- 3 months ago
Sometimes a single moment can change the course of history forever! Join us as we count down the most pivotal sparks that ignited world-changing revolutions. From storming prisons to dumping tea, these flashpoints transformed nations and reshaped our world. Which revolutionary moment do you find most fascinating? Let us know in the comments!
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00:00From this studio in Havana, you are about to see Fidel Castro,
00:04leader of the successful rebel forces who overthrew the dictatorship of General Bautista.
00:08Welcome to WatchMojo, and today we're counting down our picks
00:11for symbolic moments that led to profound revolts with long-lasting legacies.
00:16If only you had acted sooner, sir, you think this could have been avoided?
00:24Number 10. Shipyard Workers' Strike. Solidarity.
00:28It can be the smallest overlooked actions that trigger the biggest effects.
00:32In one country in the Eastern Bloc, the opposition to Soviet domination and the socialist idea
00:37was more widespread and deeply rooted than anywhere else.
00:40For Polish shipyard workers, it was the firing of Anna Valentinovich just months before her planned retirement.
00:47It seemed like a simple dismissal for the establishment, but for workers,
00:50having endured unfavorable government policies, they just couldn't bear it.
00:55They rallied, demanding honest reinstatement, unleashing a tidal wave of defiance,
01:00starting from the Gdansk's shipyard, led by Lesh Walesa, backed by the church and international community.
01:06The Solidarity Movement was born.
01:08The Solidarity Movement was born.
01:09The Solidarity Movement was born.
01:09Wie kam es dazu?
01:10Also wieso schließen sich Millionen Menschen an einen lokalen Streik an?
01:14Ja, es gibt um Freiheit und es gibt um die politische Gestalt der Welt.
01:20Sie wollten um die Gerechtigkeit kämpfen.
01:23Sie wollten freie Gewerkschaften haben, das Recht zum Streiken,
01:27aber auch Freiheit des Wortes, Freiheit der Presse.
01:30Und sie haben das alles auf der Liste von 21 Forderungen geschrieben.
01:36Es ist Weltkulturerbe, eine der wichtigsten Dokumente der Menschheit.
01:40As the first trade union in the communist bloc, their strike swelled nationwide.
01:45Despite government repression, the movement endured,
01:48and by decades end, it helped topple the communist system, transforming Poland.
01:53The uprising from Gdansk became a defining moment for freedom.
01:56Me naru, we the people.
02:00Number 9.
02:02George Floyd's death, Black Lives Matter
02:04Black lives matter!
02:06Not all revolutions begin in parliaments or battlefields.
02:09Some start with a single cry for justice.
02:12That cry came in 2013, when George Zimmerman was acquitted for the shooting of 17-year-old
02:18Trayvon Martin.
02:19Verdict?
02:20We the jury find George Zimmerman not guilty.
02:23So say we all, four person.
02:26Outrage poured over social media, and a movement called Black Lives Matter was formed.
02:32What started as a hashtag grew into a voice, confronting police violence and systemic racism.
02:38In May 2020, the world watched George Floyd's death under a Minneapolis police officer's knee.
02:44That moment reignited the movement on a massive scale.
02:47Realizing silence was no longer an option, BLM sparked mass protests with millions across the globe.
02:53Even in the middle of lockdowns, the message was clear.
02:57There's no room for racial injustice.
02:59George Floyd repeatedly told the officers that he could not breathe after an officer knelt on his neck.
03:06The family of George Floyd held a memorial in his memory.
03:10Number 8.
03:10China's period of decline, Chinese Communist Revolution
03:14The 1949 Chinese Communist Revolution brought the group to power under the ruthless eye of Mao Zedong,
03:20and they've not even come close to surrendering power since.
03:23China's path in history wasn't shaped by a single battle.
03:27It took centuries of struggle.
03:28As the Qing Dynasty faltered, foreign powers carved the country apart, and Japan's brutal invasion left China with deep scars.
03:36In 1921, nine years after the dynasty's end, the Chinese Communist Party was founded.
