Organizations are often a way for like-minded individuals to get together and discuss the topics which interest them. They may also begin with loftier goals, and they may even work toward them to the benefit of others. Or these groups may end up as little more than social clubs for their members.

Sometimes, these societies take on negative connotations, with nefarious plans to influence worldwide politics being a common accusation leveled against them. Other times, they’re just a way to engage in some fun-filled activities. Here are ten odd organizations of which you’ve probably never heard.

10 The Alfalfa Club

Founded by four men at the Willard Hotel in Washington, DC, the Alfalfa Club derives its name from the plant. To be more specific, the name comes from the plant’s roots, since they “will allegedly do anything for a drink.”^[1] In addition, a possibly apocryphal story tells that it was created in 1913 to celebrate Robert E. Lee’s birthday. A society made up of only super-wealthy or super-influential people, it boasts around 200 members, with vacancies only opening up when a current member dies. New members must be invited.

As for what they actually do, it seems they exist solely to throw an annual banquet dinner on the last Saturday of January. The president of the United States is traditionally invited to give a speech, with some of them coming more than once. In 2009, at his first invite, President Barack Obama said the following: “This dinner began almost 100 years ago as a way to celebrate the birthday of General Robert E. Lee. If he were here with us tonight, the General would be 202 years old. And very confused.”

For the first 80 or so years, the Alfalfa Club refused to admit women into the ranks, a decision which was changed in 1994, after President Bill Clinton boycotted in protest.

9 The Dill Pickle Club

Though it has since disbanded, the Dill Pickle Club was formed in 1914 and was the brainchild of a man named Archibald “Jack” Jones. Jones was a Canadian organizer for the Industrial Workers of the World, a union dedicated to protecting workers. After leaving the group because of an argument over their tactics, he decided to start a society for people to discuss labor and societal issues.^[2]

Some of the most famous figures in Chicago’s history were patrons, including Upton Sinclair and Clarence Darrow. Once Prohibition began, it also became a speakeasy, increasingly popular with younger people, especially those in college. Performance, whether artistic or musical, only added to the appeal of the Dill Pickle Club. However, by the early 1930s, Jones decided to no longer pay protection money to the mob, and the group was subsequently shut down by the police.

The spirit of the group can be summed up by its entrance signage: the word “Danger” and, written on the door, “Step High, Stoop Low, Leave Your Dignity Outside.”

8 The UK Roundabout Appreciation Society

A relatively obscure British organization, the UK Roundabout Appreciation Society (UKRAS) does exactly what it says on the tin: They are a society which appreciates roundabouts.^[3] Operating under the belief that nothing but straight roads leads to unsightly boredom, they propose installing roundabouts wherever possible, as well as using the land in the middle of the roundabout to place a piece of art, a monument, or even a windmill. In fact, a roundabout with a working windmill was named the best in Britain by UKRAS.

Founded by Kevin Beresford, after the success of a calendar called “Best of British Roundabouts” he printed in 2003, the group goes out of their way to photograph the most interesting roundabouts they find. Fun fact: Beresford’s nickname is “Lord of the Rings.”

7 The Trap Door Spiders

In 1943, American scientist and writer John D. Clark got married to an opera singer. Unfortunately, his friends, chief among them writer Fletcher Pratt, disliked her; Pratt’s disdain for the new Mrs. Clark was so bad that he started a male-only club in order to hang out with Mr. Clark alone.^[4] Thus, the Trap Door Spiders were born. They derived their name from the actions of the trapdoor spider, which pulls a door closed whenever it enters its burrow in order to keep its enemies out. (The chief enemy was Mrs. Clark.)

The original group was about 20 members, all male, and they met once a month to have dinner and discuss topics of the day. (Women could be invited as guests but only by the host of the dinner.) Like some of the other organizations on this list, a common way to become a member was to be voted in after an existing member died. Some of the most prominent science fiction writers of their day were members, with Isaac Asimov, Martin Gardner, and L. Sprague de Camp being some of the more famous attendees. (In fact, Asimov’s fictional group the Black Widowers was modeled after the Trap Door Spiders.)

