In the 25th April 1974 Portugal stopped to be a fascist country and democracy begun. No shot was fired and it was a peaceful transition, but with the military on the streets. Anyone knows anything about this?
Yes, indeed, the Revolução dos Cravos (Carnation Revolution). After Salazar was no more, the country decided it was time to transition to democracy. In some respects, it reminds me of Spain's transition to democracy after Franco shuffled off this mortal coil.
I never heard about this in my life until I read your post. Everything I ever studied in college and post college always had an element of violence in it, especially when I was reading about a revolution against government. I will look more into this because I never thought such an event was remotely possible in World History. I'm still baffle by the fact this actually occurred.
Another clustering of non-violent revolutions (with few exception) was the "Autumn of Nations" in the, now former, Eastern Bloc nations in 1989. With the notable exception of Romania, the transition to democracy was peaceful in those societies.
Please compare this with attempts at peaceful protest and change inside the USA. The protesters and occupants were peaceful -- it was the Police who showed violent tendencies. Or there was the famous case of some 700 Occupy Marchers who were arrested on the Brooklyn Bridge after they were lead into a trap by an undercover policeman. Yes, there was vioence on the part of some Occupants in Oakland, California, but this, too, was after initial police violence. It was a case of the police acting as agents of the Capitalists to keep the Port of Oakland functioning after a mass of Occupants temporarily closed it. Now laws in thee US have been changed so as to limit the rights of protesters.
The Haymarket Affair is another notorious incident of police violence. Many people assert that the bomb was actually placed by police, or at least anti-labor goons. While many police understand that they are there to protect the rights, others suffer from obsessive-compulsive personality disorder and want to exert power over other people. My father was a law-enforcement officer when I was young and was one of the good-guy cops. He had little patience for the bad ones.
Portugal has always been a peaceful country, we were not involved in either of the world wars, but most likely due to geographical reasons I believe.
That's cool. I would like to find the article and read about this. It'd be interesting to hear how conflicts can be resolved without war.
