000 people who marched with him, but the Salt March established him as a force to be reckoned with in the struggle against British colonizers.
The protest continued until Gandhi was granted bargaining rights at a negotiation in London. India didn’t see freedom until 1947, but the salt (his brand of civil disobedience) established Gandhi as a force to be reckoned with and set a powerful precedent for future nonviolent protestors, including Martin Luther King Jr.
4. THE MARCH ON WASHINGTON (August 28, 1963)
By 1963, African Americans had been freed from slavery for a century yet continued to live lives burdened by inequality in every realm of society. The March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom was intended to push lawmakers to pass legislation that address these inequalities, and its organizers were so successful that more than 200,000 supporters turned out for the action—double their estimate. Martin Luther King Jr. delivered perhaps the most famous speech in American history, his “I Have a Dream” address, at the base of the Lincoln Memorial, and the leaders met with President Kennedy afterwards to discuss their goals. The march was credited with helping build support to pass the Civil Rights Act of 1964 and the Voting Rights Act of 1965, and its messages of the hard work to build equality are echoed today from the Ferguson protests to President Obama’s recent speech in Selma, Ala.
5. BLACK POWER PROTEST
During their medal ceremony in the Olympic Stadium in Mexico City on October 16, 1968, two African-American athletes Tommie Smith and John Carlos each raised a black-gloved fist during the playing of the US national anthem.
On the morning of October 16, 1968, US athlete Tommie Smith won the 200 meter race with a world-record time of 19.83 seconds. Australia's Peter Norman finished second with a time of 20.06 seconds, and the US's John Carlos won third place with a time of 20.10 seconds. The two US athletes received their medals shoeless, but wearing black socks, to represent black poverty. Smith wore a black scarf around his neck to represent black pride, Carlos had his tracksuit top unzipped to show solidarity with all blue-collar workers in the US and wore a necklace of beads which he described "were for those individuals that were lynched, or killed and that no-one said a prayer for, that were hung and tarred.
International Olympic Committee (IOC) president Avery Brundage deemed it to be a domestic political statement unfit for the apolitical, international forum the Olympic Games were intended to be. In response to their actions, he ordered Smith and Carlos suspended from the US team and banned from the Olympic Village.
6. TIANANMEN SQUARE (May – June 1989)
The Tiananmen Square protests or the Tiananmen Square Incident, commonly known as the June Fourth Incident were student-led demonstrations held in Tiananmen Square in Beijing during 1989. The popular national movement inspired by the Beijing protests is sometimes called the '89 Democracy Movement. The protests started on April 15 and were forcibly suppressed on June 4 when the government declared martial law and sent the People's Liberation Army to occupy central parts of Beijing.
In what became known as the Tiananmen Square Massacre, troops armed with assault rifles and accompanied by tanks fired at the demonstrators and those trying to block the military's advance into Tiananmen Square. Estimates of the death toll vary from several hundred to several thousand, with thousands more wounded. The number of casualties will likely never be known. But the massacre was captured by a famous photo of a single man facing off against a line of government tanks.
5. BLACK POWER PROTEST
During their medal ceremony in the Olympic Stadium in Mexico City on October 16, 1968, two African-American athletes Tommie Smith and John Carlos each raised a black-gloved fist during the playing of the US national anthem.
On the morning of October 16, 1968, US athlete Tommie Smith won the 200 meter race with a world-record time of 19.83 seconds. Australia's Peter Norman finished second with a time of 20.06 seconds, and the US's John Carlos won third place with a time of 20.10 seconds. The two US athletes received their medals shoeless, but wearing black socks, to represent black poverty. Smith wore a black scarf around his neck to represent black pride, Carlos had his tracksuit top unzipped to show solidarity with all blue-collar workers in the US and wore a necklace of beads which he described "were for those individuals that were lynched, or killed and that no-one said a prayer for, that were hung and tarred.
International Olympic Committee (IOC) president Avery Brundage deemed it to be a domestic political statement unfit for the apolitical, international forum the Olympic Games were intended to be. In response to their actions, he ordered Smith and Carlos suspended from the US team and banned from the Olympic Village.
6. TIANANMEN SQUARE (May – June 1989)
The Tiananmen Square protests or the Tiananmen Square Incident, commonly known as the June Fourth Incident were student-led demonstrations held in Tiananmen Square in Beijing during 1989. The popular national movement inspired by the Beijing protests is sometimes called the '89 Democracy Movement. The protests started on April 15 and were forcibly suppressed on June 4 when the government declared martial law and sent the People's Liberation Army to occupy central parts of Beijing.