6 The Seven Society

An incredibly secretive group, the University of Virginia’s Seven Society and its origins are shrouded in mystery. They have a logo which is the number seven, surrounded by the signs for alpha, omega, and infinity. (The first official sighting of the symbol was in 1905, in UVA’s yearbook Corks & Curls.) As for its members, no one is sure who is in the club, and they are only revealed after their deaths, when a banner appears at a member’s funeral. (The University Chapel bells, donated by the Seven Society, will also toll in a pattern based around the number seven.)

Their only real public presence is the fact they seem to be incredibly generous, often giving away money in extravagant ways.^[5] During the commencement address in 1947, a small explosion took place near the stage, with a check for $177,777.77 floating to the ground. (The money was used to establish an interest-free loan fund for any student, faculty, or staff member who found themselves in financial trouble.) Other donations included $77.77 to install a drinking fountain in 1955 and $14,777.77 in 2008 to start a fund for student-submitted ideas for improving UVA.

5 The Gormogons

Officially known as the Ancient and Noble Order of the Gormogons, this particular secret society sprang up in 1724, when an article in London’s Daily Post described their appearance in the city.^[6] They claimed to have come from the Chinese, millennia in the past, and their goal seemed to be to set themselves up as anti-Freemasons. In fact, if a former Freemason wished to join the group, he had to first renounce the Masonic Order.

Since they left no paperwork or writings of any kind, the origins and practices of the Gormogons are all but surely lost to history. One theory is that the group was the creation of Andrew Michael Ramsay, an ardent Freemason otherwise known as the Chevalier Ramsay. Whatever the truth, they disappeared in 1738, the very same year Pope Clement XII published his bull against Freemasonry.

4 The Trilateral Commission

Finally! Our first secretive, pulling-the-levers-of-global-politics, conspiracy-laden group. Founded in 1973 by David Rockefeller, allegedly after his fellow members in the infamous Bilderberg Group refused to include Japanese members in the club, the Trilateral Commission was designed to foster cooperation between the leaders of Japan, Europe, Canada, and the United States. Rockefeller, as well as the other co-founders, saw problems with the status quo, believing the various countries that make up the Trilateral Commission would benefit from a focus on solving their common problems.^[7]

Originally, the group was only going to be around for three years, a triennium, but their work has been subsequently extended for additional periods up to the present day. Since its creation, the various regions have been grown to include countries such as China, India, and Mexico. Conspiracy theorists often point to the group, as they do with similar organizations, as leading the charge for a worldwide government or economic system. (This is probably due to the fact that many of the most prominent political or private industry leaders have been or are members of the group.)

3 The Durham University Assassins’ Society

Durham University, located in North East England, is home to a UNESCO World Heritage Site (Durham Castle) and, perhaps a bit less well-known, the Durham University Assassins’ Society (DUAS). Founded in 1996, DUAS is one of the oldest, as well as one of the most active, assassins’ societies in the world.^[8] They run a number of different “games” throughout the school year, ranging in duration from a few hours to a few weeks. The “games” consist of players attempting to “kill” other players, normally with a Nerf gun or a cardboard knife.

DUAS even gives out awards to its members, many of them relatively silly, such as the Stephen King Award for Best Narration, which, one year, went to Millie Power for using poetry in her kill reports. In addition, there are an incredible amount of rules, with amazing specificity, with which members play the “games.”

2 Uttar Pradesh Association Of Dead People

In 1975, a man named Lal Bihari applied for a bank loan in his home district of Uttar Pradesh, India, only to be denied. When he asked for the reason, the bank told him he must have been lying about his identity because Lal Bihari had been declared dead. So began an 18-year journey to prove he wasn’t really dead. (It turned out that his uncle had bribed an official in order to take over Bihari’s share of his ancestral farmland.)

After making little to no headway, Bihari sought out others like him. He eventually found a large underground collection of people and decided to form the Uttar Pradesh Association of Dead People. Their main goal is to force the government to recognize they are alive, something which often goes hand in hand with reinstating land which was illegally taken from them by corrupt politicians and crooked family members.^[9] In addition to attracting thousands of fellow Indians to his group, Bihari also received the Ig Noble Peace Prize in 2003.

