The decades of the late 19th and the early 20th centuries constitute the
Belle Époque of anarchist history. In this "classical" era, roughly defined as the period between the
Paris Commune of 1871 and the
Spanish Civil War of 1936 to 1939 (or the 1840s/1860s through 1939), anarchism played a prominent role in
working-class struggles (alongside
Marxism) in Europe as well as in the Americas, Asia, and Oceania. Modernism, mass migration, railroads and access to printing all helped anarchists to advance their causes.
First International and Paris Commune , a leading
collectivist anarchist who clashed with
Karl Marx at the
Hague Congress of 1872, causing a schism in the
First International In 1864, the creation of the
International Workingmen's Association (IWA, also called the "First International") united diverse revolutionary currents - including socialist Marxists, trade unionists, communists and anarchists.
Karl Marx, a leading figure of the International, became a member of its General Council. Four years later, in 1868,
Mikhail Bakunin joined the First International with his
collectivist anarchist associates. They advocated the
collectivisation of property and the revolutionary overthrow of the state. Bakunin corresponded with other members of the International, seeking to establish a loose brotherhood of revolutionaries who would ensure that the coming revolution would not take an authoritarian course, in sharp contrast with other currents that were seeking to get a firm grasp on
state power. Bakunin's energy and writings about a great variety of subjects, such as education and gender equality, helped to increase his influence within the IWA. His main line was that the International should try to promote a revolution without aiming to create a mere government of "experts". Workers should seek to emancipate their class with direct actions, using cooperatives, mutual credit, and strikes, but avoid participation in bourgeois politics. At first, the collectivists worked with the Marxists to push the First International in a more revolutionary socialist direction. Subsequently, the International became polarised into two camps, with Marx and Bakunin as their respective figureheads. Bakunin characterised Marx's ideas as
centralist. Because of this, he predicted that if a Marxist party came to power, its leaders would simply take the place of the
ruling class they had fought against. Followers of Pierre-Joseph Proudhon, the mutualists, also opposed Marx's
state socialism, advocating political
abstentionism and small property holdings. Meanwhile, an uprising after the
Franco-Prussian War of 1870 to 1871 led to the formation of the
Paris Commune in March 1871. Anarchists had a prominent role in the Commune, next to
Blanquists and - to a lesser extent - Marxists. The uprising was greatly influenced by anarchists and had a great impact on anarchist history. Radical socialist views, like Proudhonian federalism, were implemented to a small extent. Most importantly, the workers proved they could run their own services and factories. After the defeat of the Commune, anarchists like
Eugène Varlin,
Louise Michel, and
Élisée Reclus were shot or imprisoned. The
French Third Republic persecuted socialist supporters for a decade. Leading members of the International who survived the bloody suppression of the Commune fled to Switzerland, where the
Anarchist St. Imier International would form in 1872. In 1872, the conflict between Marxists and anarchists climaxed. Marx had, since 1871, proposed the creation of a political party, which anarchists found to be an appalling and unacceptable prospect. Various groups (including Italian sections, the Belgian Federation and the
Jura Federation) rejected Marx's proposition at the
1872 Hague Congress. They saw it as an attempt to create state socialism that would ultimately fail to emancipate humanity. In contrast, they proposed political struggle through social revolution. Finally, anarchists were expelled from the First International. In response, the federalist sections formed their own International at the
St. Imier Congress, adopting a revolutionary anarchist programme.
Emergence of anarcho-communism , a prominent anarcho-communist thinker who aimed to ground anarchism in scientific theory
Anarcho-communism developed out of radical socialist currents after the 1789 French Revolution but was first formulated as such in the Italian section of the
First International. It was the convincing critique of
Carlo Cafiero and
Errico Malatesta that paved the way for anarcho-communism to surpass collectivism; they argued that collectivism would inevitably end in competition and inequality. Essayist Alain Pengam comments that between 1880 and 1890 the perspective of a revolution was thought to be closed. Anarcho-communists had anti-organisational tendencies, opposed political and trade-union struggles (such as the eight-hour day) as being overly reformist, and in some cases favoured acts of terrorism. Finding themselves increasingly isolated, they opted to join the workers' movements after 1890. With the aid of Peter Kropotkin's optimism and persuasive writing, anarcho-communism became the major anarchist current in Europe and abroad—except in Spain where anarcho-syndicalism prevailed. The theoretical work of Kropotkin and Malatesta grew in importance later as it expanded and developed pro-organisationalist and
insurrectionary anti-organisationalist sections. Kropotkin elaborated on the theory behind the revolution of anarcho-communism saying, "it is the risen people who are the real agent and not the working class organised in the enterprise (the cells of the
capitalist mode of production) and seeking to assert itself as
labour power, as a more 'rational' industrial body or social brain (manager) than the employers".
