List of conspiracies (political)

In a political sense, conspiracy refers to a group of people united in the goal of usurping or overthrowing an established political power. Typically, the final goal is to gain power through a revolutionary coup d'état or through assassination.

A conspiracy is to be contrasted with a cabal. The two are similar but have quite different connotations; in contrast to a cabal, a conspiracy usually looks to overthrow a fixed power instead of usurping it from within.

Notable political conspiracies

This is an incomplete list that may never be able to satisfy particular standards for completeness. You can help by expanding it with reliably sourced entries.

• 1st century BC - Catiline conspiracies^[1]
• 44 BC - Liberatores plot assassination of Julius Caesar to restore Roman Republic^[2]
• AD 65 - Pisonian conspiracy^[3]
• Late 15th century (1478) Pazzi conspiracy, which included the Pope^[4]
• 1506 - Conspiracy against the life of the brothers Alfonso I d'Este, Duke of Ferrara and Cardinal Ippolito d'Este, coordinated by their half brother Giulio d'Este and full brother Ferrante d'Este^[5]
• 1570 - Ridolfi plot against Elizabeth I of England^[6]
• 1583 - Throckmorton Plot to murder Elizabeth and replace her with her cousin Mary, Queen of Scots^[7]
• 1586 - Babington Plot, second major plot against Elizabeth, that led most directly to execution of Mary, Queen of Scots^[8][9]
• 1603 - Main Plot to remove James I of England and enthrone Arbella Stuart

— Bye Plot, leads to the execution of Sir George Brooke^[10]

• 1605 - Gunpowder Plot to blow up the House of Lords during the State Opening of Parliament as prelude to a popular revolt in the Midlands, during which James's nine-year-old daughter, Princess Elizabeth, was to be installed as the Catholic head of state; often called the Gunpowder Treason Plot; origin of Guy Fawkes Day^[11]
• 1788 - Anjala conspiracy^[12]
• 1865 - Abraham Lincoln assassination plot, to include assassination of cabinet members^[13]
• 1898 - The Dreyfus Affair, a coordinated attempt to falsely accuse Alfred Dreyfus of treason^[14]
• 1903 - The Protocols of the Elders of Zion, presented as authentic text by the Tsar's secret police efforts to foment anti-Semitism^[15]
• 1914 - The Black Hand, a secret society controlled by Serbian Military Intelligence, coordinates the assassination of Franz Ferdinand, thus causing World War I.
• 1932 to 1972 - Tuskegee syphilis experiment, to study natural progression of untreated syphilis in black men who thought they were receiving free health care^[16]
• 1936 to 1950 - Presumed General Motors streetcar conspiracy^[17]
• 1938 - Presumed Hitler Youth Conspiracy, NKVD case in Moscow involving some 70 arrests and 40 executions of teenagers and adults, later found to be baseless^[18]
• 1939 - Operation Himmler and its Gleiwitz incident, "False Flag" terrorism by Nazi Germany as pretext for invasion of Poland

— Shelling of Mainila, "False Flag" terrorism by USSR as pretext for Winter War^[19]

• 1943 - Bomb on Hitler's aircraft, an attempt on Adolf Hitler^[20]
• 1941 - British wartime plan PR4 to invade and to occupy neutral Norway also code-named "Stratford"
• 1941 - Bombing of Pearl Harbour, Hawaii by the Japanese^[21][22]
• 1944 - July 20 Plot, attempt to assassinate Hitler with suitcase bomb, and then use Operation Valkyrie to grab power^[23][24]
• 1948- to 1976 - Operation Mockingbird, until then CIA director George H. W. Bush prohibited paid media recruiting^[25][26]
• 1942 - Wannsee Conference, related to Final Solution of 3rd Reich Nazis^[27]
• 1945 - Operation Paperclip, extraction of top Nazi scientists (incl. SS Nazi Party members)^[28][29]
• 1948 to early 1980s Operation Gladio CIA-NATO 'stay-behind' preparations^[30][31]
• 1953 to ? - MKULTRA mind control program^[32]
• 1953 - 1953 Iranian coup d'état Anglo-American conspiracy under the names of 'Operation Ajax' (CIA ) and 'Operation Boot' (MI6)^[33]
• 1954 - Lavon affair Operation Susannah, "False Flag" terrorism by Mossad^[34]
• 1960s - Project GAMMA allusion to attempts to assassinate Norodom Sihanouk, called Project CHERRY
• 1962 - Operation Northwoods - A rejected proposal for the CIA to commit acts of terrorism in U.S. cities and elsewhere.^[35]
• 1968 - The Markovic affair, French Secret Service Gaullist plot destabilise future president Georges Pompidou^[36]
• 1969 to 1972 Secret war in Laos, and Operation Menu in Cambodia, concealed from Congressional oversight^[37]
• 1972 - Watergate scandal, burglary and cover-up scandals^[38]
• 1982 Brighton Bombings^[39]
• 1982 - Fighting Solidarity^[40]
• 1983 - October surprise^[41][42]
• 1984 Rajneeshee bioterror attack^[43]
• 1987 - Iran-Contra Affair^[44][45]

— Various CIA involvements in overseas coups d'état

• 1991 - Nayirah testimony to rally U.S. public support to launch the Gulf War^[46]
• 1967 to 1974 - Strategy of tension theory in re series of incidents in Italy^[47]
• 2000s - Operation Merlini^[48]
• 2002 - Downing Street Memo^[49][50]
• 2001 successful conspiracy by Al-Qaeda to destroy the World Trade Center
• 2002 September Dossier to justify Iraq invasion

— Yellowcake forgery^[51]

• 2003 - Iraq and weapons of mass destruction pretext for War in Iraq^[52]

See also

• Conspiracy
• Conspiracy theory
• Secrecy
• Seditious conspiracy

References

Look up conspiracy (political) in Wiktionary, the free dictionary.

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Conspiracies.