History is rife with conflicts; revolutions, assassinations, controversies, and wars. Some conflicts, such as revolutions, begin due to noble causes. Two leaders, Mohandas Gandhi and Ho Chi Minh, from India and Vietnam respectively, fought for independence from those that sought to oppress them. However, both of them used different methods to achieve their ends. Their independence movements took place even before the United Nations made their stand against colonialism in 1960, stating, "All peoples have the right to self-determination; by virtue of that right they freely determine their political status and freely pursue their economic, social and cultural development."
Mohandas Gandhi was a leader who used passive resistance, a non-violent way to protest against India's colonists, the British Empire. He describe his method as "a method of securing rights by personal suffering". He also used acts of civil disobedience to cement his point, as shown by the Salt March in 1930, as making salt was banned by the British. He said that by doing this protest, he was "shaking the foundations of the British Empire". He chose to use salt as it was an important part of Indian life and culture, and though the Indians could make salt using the…show more content… Nkrumah said that the awakening of the masses against their colonists was the "most significant happening of the 20th century". Nelson Mandela, the first black president of South Africa, also used civil disobedience to achieve his goals. However, after the Sharpeville massacre in 1960, Mandela created the "Umkhanto we Sizwe", or "Spear of the Nation", and turned to violence as the means to end apartheid and achieve independence, saying that equal rights and harmony for all races in South Africa was "an ideal for which he was prepared to