Organised labour and syndicalism of the Chicago anarchists executed following the
Haymarket affair, a highly significant event for international
May Day observances Due to a high influx of European immigrants, Chicago was the centre of the American anarchist movement during the 19th century. On
1 May 1886, a general strike was called in several United States cities with the demand of an
eight-hour work day, and anarchists allied themselves with the workers' movement despite seeing the objective as
reformist. On May 3, a fight broke out in Chicago when
strikebreakers attempted to cross the
picket line. Two workers died when police opened fire on the crowd. The next day anarchists staged a rally at Chicago's Haymarket Square. A bomb was thrown from a side alley. In the ensuing panic, police opened fire on the crowd and each other. Seven police officers and at least four workers were killed. Eight anarchists, directly and indirectly related to the organisers of the rally, were arrested and charged with the murder of the deceased officers. They became international political celebrities in the labour movement. Four of the men were executed and a fifth committed suicide before his execution. The incident became known as the
Haymarket affair and was a setback for the movement and the struggle for the eight-hour day. In 1890 a second attempt, this time international in scope, to organise for the eight-hour day was made. It had the secondary purpose of memorialising those workers killed as a result of the Haymarket affair. Although it had initially been conceived as a one-off event, by the following year the commemoration of International Workers' Day on
May Day had become firmly established as an international workers' holiday.
Syndicalism saw its heights from 1894 to 1914, with roots reaching back to 19th century labour movements and the
trade unionists of the
First International. Subsequently,
anarcho-syndicalism's main tenet that economic struggles come before political ones can be traced back to
Pierre-Joseph Proudhon, and was the same issue that led to the schism of the First International. Anarcho-syndicalists advocated that
labour syndicates should focus not only on the conditions and wages of workers but also on revolutionary objectives. The French
Confédération Générale du Travail (General Confederation of Labour) was one of Europe's most prominent syndicalist organisations and, while rejecting
illegalism, was heavily influenced by anarchism. As a
grassroots organisation and lab for revolutionary ideas, its structure was exported to other like-minded European organisations. The organisation would later take a reformist path after 1914. In 1907, the
International Anarchist Congress of Amsterdam gathered delegates from most European countries, the United States, Japan and Latin America. A central debate concerned the relation between anarchism and trade unionism.
Errico Malatesta and
Pierre Monatte strongly disagreed on this issue. Monatte thought that syndicalism was revolutionary and would create the conditions for a
social revolution, while Malatesta did not consider syndicalism by itself sufficient. He thought the trade-union movement was reformist and even conservative, citing the phenomenon of professional union officials as essentially bourgeois and anti-worker. Malatesta warned that the syndicalist aims were of perpetuating syndicalism itself, whereas anarchists must always have anarchy as their end goal and consequently must refrain from committing to any particular method of achieving it. In Spain, syndicalism had grown significantly during the 1880s but the first anarchist related organisations didn't flourish. In 1910 however, the
Confederación Nacional del Trabajo (National Confederation of Labour or CNT) was founded and gradually became entwined with anarchism. The CNT was affiliated with the
International Workers' Association, a federation of anarcho-syndicalist trade unions founded in 1922. The success of the CNT stimulated the spread of anarcho-syndicalism in Latin America. The
Federación Obrera Regional Argentina (Argentine Regional Workers' Federation) reached a quarter of a million members, surpassing social democratic unions. By the early 20th century, revolutionary syndicalism had spread across the world, from Latin America to Eastern Europe and Asia, with most of its activity then taking place outside of Western Europe.
