8.7 global resistance to established power structures

Martin Luther King Jr.

An American civil rights leader who used nonviolent resistance, such as boycotts and marches, to protest segregation and racial injustice, pushing for legal equality.

Nelson Mandela

A South African anti-apartheid revolutionary who led resistance against the white minority government, transitioning from nonviolent protest to militant resistance while imprisoned for 27 years.

Wladyslaw Gomulka

Leader of the Polish Communist Party who attempted to establish a more independent "Polish road to socialism" in 1956, reducing Soviet influence while maintaining loyalty to the communist bloc.

Imre Nagy

Hungarian Communist leader who promised free elections and proposed withdrawing Hungary from the Warsaw Pact during the 1956 Hungarian Revolt, leading to his execution by the Soviet Union.

Prague Spring

A 1968 period of political liberalization in Czechoslovakia led by Alexander Dubček, aiming for "socialism with a human face" before being crushed by Soviet tanks.

Alexander Dubček

First Secretary of the Czechoslovak Communist Party who allowed increased freedom of speech, travel, and democratic reforms during the 1968 Prague Spring.

Brezhnev Doctrine

Soviet policy introduced in 1968 stating that the USSR had the right to intervene in any socialist country where socialism was threatened, used to justify the invasion of Czechoslovakia.

Kent State University

Site of a 1970 protest where Ohio National Guardsmen shot and killed four students during a rally against the U.S. invasion of Cambodia.

Irish Republican Army (IRA)

A paramilitary organization that used violence, including bombings, to campaign for the end of British rule in Northern Ireland and a united Ireland.

Ulster Defence Association (UDA)

A loyalist paramilitary group in Northern Ireland that used violence to maintain Northern Ireland's position within the United Kingdom against the IRA.

Basque Homeland and Freedom (ETA)

A separatist armed group in Spain that used terrorism to fight for the independence of the Basque Country from 1959 to 2011.

Abimael Guzman

Founder and leader of the Shining Path, a Maoist guerrilla organization in Peru that initiated a violent internal conflict in 1980, aiming to overthrow the government.

Shining Path

A violent Maoist insurgent group in Peru led by Guzman that targeted civilians, government officials, and peasants to replace the government with a communist state.