In what became known as the Tiananmen Square Massacre, troops armed with assault rifles and accompanied by tanks fired at the demonstrators and those trying to block the military's advance into Tiananmen Square. Estimates of the death toll vary from several hundred to several thousand, with thousands more wounded. The number of casualties will likely never be known. But the massacre was captured by a famous photo of a single man facing off against a line of government tanks.
After order was restored in Beijing on June 4, protests of varying scales continued in some 80 other Chinese cities, outside the spotlight of the international press. In the British colony of Hong Kong, people again took to wearing black in solidarity with the demonstrators in Beijing. There were also protests in other countries, many adopting the use of black armbands as well. The Chinese government's response was widely denounced, particularly by Western governments and media. Criticism came from Western and Eastern Europe, North America, Australia and some west Asian and Latin American countries.
7. THE MONDAY DEMONSTRATIONS (OCTOBER 9, 1989 – NOVEMBER 9, 1989)
On Monday October 9, 1989 hundreds of Germans gathered in Leipzig to peacefully protest the communist regime. The next week, thousands more gathered in other cities throughout East Germany. The Monday Demonstrations continued every week until November 9, 1989 when the Berlin Wall fell.
Half a million gathered in a mass protest against the separation of the German land into East and West by the Soviets and the Western Allied Forces. After five days that people gathered in East Berlin in a mass protest, the Berlin Wall dividing communist East Germany from West Germany crumbled. East German leaders had tried to calm mounting protests by loosening the borders, making travel easier for East Germans. They had not intended to open the border up completely. The changes were meant to be fairly minor - but the way they were delivered had major consequences.
Removal of the Wall began on the evening of 9 November 1989 and continued over the following days and weeks, with people nicknamed Mauerspechte (wallpeckers) using various tools to chip off souvenirs, demolishing lengthy parts in the process, and creating several unofficial border crossings. Television coverage of citizens demolishing sections of the Wall on 9 November was soon followed by the East German regime announcing ten new border crossings, including the historically significant locations of Potsdamer Platz, Glienicker Brücke, and Bernauer Straße. Crowds gathered on both sides of the historic crossings waiting for hours to cheer the bulldozers that tore down portions of the Wall to reconnect the divided roads. While the Wall officially remained guarded at a decreasing intensity, new border crossings continued for some time. Initially the East German Border Troops attempted repairing damage done by the "wallpeckers"; gradually these attempts ceased, and guards became more lax, tolerating the increasing demolitions and "unauthorized" border crossing through the holes.
The East German authorities eased border restrictions, but this actually led to an acceleration of the Wende reform process culminating in the Two Plus Four Treaty under which Germany regained full sovereignty. This permitted German reunification on 3 October 1990, with the accession of the five re-established states of the former GDR. The fall of the Wall in 1989 became a symbol of the Fall of Communism, the Dissolution of the Soviet Union, German Reunification and Die Wende.
8. SOUTH AFRICAN DAY OF PROTEST (26, June 1960)
Sometimes, it’s more effective not to hit the streets in protest. In 1950, Nelson Mandela’s African National Congress called on workers to stay home in protest of the Apartheid government’s proposal to introduce a law that would allow it to investigate (and potentially prohibit) any political organization.
Hundreds of thousands of South Africans took part in the ‘Stay at Home’ protest, and the method was so impactful that it was used several times over the next decade.
9. THE ARAB SPRING (December 2010 – October 2013)
Starting in Tunisia in December 2010, the Arab world saw a string of political demonstrations and revolts.
The most famous might have happened in Tahrir (Liberation) Square in January 2011 where more than a million Egyptians gathered to force President Mubarak to step down. But protests rang out through North Africa and the Middle East for several years.
The Tunisian fruit vendor who started it all and the hundreds of thousands that followed his lead inspired Time Magazine to name ‘The Protester’ their Person of the Year in 2011.
10. EUROMAIDAN (November 21, 2013 – February 22, 2014)
After the Orange Revolution of 2004, Kiev’s main square set the scene for another huge protest in the winter of 2013-2014 when hundreds of thousands of Ukrainians protested the government’s refusal to sign an agreement associating Ukraine with the European Union.
Government snipers opened fire on the protesters, who camped out in Maidan Square and used make-shift shields and burning tires to create smoke screens against the snipers.
Meanwhile, Russian forces annexed Crimea from Ukraine and combined Russian-separatist forces sparked a war in the East of the country that continues today.
Comments
Post a Comment