1 The Hemlock Society

Founded in 1980 by Derek Humphry in his Santa Monica garage, the Hemlock Society became one of the largest right-to-die organizations in the US. Their overriding philosophy was that people should be allowed to legally end their own lives, through the use of doctor-prescribed medication.^[10] (They did not believe in suicide for emotional reasons, just for those with terminal or untreatable illnesses.) Though they never officially helped anyone commit suicide, various members have helped in the past with other members. (Some people dispute this claim, citing descriptions of poisons and lethal levels found in past literature.)

Their name is derived from the story of the Greek philosopher Socrates’s death, in which he drank poison hemlock. Membership levels in the group plateaued in the 1990s before other like-minded groups sprang up, and the levels began to decline. In 2003, perhaps feeling as if a rebranding was in order, the group changed its name to End of Life Choices, before merging with a new organization called Compassion & Choices a year later. (They also got rid of their old motto: “Good life, good death.”)

Secret societies have interested people for a very long time, which makes sense; mysterious groups who remain hidden are understandably intriguing. However, they’re often seen as evil, corrupt, or insidious institutions that intend to do harm to humanity. From the Masons to the Illuminati, conspiracy theorists openly deride such fraternities (whether real or fictional) and claim that they control the world or would at least like to. Here are 10 secret societies that go against that nefarious stereotype, instead having been founded for a good cause.

10 Whiteboys

Formed in Ireland in the 18th century, the Whiteboys were a secret peasant group, bound by secret oaths and known by elaborate pseudonyms, who rebelled against the way that farmers and laborers were being treated by the establishment. Their name derived from group members’ tendency to wear white shirts and the fact they were exclusively young males.

The Whiteboys would proclaim new “laws” that wages were to be increased, tithes were to be reduced, or some other act to help the workers. If these laws were disregarded by the authorities, then the Whiteboys would enforce them through violence, intimidation, and destruction of property. Sometimes, they would even dig graves and place coffins on public roads as a sign of what was to come if the landowners did not change their ways and support the rural poor.

9 E Clampus Vitus

Sounding far more serious than it actually is, E Clampus Vitus is a fraternal society which has its origins in the 19th-century American Gold Rush. It is believed to have been created to poke fun at the actual secret societies that were spreading throughout the West at the time and is essentially a group that promotes alternative local history and having fun—so it’s not your average fraternity.

In good keeping with their original purpose, which was to provide miners with some humorous relief from panning for gold, the “Clampers” mocked institutions such as the Odd Fellows and the Masons with absurd initiation ceremonies. Even their name is a joke, since E Clampus Vitus is not actually Latin, and reportedly, nobody knows what it means. These days, they spend their time putting up plaques for places forgotten by more serious historians, such as saloons and bawdy houses.

8 Family Of Love

A little-known secret society founded in Holland in 1539 with a rather corny name, the Family of Love was a religious movement which sought to aid the poor and believed that religion was about the experience of divine love, not simply belief in one set of doctrines instead of another.

This lack of belief in one particular set of scriptures was quite powerful at a time when Europe was split between Catholicism and Protestantism. Having taken hold in England, the Family of Love was soon outlawed by Queen Elizabeth I, who ordered all adherents to be imprisoned and books to be burnt. Yet, it had a lasting influence on the development of the Quakers, a movement into which the Family of Love was eventually assimilated.

7 Mau Mau

African secret societies are rarely mentioned, and this one certainly deserves more attention than it gets. Mau Mau was a Kenyan nationalist society that originated in the 1950s and engaged in ritual initiations inspired by belief in magic. Unfortunately, Mau Mau’s adherents ended up perpetrating brutal crimes and a great deal of violence, starting an uprising which resulted in the deaths of thousands.

However, it should be noted that Mau Mau was formed to challenge the perceived cruelty of British colonialism in Kenya, and its members’ desperation, hunger, illness, and exploitation was the basis for their violence. Only a few years after this society disappeared, Kenya finally became independent in 1963, and its first president was reported to be a member of Mau Mau.

