Highlights of Nonviolence in History

Centre for Applied Nonviolent Action and Strategies

Before Christ

c. 2050 BC King Bilalama formulated the Eshnunna law code.
1848-1806 BC Hammurabi ruled Babylon with a law code.
c. 1275 BC Moses led Hebrew slaves out of Egypt.
742-697 BC Isaiah and Micah prophesied in Israel and Judah.
c. 700 BC Parshva taught nonviolence in India.
682 BC Athenian kingship was reduced to annual election.
628-551 BC Zarathushtra taught a new religion in Persia.
627-580 BC Jeremiah prophesied in Judah.
594 BC Solon was elected archon and revised laws for Athens.
551-479 BC Confucius taught humanistic ethics.
545 BC Heang Seu organized a peace conference at Song.
531-510 BC Pythagoras taught at Crotona.
528-483 BC Buddha taught in India.
c. 520 BC Lao-zi wrote Dao De Jing in China.
519-490 BC Mahavira taught nonviolence in India.
509 BC Rome became a republic.
494 BC Roman plebeians asserted rights and elected tribunes.
462 BC Pericles led democratic reforms in Athens.
432-393 BC Mo-zi and his disciples intervened to stop wars in China.
425-405 BC Euripides' tragedies protested the Peloponnesian War.
424-405 BC Aristophanes' comedies protested the same war.
403 BC Socrates refused to cooperate with 30 tyrants ruling Athens.
399 BC Socrates was the first philosopher to be publicly executed.
355 BC Isocrates wrote On the Peace criticizing Athenian imperialism.
320-310 BC Confucian Mencius advised Qi king Xuan.
261-236 BC Ashoka applied Buddhist principles in ruling India.
70 BC Cicero prosecuted Verres for corruption in Sicily.
44-43 BC Cicero 's "Philippics" criticized Antony.

1st-10th Century

c. 27-30 CE Jesus taught and healed in Israel.
c. 30 CE Jesus was crucified by Romans at Jerusalem.
202 Christians were martyred for religious belief in Carthage.
249-251 Christians did not fight back when persecuted by Decius.
303 Christians did not fight back when persecuted by Diocletian.
989 Church council at Charroux declared the Peace of God.

11th Century

1047 Truce of God was proclaimed at Caen for Normandy.
1073-1085 Hildebrand as Pope Gregory VII opposed Heinrich IV.

12th-13th Century

1167-1279 Cathars were persecuted by the Albigensian Crusade.
1215 King John was persuaded to sign the Magna Carta.
1219 Francis of Assisi on a crusade preached against war.
1231-1273 Sufi Rumi taught mystical love and whirling dance.
1259 Louis IX abolished judicial duels in France.

14th-15th Century

1392-1398 Chinese planted one billion trees.
c. 1400 The Hopi lived peacefully north of Mexico.
c. 1420-1460 Peter Chelcicky taught nonviolence.
1466-1536 Erasmus wrote extensively against war.

16th Century

1501-1539 Nanak founded the Sikh religion.
1525 Anabaptists formed a nonviolent church.
1526 Nonviolent Hutterite communities began.
1544 Peaceful Mennonites began following Menno Simons.
1572 Dutch Mennonites refused to go to war.

17th-18th Century

1651 "Quaker" George Fox was jailed during the civil war.
1682-1756 Pennsylvania had a pacifist government.
1765 American colonists resisted the Stamp Act.
1773 Merchants dressed as Indians dumped tea in Boston harbor.
1760-1775 Nonviolent phase of the American revolution.

19th Century

1815 Peace societies were founded in England and America.
1838 Garrison founded the New England Non-Resistance Society.
1838 Emerson lectured on war to the American Peace Society.
1843 Peace Congresses began being held in Europe.
1845 Elihu Burritt began advocating passive resistance.
1846 Thoreau was arrested for not paying a war tax.
1846 Adin Ballou published Christian Non-Resistance.
1848 Woman's Rights Conference was held at Seneca Falls.
1849 Thoreau published "Resistance to Civil Government."
1850-1867 Deak led Hungarian struggle against Austrian domination.
1858 Lucy Stone refused to pay taxes.
1869 Imprisoned Bahá'u'lláh sent prophetic tablets.
1872 Susan B. Anthony was arrested for voting in Rochester.
1890 Sioux ghost dancers were massacred at Wounded Knee.
1893-1910 Tolstoy wrote about love and nonviolence.
1894-1914 Gandhi helped Indians win rights in South Africa.