03:42While the communists at this point offered more egalitarian treatment of low-ranking soldiers,
03:47and as the war raged on, more and more of Chiang Kai-shek soldiers began defecting to the communists.
03:52This would turn out to be the decisive factor in the war.
03:55Allying with the nationalists, the CCP fought against local warlords in a bid to restore the nation's soul.
04:01But the alliance collapsed as the nationalists turned to dismantle the communists.
04:06With Mao Zedong as leader of the CCP, and driven by peasant support, the revolution endured.
04:12Then, in 1949, the tides changed as Mao declared the People's Republic of China.
04:18The revolution was complete.
04:20China's trajectory shifted, awakening as a new power under the Communist Party.
04:25But then we thought that people always die in revolution.
04:29No death, no victory.
04:31No. 7. Castro's Fight Against Military Dictatorship
04:35Cuban Revolution
04:36What happens when your country's democracy is stolen in a coup?
04:40It's just the same as a car.
04:42Yeah, but mine's automatic.
04:44For Cubans in 1952, when Fulgencio Batista seized power and established a military dictatorship,
04:51hope seemed lost.
04:52But not for Fidel Castro.
04:53They cannot do anything in public opinion.
04:56It's powerful in Cuba.
04:57And nobody can opposite public opinion in this time.
05:02What they do is to be with the public opinion that have confidence in our movement and in myself.
05:12First, he sought justice in the courts.
05:15When that failed, he turned to arms.
05:17His first attack on Moncada barracks was crushed, and Castro was imprisoned.
05:22For anyone else, that would have been the end.
05:24But not for him.
05:26In prison, he planted the seeds of the July 26th movement.
05:29Released and later exiled, it looked like he was finished.
05:33But in 1956, Castro returned with his rebels, waging a relentless guerrilla war against Batista's forces.
05:40By 1959, the revolution triumphed and Batista fled.
05:45Against all odds, Castro's persistence electrified Latin America.
05:49The criminal ought to be punished, because we don't want to never again in our country.
05:55Every criminal can be the chief of policemen and of the army.
06:01Number 6.
06:02Freedom of movement protests.
06:04Fall of the Berlin Wall.
06:06Sometimes all it takes to break a wall is the courage to say, enough.
06:10That's what happened in East Germany in 1989.
06:13Mr. Gorbachev, tear down this wall.
06:17For decades, the Berlin Wall stood as a symbol of fear dividing the country.
06:22Inspired by Poland's solidarity movement and the opening of Hungary's border with Austria,
06:27the people of East Germany rose.
06:29It started as a wave of peaceful protests.
06:32Then, thousands fled west, chasing freedom and exposing the regime's weakness.
06:38The pressure built until the government conceded.
06:40The Iron Curtain between East Germany and West Berlin has come tumbling down.
06:45East Germany announced today it is opening its borders, allowing its citizens to go anywhere they wish.
06:50The future of the Berlin Wall is now up in the air.
06:53On November 9th, the East German authorities opened the borders, and crowds flooded the wall,
06:59breaking it apart with their own hands.
07:01By 1990, the wall was demolished and Germany reunified.
07:06With this peaceful revolution, communism's grip on Eastern Europe began to crumble.
07:10It's wonderful.
07:11We are…
07:12We have seen it in TV.
07:14It was super.
07:17Number 5.
07:18Vincent Auger's death.
07:20Haitian Revolution.
07:21Imagine being forced to work all day, under whips and cruel overseers, with no hope for freedom.
07:27That was the reality of enslaved Africans in Saint-Dominique.
07:31In 1790, Vincent Auger, a wealthy free man of color, dared to demand the right to vote, leading to his brutal execution.
07:40His death became a rallying cry for the slaves, and within months, the Haitian Revolution erupted.
07:45Led by Toussaint Louverture, their rebellion turned the tide against French colonial rule.
07:55After years of fierce struggle, they won freedom, abolished slavery, and an independent Haiti emerged.
08:01In the end, Auger's sacrifice became a symbol.