Propaganda of the deed whose followers, known as
Galleanists, carried out a series of bombings and assassination attempts from 1914 to 1932 in what they saw as attacks on tyrants and
enemies of the people The use of revolutionary
political violence, known as
propaganda of the deed, was employed by a small but influential part of the anarchist movement over a roughly four decade period, beginning in the 1880s. It was conceived as a form of insurrectionary action used to provoke and inspire the masses to revolution. This was at a time when anarchists were persecuted and revolutionaries were becoming more isolated. The dismemberment of the French
socialist movement and, following the suppression of the 1871 Paris Commune, the execution or the exile of many
communards to
penal colonies favoured individualist political expression and acts. But the prime factor in the rise of propaganda of the deed, as historian Constance Bantman outlines, was the writings of Russian revolutionaries between 1869 and 1891, namely of
Mikhail Bakunin and
Sergei Nechaev who developed significant insurrectionary strategies.
Paul Brousse, a medical doctor and active militant of violent insurrection, popularised the actions of propaganda of the deed. In the United States,
Johann Most advocated publicising violent acts of retaliation against counter-revolutionaries because "we preach not only action in and for itself, but also action as propaganda". Russian anarchist-communists employed terrorism and illegal acts in their struggle. Numerous heads of state were assassinated or attacked by members of the anarchist movement. In 1901, the
Polish-American anarchist
Leon Czolgosz assassinated the president of the United States,
William McKinley.
Emma Goldman, who was erroneously suspected of being involved, expressed some sympathy for Czolgosz and incurred a great deal of negative publicity. Goldman also supported
Alexander Berkman in his failed assassination attempt of steel industrialist
Henry Frick in the wake of the
Homestead Strike, and she wrote about how these small acts of violence were incomparable to the deluge of violence regularly committed by the state and capital. In Europe, a wave of
illegalism (the embracement of a criminal way of life) spread throughout the anarchist movement, with
Marius Jacob,
Ravachol, intellectual
Émile Henry and the
Bonnot Gang being notable examples. The Bonnot Gang in particular justified illegal and violent behavior by claiming that they were "taking back" property that did not rightfully belong to capitalists. In Russia,
Narodnaya Volya ("People's Will" which was not an anarchist organisation but nevertheless drew inspiration from Bakunin's work), assassinated
Tsar Alexander II in 1881 and gained some popular support. However, for the most part, the anarchist movement in Russia remained marginal in the following years. In the
Ottoman Empire, the
Boatmen of Thessaloniki were a Bulgarian anarchist revolutionary organisation active 1898-1903. As early as 1887, important figures in the anarchist movement distanced themselves from both illegalism and propaganda of the deed. Peter Kropotkin, for example, wrote in
Le Révolté that "a structure based on centuries of history cannot be destroyed with a few kilos of dynamite".
State repression of the anarchist and
labour movements, including the infamous 1894 French
lois scélérates ("villainous laws"), following a number of successful bombings and assassinations may have contributed to the abandonment of these kinds of tactics, although state repression may have played an equal role in their adoption. Early proponents of propaganda of the deed, like Alexander Berkman, started to question the legitimacy of violence as a tactic. A variety of anarchists advocated the abandonment of these sorts of tactics in favour of collective revolutionary action through the trade union movement. By the end of the 19th century, it became clear that propaganda of the deed was not going to spark a revolution. Though it was employed by only a minority of anarchists, it gave anarchism a violent reputation and it isolated anarchists from broader social movements. It was abandoned by the majority of the anarchist movement in the early 20th century.
Revolutionary wave Anarchists were involved in the
Strandzha Commune and
Krusevo Republic established in
Macedonia in
Ilinden–Preobrazhenie Uprising of 1903, and in the
Mexican Revolution of 1910. The
revolutionary wave of 1917–23 saw varying degrees of active participation by anarchists. Following the failed
1905 Russian Revolution, anarchists participated again in both the
February and
October revolutions of 1917 and were initially enthusiastic about the
Bolshevik cause. Prior to the revolution,
Lenin had won over anarchists and syndicalists with high praises in his 1917 work
The State and Revolution. However, anarchist objections quickly arose. They opposed, for example, the slogan, "All power to the Soviet". The
dictatorship of the proletariat was incompatible with the libertarian views of the anarchists, and co-operation shortly ended as the Bolsheviks soon turned against anarchists and other left-wing opposition. After their grasp on power was stabilized, the Bolsheviks crushed the anarchists. Anarchists in central Russia were either imprisoned, driven underground, or joined the victorious Bolsheviks. Anarchists from Petrograd and Moscow fled to
Ukraine. There, the
Makhnovshchina established an
autonomous region of four hundred square miles with a population of approximately seven million. Anarchists who had fought in the
Russian Civil War at first against the anti-Bolshevik
White Army now also fought the
Red Army,
Ukrainian People's Army, and the German and Austrian forces who fought under the
Treaty of Brest-Litovsk. This conflict culminated in the 1921
Kronstadt rebellion, a garrison in
Kronstadt where
Baltic Fleet sailors and citizens made demands for reforms. The new government suppressed the rebellion. The
Revolutionary Insurgent Army of Ukraine, led by
Nestor Makhno, continued to fight until August 1921 when it was crushed by the state only months after the Kronstadt rebellion.
