Best Anti Colonial

The American Revolution was the political and military struggle through which thirteen British colonies in North America became the independent United States. Armed conflict lasted from 1775 to 1783, while the Declaration of Independence stated the colonies' separation from Britain in 1776. The revo...

The Dutch Revolt was a prolonged conflict from 1568 to 1648 in which provinces of the Habsburg Netherlands resisted the rule of King Philip II of Spain. Religious persecution, taxation, political centralization, and the defense of provincial privileges contributed to the uprising, which became inter...

'Concerning Violence' is the opening chapter of Frantz Fanon's 1961 work The Wretched of the Earth, in which he argues that decolonisation is inherently a violent process given the structural violence of colonial rule. The text was dictated shortly before Fanon's death and published with a preface b...

Tupac Amaru II was a prominent Indigenous leader of Peru during the late 18th century. He spearheaded a widespread rebellion against Spanish colonial rule aiming to dismantle exploitative systems within the Andean region. His efforts, though ultimately unsuccessful in achieving immediate independenc...

Ho Chi Minh was a key figure in 20th-century Vietnam. He spearheaded the Vietnamese communist movement, ultimately leading the nation’s struggle for independence against colonial powers like France. His leadership established the Democratic Republic of Vietnam and remains significant for those study...

The Algerian Revolution, also called the Algerian War, was the armed struggle from 1954 to 1962 that ended French colonial rule in Algeria. The National Liberation Front led the independence campaign through guerrilla warfare, political organization, and international diplomacy, while France deploye...

The Indonesian National Revolution was the political and armed struggle that followed Indonesia's declaration of independence on 17 August 1945. Indonesian republican forces and civilian groups resisted attempts by the Netherlands to restore colonial rule, while diplomacy, international pressure, an...

The Irish War of Independence (1919–1921) was a guerrilla conflict between the Irish Republican Army and British forces that resulted in the Anglo-Irish Treaty and the creation of the Irish Free State.

Túpac Amaru II, born José Gabriel Condorcanqui, was an indigenous Peruvian nobleman of Inca descent who led a massive uprising against Spanish colonial rule in 1780. The rebellion began in the Andean region as a protest against heavy taxation and labor abuses. Although the revolt was ultimately supp...

The Mexican War of Independence was an armed and political struggle from 1810 to 1821 that ended Spanish colonial rule in mainland Mexico. It began with Miguel Hidalgo y Costilla's Grito de Dolores and continued under leaders including José María Morelos, Vicente Guerrero, and Guadalupe Victoria. In...

Amílcar Cabral was an agricultural engineer, anti-colonial theorist, and nationalist leader from Guinea-Bissau and Cape Verde. In 1956, he founded the African Party for the Independence of Guinea and Cape Verde (PAIGC) to coordinate the armed struggle against Portuguese colonial rule. Cabral emphasi...

Vo Nguyen Giap was a Vietnamese military general and politician who served as the commander of the People's Army of Vietnam. He is best known for his leadership during the First Indochina War, particularly the 1954 campaign at Dien Bien Phu that forced the French out of Vietnam. He also oversaw Nort...

Julius Nyerere (1922–1999) was a Tanzanian anti-colonial activist, politician, and former teacher who served as the first president of Tanganyika and later Tanzania from 1964 to 1985. Affectionately known as 'Mwalimu' (Swahili for teacher), he played a crucial role in uniting Tanganyika and Zanzibar...

Kwame Nkrumah was a Ghanaian revolutionary and statesman who played a central role in the decolonization of Africa. He led the Gold Coast to independence from British rule in 1957, becoming the first Prime Minister and later the first President of the newly named nation of Ghana. Nkrumah was a major...

The Guinea-Bissau War of Independence was an armed anticolonial struggle led by the African Party for the Independence of Guinea and Cape Verde, or PAIGC, against Portuguese rule. The PAIGC, co-founded by Amilcar Cabral, organized political institutions and guerrilla forces across much of Portuguese...

Antonio Maceo was a Cuban military commander and a leading figure in the wars for independence from Spain. Known as the Bronze Titan, he fought in the Ten Years' War, rejected the settlement ending that conflict through the Protest of Baraguá, and returned to command forces in the Cuban War of Indep...

José de San Martín declared Peruvian independence on July 28, 1821, with subsequent campaigns by Bolívar fully expelling Spanish forces by 1824.

Muhammad Ahmad (1844–1885) was a Sudanese religious leader who proclaimed himself the Mahdi in 1881, launching a religious and political movement against Egyptian-Ottoman rule in Sudan. His forces, known as the Ansar, captured Khartoum in January 1885, killing British General Charles George Gordon....

Patrice Lumumba was a Congolese politician and independence leader who served as the first Prime Minister of the independent Democratic Republic of the Congo in 1960. He was a leading figure in the Mouvement National Congolais and played a crucial role in securing independence from Belgium. His tenu...

Máximo Gómez (1836–1905) was a Dominican-born military commander who served as general in chief of the Cuban revolutionary army during the wars of independence against Spain. He played a leading role in the Ten Years' War (1868–1878) and later commanded forces in the 1895 War of Independence, workin...

The Namibian Independence Struggle was SWAPO's armed and diplomatic campaign against South African administration from 1966 until independence was achieved on March 21, 1990, after the longest African liberation war.

The 1896 Philippine Revolution, launched by the Katipunan secret society against Spanish colonial rule, continued under Emilio Aguinaldo and produced the 1898 declaration of independence.

The 1825 declaration of independence that established Bolivia as a republic, named in honor of liberator Simón Bolívar following the Battle of Ayacucho.

Prince Pedro I declared the Empire of Brazil independent from Portugal on September 7, 1822, in a separation achieved with comparatively little armed conflict.

The independence movement culminating in the May 24, 1822 Battle of Pichincha that freed the Quito territory from Spain and incorporated it into Gran Colombia.

FRELIMO's 1964–1975 armed struggle against Portuguese colonial rule culminated in Mozambican independence in June 1975, with Samora Machel becoming the country's first president.

Cuba's 1895 War of Independence against Spanish rule, spearheaded by José Martí, ended with US intervention in 1898 and Spain ceding Cuba under the Treaty of Paris.

Ahmad Urabi (also spelled Arabi or Orabi) was an Egyptian army officer and nationalist leader who spearheaded the Urabi Revolt of 1879–1882. Born a peasant in the Nile Delta, he rose through the military ranks and became a spokesman for Egyptian officers protesting the dominance of Turco-Circassian...

Omar Mukhtar (c. 1858–1931) was a Libyan Senussi religious and resistance leader who led guerrilla campaigns against Italian colonial rule in Cyrenaica for roughly two decades. A teacher of the Quran and a Senussi sheikh, he organized local fighters in sustained resistance during the Italian reconqu...