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
- 1st century BC - Catiline conspiracies
- 44 BC - Liberatores plot assassination of Julius Caesar to restore Roman Republic
- AD 65 - Pisonian conspiracy
- Late 15th century (1478) Pazzi conspiracy, which included the Pope
- 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
- 1570 - Ridolfi plot against Elizabeth I of England
- 1583 - Throckmorton Plot to murder Elizabeth and replace her with her cousin Mary, Queen of Scots
- 1586 - Babington Plot, second major plot against Elizabeth, that led most directly to execution of Mary, Queen of Scots
- 1603 - Main Plot to remove James I of England and enthrone Arbella Stuart
- â€" Bye Plot, leads to the execution of Sir George Brooke
- 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
- 1788 - Anjala conspiracy
- 1865 - Abraham Lincoln assassination plot, to include assassination of cabinet members
- 1898 - The Dreyfus Affair, a coordinated attempt to falsely accuse Alfred Dreyfus of treason
- 1903 - The Protocols of the Elders of Zion, presented as authentic text by the Tsar's secret police efforts to foment anti-Semitism
- 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
- 1936 to 1950 - Presumed General Motors streetcar conspiracy
- 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
- 1939 - Operation Himmler and its Gleiwitz incident, "False Flag" terrorism by Nazi Germany as pretext for invasion of Poland
- â€" Shelling of Mainila, "False Flag" terrorism by USSR as pretext for Winter War
- 1943 - Bomb on Hitler's aircraft, an attempt on Adolf Hitler
- 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
- 1944 - July 20 Plot, attempt to assassinate Hitler with suitcase bomb, and then use Operation Valkyrie to grab power
- 1948- to 1976 - Operation Mockingbird, until then CIA director George H. W. Bush prohibited paid media recruiting
- 1942 - Wannsee Conference, related to Final Solution of 3rd Reich Nazis
- 1945 - Operation Paperclip, extraction of top Nazi scientists (incl. SS Nazi Party members)
- 1948 to early 1980s Operation Gladio CIA-NATO 'stay-behind' preparations
- 1953 to ? - MKULTRA mind control program
- 1953 - 1953 Iranian coup d'état Anglo-American conspiracy under the names of 'Operation Ajax' (CIA ) and 'Operation Boot' (MI6)
- 1954 - Lavon affair Operation Susannah, "False Flag" terrorism by Mossad
- 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.
- 1968 - The Markovic affair, French Secret Service Gaullist plot destabilise future president Georges Pompidou
- 1969 to 1972 Secret war in Laos, and Operation Menu in Cambodia, concealed from Congressional oversight
- 1972 - Watergate scandal, burglary and cover-up scandals
- 1982 Brighton Bombings
- 1982 - Fighting Solidarity
- 1983 - October surprise
- 1984 Rajneeshee bioterror attack
- 1987 - Iran-Contra Affair
- â€" Various CIA involvements in overseas coups d'état
- 1991 - Nayirah testimony to rally U.S. public support to launch the Gulf War
- 1967 to 1974 - Strategy of tension theory in re series of incidents in Italy
- 2000s - Operation Merlini
- 2002 - Downing Street Memo
- 2001 successful conspiracy by Al-Qaeda to destroy the World Trade Center
- 2002 September Dossier to justify Iraq invasion
- â€" Yellowcake forgery
- 2003 - Iraq and weapons of mass destruction pretext for War in Iraq
See also
- Conspiracy
- Conspiracy theory
- Secrecy
- Seditious conspiracy