Editing 1970s (section)

===International conflicts===
[[File:1979 Iranian Revolution.jpg|thumb|right|upright|[[1979 Iranian Revolution]]]]
The most notable International conflicts of the decade include:
* Major conflict between capitalist and communist forces in multiple countries, while attempts are made by the Soviet Union and the United States to lessen the chance for conflict, such as both countries endorsing nuclear nonproliferation.
* In June 1976, peaceful student protests in the [[Soweto]] township of South Africa by black students against the use of Afrikaans in schools led to the [[Soweto uprising]] which killed more than 176 people, overwhelmingly by South Africa's [[Security Police]].<ref name="Harrison 1987">{{cite book|title=The White Tribe of AKHONA ZULU Africa|year=1987|first=David|last=Harrison}}</ref>
* Rise of separatism in the province of [[Quebec]] in Canada. In 1970, radical [[Quebec nationalism|Quebec nationalist]] and [[Marxism|Marxist]] militants of the ''[[Front de libération du Québec]]'' (FLQ) kidnapped the Quebec labour minister [[Pierre Laporte]] and British Trade Commissioner [[James Cross]] during the [[October Crisis]], resulting in Laporte being killed, and the enactment of [[martial law]] in Canada under the [[War Measures Act]], resulting in a campaign by the Canadian government which arrests suspected FLQ supporters. The election of the ''[[Parti Québécois]]'' led by [[René Lévesque]] in the province of [[Quebec]] in Canada, brings the first political party committed to Quebec independence into power in Quebec. Lévesque's government pursues an agenda to secede Quebec from Canada by democratic means and strengthen Francophone Québécois culture in the late 1970s, such as the controversial [[Charter of the French Language]] more commonly known in Quebec and Canada as "Bill 101".
* [[Martial law under Ferdinand Marcos|Martial law]] was declared in the Philippines on September 21, 1972, by [[President of the Philippines|dictator]] [[Ferdinand Marcos]].
* In Cambodia, the communist leader [[Pol Pot]] led a revolution against the American-backed government of [[Lon Nol]]. On April 17, 1975, Pot's forces captured [[Phnom Penh]], the capital, two years after America had halted the bombings of their positions. His communist government, the [[Khmer Rouge]], forced people out of the cities to clear jungles and establish a radical, Marxist agrarian society. Buddhist priests and monks, along with anyone who spoke foreign languages, had any sort of education, or even wore glasses were tortured or killed. As many as 3 million people may have died. Vietnam [[Vietnamese invasion of Cambodia|invaded the country]] at the start of 1979, overthrowing the Khmer Rouge and installing a [[People's Republic of Kampuchea|satellite government]]. This provoked a brief, but furious [[Sino-Vietnamese War|border war with China]] in February of that year.
* The [[Iranian Revolution]] of 1979 transformed Iran from an autocratic pro-Western monarchy under Shah [[Mohammad Reza Pahlavi]] to a [[theocracy|theocratic]] [[Islamist]] government under the leadership of [[Ayatollah]] [[Ruhollah Khomeini]]. Distrust between the revolutionaries and Western powers led to the [[Iran hostage crisis]] on November 4, 1979, where 66 diplomats, mainly from the United States, were held captive for 444 days.
* Growing internal tensions take place in [[Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia|Yugoslavia]] beginning with the [[Croatian Spring]] movement in 1971 which demands greater decentralization of power to the constituent republics of Yugoslavia. Yugoslavia's communist ruler [[Joseph Broz Tito]] subdues the Croatian Spring movement and arrests its leaders, but does initiate major constitutional reform resulting in the [[1974 Yugoslav Constitution|1974 Constitution]] which decentralized powers to the republics, gave them the official right to separate from Yugoslavia, and weakened the influence of Serbia (Yugoslavia's largest and most populous constituent republic) in the federation by granting significant powers to the Serbian autonomous provinces of Kosovo and [[Vojvodina]]. In addition, the 1974 Constitution consolidated Tito's dictatorship by proclaiming him president-for-life. The 1974 Constitution would become resented by Serbs and began a gradual escalation of ethnic tensions.