Emma Goldman and
Alexander Berkman, who had been deported from the U.S. in 1917, were amongst those agitating in response to Bolshevik policy and the suppression of the Kronstadt uprising. Both wrote accounts of their experiences in Russia, criticising the amount of state control the Bolsheviks exercised. For them,
Mikhail Bakunin's predictions on the consequences of Marxist rule, that the leaders of the new socialist state would become the new ruling class, had proven true. In 1920,
Peter Kropotkin published a
Message to the Workers of the West explaining the false path of state socialism was doomed to fail. Disappointed with the course of events, Goldman and Berkman fled the USSR in 1921, the same year Kropotkin died. By 1925, anarchism was banned under the Bolshevik regime. The victory of the Bolsheviks in the October Revolution and the resulting Russian Civil War did serious damage to anarchist movements internationally. Many workers and activists saw the Bolsheviks' success as setting an example, and
communist parties grew at the expense of anarchism and other socialist movements. In France and the United States, for example, members of the major syndicalist movements of the
Confédération Générale du Travail (General Confederation of Labour) and
Industrial Workers of the World left these organisations to join the
Communist International. From the collapse of anarchism in the newly formed
Soviet Union, two anarchist trends arose. The first,
platformism, was propagated in the anarchist journal
Dielo Truda by a group of Russian exiles, including Nestor Makhno. Their main objective, as proponent Piotr Arsinov wrote, was to create a non-hierarchical party that would offer "common organisation of our forces on a basis of collective responsibility and collective methods of action". They considered that a lack of organisation was a basic reason of why anarchism had failed. Platformism had the purpose of providing a strategy for class struggle, as Bakunin and Kropotkin had suggested before. The other trend emerged as an organisational alternative to platformism, since it had similarities to party structure. Anarchist intellectual
Volin was one of the most notable opponents of platformism, and contributed to the formulation of what he called the
anarchist synthesis. During the
German Revolution of 1918–1919, anarchists
Gustav Landauer and
Erich Mühsam took important leadership positions within the revolutionary
councilist structures of the
Bavarian Soviet Republic. In Italy, the syndicalist trade union
Unione Sindacale Italiana (Italian Syndicalist Union), had half a million members. It played a prominent role in events known as the
Biennio Rosso ("Two Red Years") and
Settimana Rossa ("Red Week"). In the latter, the monarchy was almost overthrown. In
Mexico, the
Mexican Liberal Party was established and during the early 1910s it conducted a series of military offensives, leading to the conquest and occupation of certain towns and districts in
Baja California. Under the leadership of anarcho-communist
Ricardo Flores Magón, its slogan was (
'Land and Liberty'). Magón's journal ('Regeneration') had a significant circulation, and he helped urban workers turn to anarcho-syndicalism. He also influenced the
Zapata movement.
Ferdinando Nicola Sacco and Bartolomeo Vanzetti, two
insurrectionary anarchists and Italian migrants to the United States, were convicted of involvement in an
armed robbery and the
murders of two people in 1920. After a controversial trial and a series of appeals they were sentenced to death and executed on 23 August 1927. Following their deaths, critical opinion overwhelmingly held that the two men were convicted largely because of their anarchist political beliefs and were
unjustly executed. After the Sacco and Vanzetti case, and despite worldwide protests and mainstream media headlines, the anarchist movement faded in the United States.
Rise of fascism Italy saw the first struggles between anarchists and fascists.