20th Century

1901-1905 Finns nonviolently resisted Russian oppression.
1905, 1917 Nonviolent phases of the Russian revolution.
1906 Gandhi used first massive civil disobedience.
1906-1918 Pankhursts led suffragette campaign in England.
1909 Jailed suffragettes went on hunger strikes.
1911-1913 'Abdu'l-Bahá spoke in Europe and America.
1914 Fellowship of Reconciliation was founded.
1915-1935 Jane Addams led WILPF.
1917 American Friends Service Committee was founded.
1917-1919 Alice Paul led the Woman's Party direct action.
1918 Bertrand Russell was imprisoned for pacifist writing.
1919 Gandhi called a general strike in India.
1920 Berlin nonviolently defeated a rightist coup.
1921 Gandhi led noncooperation to end untouchability.
1923 War Resisters League was founded.
1928 Einstein advised refusing military service.
1930 Gandhi led salt march and civil disobedience.
1933 Dorothy Day founded the Catholic Worker.
1936-1937 CIO strikes used sit-down tactic at General Motors.
1940-1945 Denmark and Norway resisted Nazi occupation.
1940-1953 A. J. Muste led the Fellowship of Reconciliation.
1947 India and Pakistan gained independence nonviolently.
1947 Pax Christi International was founded.
1948-now Costa Rica has no military forces.
1953 300,000 East German workers went on strike.
1955-1956 Montgomery bus boycott desegregated buses.
1955-1965 Nonviolent protests won civil rights legislation.
1955-1961 Catholic Workers refused to obey civil defense drills.
1956 Hungarians changed their leader but were crushed.
1957 SANE was founded to protest nuclear weapons.
1958 Schweitzer made radio broadcasts on atomic weapons.
1959 King organized Southern Christian Leadership Conference.
1960 Russell led 5,000 in sit-down protest of Polaris.
1961 Women Strike for Peace began protesting.
1963 King wrote a letter from the Birmingham jail.
1964 Mario Savio led Free Speech Movement at Berkeley.
1964-1973 Protesting stops U.S. war in Vietnam.
1964-1965 Civil Rights Act and Voting Rights Act passed.
1965 Cesar Chavez began United Farm Workers grape boycott.
1968 Czechoslovakia experimented with nonviolent reforms.
1968 Catonsville 9 led by Berrigans burned draft records.
1968 Protesters disrupted Democratic Convention in Chicago.
1969 Greenpeace began using nonviolent direct action.
1969 Large demonstrations deterred Vietnam War escalation.
1976 Thousands protested nuclear power in Wyhl, West Germany.
1977 1,414 were arrested at Seabrook, New Hampshire.
1977 Argentina mothers of disappeared protest.
1979 200 blocked the first Trident submarine at Groton.
1979 250 blockaded at Rocky Flats, Colorado.
1980 Poland 's Solidarity Union began and grew to ten million.
1980 Plowshares 8 were arrested in Pennsylvania.
1980 Thousands of dolphins blocked Japanese fishing boats.
1980-1990 Sanctuary movement took in "illegal" Salvadorans.
1981 1,900 were arrested at Diablo Canyon, California.
1981-2000 Women protested missiles at Greenham Common.
1982 1,691 were arrested at the United Nations.
1982 Nearly a million marched in New York to end arms race.
1983 777 were arrested at Vandenberg Air Force Base.
1983 1,066 were arrested at Livermore, California.
1983 German Green Party won 27 seats in Parliament.
1983-1990 Pledge or Resistance protested Central America wars.
1983-1993 Witness for Peace groups traveled to Nicaragua.
1984 Winooski 44 sat in and were acquitted by a jury.
1986 Filipinos nonviolently overthrew the Marcos regime.
1986 The Great Peace March crossed the U.S.
1987 3,000 protested at Nevada Test site on Mother's Day.
1987-1992 Nuremberg Actions blocked weapons trains at Concord.
1987-now ACTUP protested for better AIDS treatment.
1989 Chinese demonstrated for democratic reforms.
1989 Hungary and Poland gained independence.
1989 Czechoslovakia and Bulgaria gained independence.
1990 East and West Germany were reunitied.
1990-1994 Nelson Mandela was released and later elected.
1990 Disabled demonstrated in Washington for rights.
1991 Many protested U.S. Gulf War and depleted uranium.
1994 Gorbachev and Strong initiated Earth Charter.
1996 World Court declared nuclear weapons illegal.
1996-now Roy Bourgeois led protests at Ft. Benning SOA.
1996-now Kathy Kelly led Voices in the Wilderness delegations to Iraq.
1999 Protestors disrupted WTO meeting at Seattle.

21st Century

2000 Serbia replaced Milosevic after election fraud.
2001 Zapatistas marched to Mexico City.
2002 East Timor became independent.
2002 Millions marched to protest imminent U.S.-Iraq war.