First Jewish–Roman War
The Great Revolt of Judea marked the beginning of the Jewish–Roman wars, which radically changed the Eastern Mediterranean and had a crucial impact on the development of the Roman Empire and the Jews. Despite the defeat of the Great Revolt, tensions continued to build in the region. With the Parthian threat from the East, major Jewish communities throughout the Eastern Mediterranean revolted in 117 CE. The revolt, known as the Kitos War, while poorly-organized, was extremely violent and took two years for the Roman armies to subdue. Although only the final chapter of the Kitos War was fought in Judea, the revolt is considered part of the Jewish–Roman Wars. The immense number of casualties during the Kitos War depopulated Cyrenaica and Cyprus and also reduced Jewish and Greco-Roman populations in the region. The final conflict in the Jewish–Roman Wars erupted in 132 CE in Judea, led by Simon bar Kokhba. Although Bar Kokhba was initially successful against Roman forces and established a short-lived state, the eventual Roman effort defeated Bar Kokhba's rebels. The result was an almost complete genocide of the Jews, a ban on Judaism, and the renaming of the province from Judea to Syria Palaestina. Although Hadrian's death (in 137 CE) eased restrictions and persecution of the Jews, the survivors of his campaign were not many. Only a small Jewish community of several thousand survived in Galilee, with smaller communities in other parts of the Mediterranean.
Democracy Wall
In 1966, when Mao Zedong launched the Great Proletariat Cultural Revolution, millions of middle school, high school, and college students answered Mao's call, organized as the "Red Guards" to rebel and root out the "capitalist roaders" in the Chinese Communist Party. But, in 1969, for restoring the social order, Mao launched the "Down to the Countryside Movement" to exile the "Red Guards" to rural areas. This movement caused a lot of red guards to feel abandoned by Mao.
In 1971, Lin Biao's attempted coup and death deeply shook the people's faith on Mao and the Cultural Revolution. On November 19, 1974, Li Yizhe's paper appeared on a wall in Guangdong Province. The 67 pages of the paper focused on: (1) Damage to the citizens caused by bureaucratic corruptions of the Chinese Communist Party during the Cultural Revolution; and (2) the need to practice democracy and a legal system in China. This big character poster proved that people started to re-evaluate the Cultural Revolution and political system of China.