Italian anarchists played a key role in the
anti-fascist organisation
Arditi del Popolo (The People's Daring Ones or AdP), which was strongest in areas with anarchist traditions. They achieved some success in their activism, such as repelling
Blackshirts in the anarchist stronghold of
Parma in August 1922. AdP saw growth after the
Socialist Party signed the
pacification pact with the fascists. AdP consisted of militant proletarians, anarchists, communists and even socialists. It numbered twenty-thousand members in 144 sections. The veteran Italian anarchist,
Luigi Fabbri, was one of the first critical theorists of fascism, describing it as "the preventive counter-revolution". Italian anarchists
Gino Lucetti and
Anteo Zamboni narrowly failed an assassination attempt against
Benito Mussolini. Italian anarchists formed various partisan groups during
World War II. In France, where the
far-right leagues came close to insurrection in the
February 1934 riots, anarchists divided over a
united front policy. One tendency was for the creation of a pack with political parties while others objected. In Spain, the
Confederación Nacional del Trabajo (National Confederation of Labour or CNT) initially refused to join a popular front electoral alliance. Abstention by their supporters led to a right-wing election victory. In 1936, the CNT changed its policy and anarchist votes helped bring the popular front back to power. Months later, the former ruling class responded with an attempted coup causing the
Spanish Civil War (1936–1939). In response to the army rebellion, an
anarchist-inspired movement of peasants and workers, supported by armed militias, took control of
Barcelona and large areas of rural Spain where they
collectivised the land. However, even before the fascist victory in 1939, the anarchists were losing ground in a bitter struggle with the
Stalinists, who controlled the distribution of military aid to the Republican cause from the
Soviet Union. Stalinist-led troops suppressed the collectives and persecuted both
dissident Marxists and anarchists. In Germany, the Nazis crushed anarchism upon seizing power. Apart from Spain, nowhere else could the anarchist movement provide a solid resistance to various fascist regimes throughout Europe.
Spanish Revolution The
Spanish Revolution of 1936 was the first and only time that
libertarian socialism became an imminent reality. It stood on the ground of a strong anarchist movement in Spain that dated back to the 19th century. Anarchist groups enjoyed broad social support particularly in Barcelona, Aragon, Andalusia, Levante. Anarchism in Spain leaned towards
syndicalism and this yielded to the formation of the Confederación Nacional del Trabajo (CNT) in 1910. The CNT declared that its aim was a libertarian
communist society and was organising strikes all over Spain. The
Federación Anarquista Ibérica (FAI) was founded later to keep CNT on a
pure anarchist path amidst dictator
Miguel Primo de Rivera's crackdown on labour movements. The
Second Spanish Republic was pronounced in 1931 and brought to power a Republican–Socialist alliance. But instead of the high hopes of the CNT (mostly among
gradualists) and others, the repression of the labour movement continued. FAI gained more control of CNT. In 1936, the
Popular Front (an electoral alliance dominated by left-wingers) won the elections and months later the former ruling class responded with an attempted coup causing the
Spanish Civil War (1936–1939). In response to the army rebellion, an anarchist-inspired movement of peasants and workers, supported by armed militias, took control of urban and large areas of rural Spain where they
collectivised the land. Barcelona was the site of the most dramatic change, as workers broke bourgeois habits and even gender hierarchies. Newly formed
anarcho-feminist group
Mujeres Libres (Free Women) had an active role in the social transformation in Barcelona. This rebellious culture impressed visitors such as
George Orwell. Enterprises and farms were collectivised, and working conditions improved drastically. In rural Aragon money was abolished and the economy was collectivised. Villages were run by popular assemblies in a direct democratic fashion, without coercing individuals to join. Anarchist militia columns, fighting without martial discipline or military rank, despite shortages in military materials, made significant gains at the war front. was renowned for his actions in the Spanish RevolutionAnarchists of CNT-FAI faced a major dilemma after the coup had failed in July 1936: either continue their fight against the state or join the anti-fascist left-wing parties and form a government. They opted for the latter and by November 1936, four members of CNT-FAI became ministers in the government of the former trade unionist
Francisco Largo Caballero. This was justified by CNT-FAI as a historical necessity since war was being waged, but other prominent anarchists disagreed, both on principle and as a tactical move. In November 1936 the prominent anarcho-feminist
Federica Montseny was installed as minister of Health—the first woman in Spanish history to become a cabinet minister. During the course of the events of the Spanish Revolution, anarchists were losing ground in a bitter struggle with the
Stalinists of the
Spanish Communist Party, who controlled the distribution of military aid to the Republicans received from the Soviet Union. Stalinist-led troops suppressed the collectives and persecuted both dissident Marxists and anarchists. The fight among anarchists and communists escalated during the
May Days, as the Soviet Union sought to control the Republicans. The 1939 defeat of
Republican Spain marked the end of anarchism's classical period. In light of continual anarchist defeats, one can argue about the naivety of 19th-century anarchist thinking—the establishment of state and capitalism was too strong to be destroyed. According to political philosophy professor
Ruth Kinna and lecturer Alex Prichard, it is uncertain whether these defeats were the result of a functional error within the anarchist theories, as
New Left intellectuals suggested some decades later, or the social context that prevented the anarchists from fulfilling their ambitions. What is certain, though, is that their critique of state and capitalism ultimately proved right, as the world was marching towards totalitarianism and fascism.
