Yesterday, the United States celebrated the memory of a successful, but violent, revolution. Of course, not all revolutions involve violence, but with the prominence of war-celebrating holidays like independence day in America, public appreciation of the reality of nonviolent regime change is often limited. So today, on the 5th of July, I’d like to recognize several recent successful nonviolent revolutions.

• Let’s start with India. In many ways, the Indian independence movement was the grandfather of modern nonviolent revolution, because it was led by the person most identified with nonviolent action: Gandhi. Gandhi’s philosophy of satyagraha, involving truth-seeking and active nonviolent resistance, inspired millions in India and around the world to seek creative alternatives to violence, and eventually resulted in the successful liberation of India from British rule.
• Poland provides another shining example of the possibilities of nonviolent resistance. In the face of an oppressive Soviet regime, the Solidarity movement grew as an anti-communist trade union, fostered in part by the Catholic Church. As Walter Wink writes in Jesus and Nonviolence: “An entire clandestine culture, literature and spirituality came to birth there outside the authority of official society. This undercuts the oft-repeated claim that what Mohandas Gandhi did … would never work under a brutal, Soviet-sponsored government.” The work of the Solidarity movement culminated in free elections in 1989.
• Wink goes on to say that “nonviolent general strikes have overcome at least seven Latin American dictators,” pointing to successful changes of government during the 20th century in Chile (1931), Cuba (1933), Guatemala (1944), Haiti (1946 and again in 1956), Panama (1951), and Colombia (1957).
• Finally, what may someday be remembered as a revolution is happening right now in Iran, and it is for the most part being conducted nonviolently. It remains to be seen whether protests against the corrupt government will be successful.

Many more examples exist; the Albert Einstein Institution has published a partial list of historical instances of nonviolent action.

The historical precedencts raise the obvious question of what would have happened if the American revolution had been conducted nonviolently, a question I have explored previously.