The American war of 1775-1781 is not a revolutionary moment. The genuine revolution for American independence is a decade-long civil resistance that preceded the war.

Empty streets, a result of social withdrawal, home-made cloths worn to boycott foreign goods, idle factories affected by strikes - all lack the dramaturgy of violence and are easily ignored.

Caravan wagon owned by Michał Drzymała that made a mockery of the German land discrimination against Poles, 1904-1907. Credit: http://www.powiatwolsztyn.pl/

Beating up Polish school children in Września in 1901 after they refused to study in German. The episode led to massive school strikes in German Poland. Credit: http://wrzesnia.w.interia.pl/historia/strajk.htm

Ghanian leader, Kwame Nkrumah, speaking at pro-independence rally. Credit: Kwame Nkrumah by Douglas Kellner by Chelsea House Publishers, 1987, 38.

December 30, 1989, human chain around the Old City of Jerusalem. Credit: Hashomer Hatzair Archive, Givat Haviva, Rachamim Israeli, al-Hamishmar Collection. Israel.

December 30, 1989, human chain around the Old City of Jerusalem. Credit: Hashomer Hatzair Archive, Givat Haviva, Rachamim Israeli, al-Hamishmar Collection. Israel.

Women demonstrate against the British in Cairo in 1919. The Egyptian Revolutions of 1919 and 2011 utilized similar repertoires of nonviolent methods- the former against a foreign colonizer and the latter against a dictator. Credit: https://pinterest.com/pin/4433299603407324/