Anarchism in the colonial world As empires and capitalism were expanding at the turn of the century, so was anarchism which soon flourished in Latin America, East Asia, South Africa and Australia. Anarchism found fertile ground in Asia and was the most vibrant ideology among other socialist currents during the first decades of 20th century. The works of European philosophers, especially Kropotkin's, were popular among revolutionary youth. Intellectuals tried to link anarchism to earlier philosophical currents in Asia, like Taoism,
Buddhism and
neo-Confucianism. But the factor that contributed most to the rise of anarchism was industrialisation and the new capitalistic era that eastern Asia was entering. Young Chinese anarchists in the early days of the 20th century voiced the cause of revolutionary anarcho-communism along with humanism, belief in science and universalism in the journal
Hsin Shih-chi. Anarchism was growing in influence until the mid-1920s when Bolshevik successes seemed to indicate the way to communism. Likewise in Japan, anarcho-communists such as
Kōtoku Shūsui,
Osugi Sakae and
Hatta Shuzo were inspired by the works of westerners philosophers and opposed capitalism and the state. Shuzo created the school of "pure anarchism". Because of the industrial growth, anarcho-syndicalism also arose for a brief period, before communists prevailed among workers. Tokyo had been a hotspot for anarchist and revolutionary ideas which were circulating among Vietnamese, Korean and Chinese students who travelled to Japan to study. Socialists by then were enthusiastically supporting the idea of "social revolution" and anarchists were in full support of it. In Korea, anarchism took a different course. Korea was under
Japanese rule from 1910 to 1945 and in the early phases of that period, anarchists took part in national resistance, forming an anarchist zone in
Shinmin Manchuria from 1928 to 1931.
Kim Chwa-chin was a prominent figure of the movement. In India, anarchism did not thrive, partly because of its reputation for being violent. The fragile anarchist movement developed in India was more non-statist, rather than
anti-statist. Anarchism travelled to the
Eastern Mediterranean along with other radical secular ideas in the cosmopolitan
Ottoman Empire. Under the spell of Errico Malatesta, a group of
Egyptian anarchists imported anarchism to
Alexandria. It was in a transitional stage during that era, as industrialisation and urbanisation were transforming Egypt. Anarchist activity was spread along with other radical secular ideas within the Islamic Empire. In
Africa, anarchism appeared from within the continent. A large part of African society, mainly rural, was founded on
African communalism which was mostly
egalitarian. It had some anarchist elements, without class divisions, formal hierarchies and access to the means of production by all members of the localities. African Communalism was far from being an ideal anarchist society. Gender privileges were apparent, feudalism and slavery did exist in a few areas but not on a mass scale. Anarchism travelled to Latin America through European immigrants. The most impressive presence was in
Buenos Aires, but
Havana,
Lima,
Montevideo,
Rio de Janeiro,
Santos,
São Paulo as well saw the growth of anarchist pockets. Anarchists had a much larger impact on trade unions than their authoritarian left counterparts. In Argentina, Uruguay and Brazil, a strong anarcho-syndicalist current was formed—partly because of the rapid industrialisation of these countries. In 1905, anarchists took control of the Argentine Regional Workers' Federation (FORA) in Argentina, overshadowing social democrats. Likewise, in Uruguay, FORU was created by anarchists in 1905. These syndicates organised a series of general strikes in the following years. After this the success of the Bolsheviks, anarchism gradually declined in these three countries which had been the strongholds of anarchism in Latin America. It is worth noting that the notion of imported anarchism in Latin America has been challenged, as slave rebellions appeared in Latin America before the arrival of European anarchists. Anarchists became involved in the anti-colonial national-independence struggles of the early 20th century. Anarchism inspired anti-authoritarian and egalitarian ideals among national independence movements, challenging the nationalistic tendencies of many national liberation movements. ==Individualist anarchism==