08:08And the courage of the enslaved forged a nation.
08:11They proved that even chains can't hold back the fight for freedom.
08:15But you know, as I and all the others, the spirit of freedom is not in a man, but in a people.
08:21Number 4.
08:22Sinema wrecks fire.
08:24Iranian Revolution.
08:25In Iran, the anger didn't rise overnight.
08:28For years, people watched as Shah Mohammad Reza Pahlavi's rule deepened in corruption, repression, and Western influence.
08:41Although exiled, Rohala Khomeini persistently called for resistance, urging Iranians to stand against the monarchy.
08:48His defiance planted the seeds of rebellion.
08:50Then, the spark came in August 1978, when the Sinema wrecks in Abaddon went up in flames, killing more than 400 people.
08:59Many believe the Shah's regime was to blame.
09:02Outrage swept the nation, protests grew, and the streets thundered with defiance.
09:06By January 1979, the Shah fled, and Khomeini returned.
09:15The following month, the monarchy was ousted, making Khomeini Iran's supreme leader.
09:20That fire in Abaddon sparked a revolution that birthed the Islamic Republic.
09:29Number 3.
09:31Ruins of War.
09:32Russian Revolution.
09:33Sire, the Duma also insists on your abdication.
09:41Revolutions don't always come in singles.
09:44Sometimes they crash in like waves.
09:47For Russia, 1917 unleashed two in secession that changed everything.
09:52Battered by World War I and relentless German attacks, food was scarce at home, and anger filled the streets.
09:59In February, the people rose in protests, and even soldiers turned against the monarch.
10:05The pressure grew, and Tsar Nicholas II was forced to abdicate.
10:09I shall abdicate for myself, and also for my son.
10:12But the provisional government that took over clung to the war, and people's patience snapped.
10:18Then came October.
10:19Vladimir Lenin and the Bolsheviks seized the moment, toppling the government and vowing peace and a better future for the people.
10:26From the Volcoma Ural Society, you, Nikolai Aleksandrovich, and your family are committed to death, and now you will be killed.
10:36Just like that, with two revolutions in one year, centuries of monarchy ended.
10:42And from the ashes, Soviet Russia emerged.
10:44Number 2.
10:45Boston Tea Party.
10:47American Revolution.
10:48When is enough ever enough?
10:50For the American colonists, the tipping point came in 1773 with Britain's Tea Act, tightening control and protecting the East India Company's monopoly.
11:05Outraged, the Sons of Liberty decided they'd had enough.
11:09In disguise, they boarded British ships in Boston Harbor, and tossed over 300 chests of tea into the sea.
11:16This act of defiance became known as the Boston Tea Party.
11:20The British government thundered back, condemning it as treason, and hitting the colonies with the Intolerable Acts.
11:26Instead of submission, resistance only grew, and eventually, the colonies came together, sparking the battles of Lexington and Concord.
11:34But if they mean to have a war, then let it begin here.
11:38The Boston Tea Party didn't declare independence, but it set a course towards it.
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12:06Number 1.
12:07Storming of the Bastille.
12:09French Revolution.
12:09When the weight of inequality grows too heavy, even the mightiest thrones can crumble.
12:15In 1789, France was suffocating under crushing debt.
12:19Hunger gripped the poor, and the monarchy turned a blind eye.
12:23The estate's general, summoned to fix the crisis, instead exposed the gulf between the powerful elite and the starving majority.
12:31Frustration boiled over, and on July 14th, the storming of the Bastille sent shockwaves through the nation,
12:37sparking the French Revolution.
12:39To the Bastille!
12:42To the Wild Bastille!
12:44What followed was chaos, sweeping reforms, blood in the streets, and ultimately, the execution of King Louis XVI.
12:52The monarchy was torn down before the eyes of its people.
13:07But out of the turmoil, France was reborn, and the foundation for liberal democracy was laid.
13:13Which of these revolutions do you find the most fascinating?
13:24Let us know in the comments.
13:26Let us know in the comments!
13:38We have the rest!
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