5 conspiracies that would have changed the world had it worked
Many conspiracies have indeed affected world history because they have been successful, both for good and for bad. However, there have been conspiracies that have failed and yet are not as interesting as those that have succeeded. Find out which ones were below.
5 - The conspiracy to kill Hitler before the war
It is well known that Hitler's own chief intelligence officer, Wilhelm Canaris, planned to arrest him at the time the Führer issued the order to occupy Czechoslovakia in 1938.
At the same time, the second in command, Hans Oster, also conspired with several other military and civilian leaders to arrest and assassinate Hitler because they feared that the ensuing war would mean total defeat for Germany. It is believed that this plot, which was the largest plot ever to have broken out in the country before Operation Valkyrie, involved sending a squad of soldiers to Reich headquarters in Berlin to arrest Hitler.
However, not everyone wanted the leader of the Nazi party killed. Some of the conspirators wanted the Führer alive to put him on trial or lock him in a madhouse. Hans Oster, however, believed that keeping him alive would be no use, so he plotted a conspiracy within a conspiracy.
After the soldiers had seized Hitler, they intended to stage a shootout, during which Hitler would be hit by a stray bullet. The conspiracy never took off, mainly because of the Munich Agreement, in which the Allies allowed Hitler to essentially withdraw from Czechoslovakia without bloodshed.
4 - Napoleon was almost killed before becoming emperor
Napoleon also escaped a conspiratorial death on Christmas Eve during his time as France's first consul. He nearly fell victim to a bomb that exploded near his carriage on the night of December 24, 1800 in Paris.
The conspirators - royalists and members of the nobility - had placed the explosive artifact hidden along the way Napoleon's carriage would make its way to an opera.
Luckily for Napoleon, the combination of a slow fuse and the high-speed driving of his drunk driver allowed his carriage to pass the bomb before it exploded. A second vehicle carrying his wife, Josephine, also prevented the blast because it moved so slowly.
Although both managed to reach the opera unharmed, the blast injured about 52 people, some of whom died. After the incident, authorities were able to arrest some of the conspirators, who were later sentenced to the guillotine. The rest successfully escaped to England, where they continued to plot against Napoleon.
The Conspiracy to Overthrow the Sparta Class System
Strength, fighting, discipline and sharp tongues were never problems for the Spartans. They had those qualities that made their story, but when it came to their slaves, they didn't know how to handle it. Regularly, the Spartans acted with extreme violence and murdered many of their servants, generating much fear in these workers.
This systematic brutalization brought increasing tensions between the Spartans and their slaves, even resulting in a series of conspiracies to overthrow the ancient warriors of power. In one such case, a young Spartan named Cinadon conspired to unite the lower classes and make a revolt against their rulers in the fourth century BC.
Although technically a citizen, Cinadon belonged to the lower Spartan class, who were too poor to pay their debts and lost their political and social privileges. Taking advantage of the discontent of the lower classes, Cinadon secretly recruited thousands for his cause and even boasted that his men would "eat" the ruling class matter.
Unfortunately, a recruit recruited the plot for the ephors (leaders) who arrested Cinadon, tortured him and sentenced him to death. When asked why he wanted to rebel, Cinadon left them with an answer in the true form of a Spartan: "To be inferior to anyone in Lacedemon (Sparta)."
2 - Lincoln's plan to kill Jefferson Davis
One of America's most iconic figures, Abraham Lincoln may have been secretly a terrible president. Desperate to end the Civil War, Lincoln would have authorized Union forces to conduct a lightning strike in Richmond, Virginia, and assassinate Confederate President Jefferson Davis and his ministers.
However, the attack was unsuccessful, resulting in the deaths of several men, including Colonel Ulric Dahlgren, from whom the Confederates found documents with the criminal orders. Southern media denounced the plot, while the Union publicly dismissed the files as mere forgery.
After the private investigation, however, Union General George Meade concluded that the signatures were in fact genuine. Jefferson Davis later wrote in his diary that he believed the order originated from Lincoln himself. Regardless, the conspiracy documents only served to generate more hatred between the Confederates and the Union.
1 - The last Soviet coup attempt in 1991
If this conspiracy had been successful, it is very likely that the Cold War still existed. Fearing that the democratic reforms of Soviet President Mikhail Gorbachev would dismember the Soviet Union, the Communist Party hard line struck a final blow on August 19, 1991.
Led by communists known collectively as "The Gang of Eight, " the conspirators detained Gorbachev and his family at the Crimean holiday home, ordering loyal forces to seize power in Moscow and arrest Russian President Boris Yeltsin.
However, Yeltsin challenged his efforts to arrest him by staying inside the Parliament building and inviting the public to support him. Thousands of protesters took to the streets and faced tanks and troops, which they managed to convince to change sides. Without any further support, the leaders abandoned the plot after three days. After this crisis and the failure of the coup, the Soviet Union effectively came to an end.
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