Revolution! 20th Century Revolts and Uprisings Quiz

Answer: Kenya

The rebellion was a conflict fought against the British colonial rulers by a group often referred to as the Mau Mau, though many of the members of the group preferred to call themselves the Kenya Land and Freedom Army (KLFA). Mau Mau was comprised mostly of people of the Kikuyu ethnic group. Members of the KFLA first attacked a colonial officer in October 1952, and shortly afterwards a state of emergency was declared in Kenya. Fighting went on for years and in the end, far more Mau Maus had been killed than people on the other side of the conflict.

However, the British made several political concessions in an effort to end the country's conflict, and Kenya eventually became a republic at the end of 1963. Jomo Kenyatta, a former Mau Mau member, is considered to be a founding father of Kenyan independence.

Answer: Mohammad Daoud Khan

Daoud himself had taken power in a coup. He overthrew the Shah, Mohammed Zahir, who also happened to be Daoud's cousin, in 1973. Instead of calling himself the Shah, Daoud instead declared Afghanistan a republic and named himself as president. His reign ended on 28 April 1978, when members of the Communist Party and some members of the country's military stormed Kabul and killed Daoud and many members of his family.

The PDPA took power with the intent of creating a Socialist society in Afghanistan.

In 1979, the Soviet Union entered and occupied Afgahnistan. The name of the revolution, 'Saur', is the name of the month in which the coup took place, the second month of the Persian calendar.

Answer: Alexander Kerensky

Talk about a revolution that changed the world! Kerensky was a vice-chairman of the Petrograd Soviet (workers' council) and became the Prime Minister of Russia in July 1917. The Petrograd Soviet, however, started to fracture over a time period of just a few months in 1917, with some of its members beginning to resent the Provisional Government and its position on Russia not withdrawing from the First World War.

The more leftist members (the Bolsheviks) of the Soviet grew agitated, while those on the right aligned with the Provisional Government.

The October Revolution led to the Russian Civil War. After the Red Army was successful in winning the war, the Soviet Union was created with Vladimir Lenin at the lead. This, of course, started the worldwide conflict between communism and capitalism/democracy that greatly influenced many events of the 20th century.

Answer: Czechoslovakia

On 17 November 1989, a group of students held a peaceful demonstration against the government, leading to many, many more non-violent protests over the following month or so. The ruling Communist Party stepped down and a non-Communist government was appointed before the end of the year, Alexander Dubcek as the head of Parliament and Vaclav Havel as President.

In June 1990, an election was held to democratically elect a new government for the first time in over 40 years; Havel remained President until the dissolution of Czechoslovakia in the early '90s. On the Slovak side of the former Czechoslovakia, the Velvet Revolution is called the Gentle Revolution.

Answer: August

In 1945, Vietnam was under French colonial rule. In March of that year, Japanese forces had ousted the French government and Bao Dai had become emperor once again. However, beginning on 19 August 1945, protests began to break out all over the country, calling for independence and the Japanese, who had just recently surrendered the war in the Pacific, aided the Viet Minh in taking over government buildings, as well as helping nationalist groups in other countries to create difficulties for the Allies. Bao Dai abdicated to Ho Chi Minh on 25 August, and Ho Chi Minh declared independence for the Democratic Republic of Vietnam on 2 September.

This was, of course, not the end of political instability and conflict in Vietnam, as the French rulers quickly returned and began resisting Vietnamese independence, and the country eventually erupted in civil war in the 1950s.

Answer: 1950s

Fidel Castro led the group known as 'The 26th of July Movement', named for the attack led by the group on military barracks in Santiago and Bayamo on 26 July 1953. Castro and his brother Raul were both sentenced to prison time for this act, but were released in 1955 and exiled to Mexico, where they began plotting to revolt against the Batista government, in conjunction with revolutionary Che Guevara.

They arrived back in Cuba at the end of 1956, and by the summer of 1958, began their offensive attacks against the Batista regime. On 31 December 1958, the city of Santa Clara fell to the revolutionaries, and Batista fled to the Dominican Republic on 1 January 1959.

The revolutionary group marched into Havana unopposed on 2 January, and Castro himself arrived on the 8th.

Answer: Nicolae Ceausescu

Ceausescu's Communist regime had not been necessarily one that followed Soviet Communism, and in 1989 while the USSR was beginning to move away from Communism, Romania was not. Even at this late stage in the Cold War, the country was incredibly oppressive in terms of free speech and political views, with the secret police force, the Securitate, still out in full force. Protests and then riots broke out in increasing numbers in Romania, beginning in mid-December 1989, and spread to Bucharest on 21 December. Ceausescu and his wife Elena were arrested on 24 December and executed after a sloppy and very quick trial on the 25th.

The National Salvation Front, led by Ion Iliescu, took power, and Iliescu was officially elected President in May 1990, though not entirely democratically. Iliescu had previously been a leader in the Communist Party, and preserved some aspects of the Communist infrastructure in his 'new' regime.

He remained President of Romania off and on until 2008.

Answer: Warsaw

The Warsaw Ghetto Uprising took place in 1943. Poland had been invaded by Germany at the beginning of the war, and the country's Jews had been rounded up into ghettos in 1940. The Warsaw Ghetto was the biggest, with over 300,000 people interned. By the end of 1942/early 1943, it was well-known in the ghettos that the Jews being deported were being taken to their deaths, rather than to simple labour camps.

In the Warsaw Ghetto, the Jewish Military Union and Jewish Combat Organization first revolted against the Nazis in January 1943, and the conflict continued for a few months with some support from the Polish Resistance outside of the ghetto.

The uprising was suppressed in May 1943, when many of the leaders of the resistance were killed, while others committed suicide before the Germans could kill them. Most of the remaining Jews in the ghetto were deported to Treblinka at that time.

Answer: Ferdinand Marcos

A presidential election had been called the previous year, in 1985, due to pressures from outside sources, primarily the United States. The election was held at the beginning of February 1986, and Marcos was announced as the winner, though many people felt that the next leading candidate Corazon Aquino, was the rightful winner; the Commission on Elections had counted over a million more votes for Marcos, but National Movement for Free Elections counted almost 800,000 more votes for Aquino. Protests began, started by opposition members of Parliament, and then general strikes throughout the country as well as boycotts of businesses owned by friends of Marcos. An armed coup against Marcos was halted but on 25 February, acting on advice from the White House in the United States, Marcos and his family left the country, and went to the US, conceding victory to Aquino.

Answer: Ruhollah Khomeini

Khomeini was the leader of the Islamic Movement from 1963 to 1979. The Islamic Movement disliked the Shah's White Revolution, which embraced Western ideologies such as women's liberation, private industries and other reforms. Khomeini was arrested and imprisoned for his role in opposing the White Revolution. Protests against the Shah's regime began in 1968 and the monarchy collapsed in February 1979, when guerilla troops forcefully defeated the Shah's troops. Khomeini declared the Islamic Republic of Iran and became Ayatollah Khomeini (also known as Imam Khomeini), after a brief attempt at forming a coalition government with Shapour Bakhtiar.