6 Patrons Of Husbandry

Better known as the Grange, the Patrons of Husbandry was founded as a national agricultural fraternity in 1867 in the United States. Formed along Masonic lines with oaths, passwords and closed meetings, it was alleged that they were essentially controlled by Freemasons and Odd Fellows. However, the Grange, unusual for its time, permitted women to become members, distinguishing it from other, similar organizations.

After a period of rapid expansion due to the Panic of 1873, the Grange became large enough to set up schools, lobbying for causes such as free trade, railroad regulation, and better education. From a peak of over 850,000 in the 1950s, the membership today has fallen to nearly 200,000, perhaps due to the fact that only two percent of Americans are now farmers.

5 The French Resistance

By far the most famous group on this list, it’s often forgotten that the French Resistance was a secret society, at least in some ways. After all, they opposed the Germans in Nazi-occupied France from within the country, something which could only be done in secret. The term “French Resistance” encompasses a broad range of different organizations that existed to fight the Nazis, some choosing to use violence and others deciding instead to spread underground newspapers and broadcast anti-German radio programs.

Led by Charles de Gaulle, who commanded them from the United Kingdom, the Resistance remained secretive and was central to the liberation of France. Regularly carrying out missions of sabotage against railways and intelligence gathering, membership is estimated to have been around 100,000, made up of nine different underground networks, by 1944. Around 50,000 French Resistance fighters were captured by the Nazis and sent to prison camps, of which half never returned.

4 The Order Of Chaeronea

It is well-known that homosexuality has been repressed throughout history, and it is only recently that some parts of the world have fully accepted it. In 1897 in London, a man named George Cecil Ives sought to create a secret society that would allow homosexual men to communicate and gather support for their cause, safe from the rejection and disdain of society.

The Order of Chaeronea’s hard-to-pronounce name comes from the location of an ancient battle in 338 BC, but it remains important in the 21st century. Perhaps the most famous member of the Order was Oscar Wilde, who was imprisoned on charges of homosexuality.

3 Sons Of Liberty

The Sons of Liberty was a patriotic secret society that fought against British colonial rule in America and helped to pave the way for the Boston Tea Party. Initially known as the Loyal Nine when they protested against the Stamp Tax in December 1765, they got their name from words spoken by an Irish MP when debating that very act.

There are countless famous names associated with this society, including Benedict Arnold, John Hancock, Samuel Adams, and Paul Revere. Although women had little political empowerment at the time, they were actively encouraged to become “Daughters of Liberty” and join the cause against the British Empire.

The Sons of Liberty organized acts of resistance by stockpiling guns, using tactics of mob rule and intimidation, and even methods such as tarring and feathering. As history shows, they got what they wanted in the end.

2 Grand Order Of Water Rats

The charitable fraternity known as the Grand Order of Water Rats was founded by two British musicians in the late 19th century, after they decided that the profits won by their prize racing pony should be used to help struggling performers less fortunate than themselves.

Their rather unimpressive name stems from one occasion when their pony was soaked in the rain, and a nearby bus driver called it a “bleedin’ water rat.” The story goes that because “rats” is “star” spelled backward, and “vole” is an anagram of “love” (the water rat being a type of vole), the name “Water Rats” would embody the society’s desire to bring people together with love and friendship.

However unlikely that may sound, the self-styled “brotherhood” has a long list of very famous members, including Charlie Chaplin, Laurel and Hardy, and Brian May, all of whom have joined in the Grand Order’s cause to help other performers through charitable work.

1 Royal Society

The oldest national scientific society in the world, the Royal Society was founded in London in 1660 as the “Invisible College for the promoting of Physico-Mathematical Experimental Learning.” It was likely “invisible” because of the English Civil War. The society had tried to form in the past, but in 1658, they were disbanded when soldiers stormed their meeting rooms. Yet this group did eventually gain a royal charter from King Charles II, hence the Royal’ in their name.

Despite these turbulent beginnings (and early attempts to discover whether a spider could be trapped in a circle of ground unicorn horns), the Royal Society is far less secret than it once was and has gone on to spread knowledge throughout the world. It boasts an impressive list of members which includes Stephen Hawking, Alan Turing, and Albert Einstein, among many more.

He’s from a flat place with a big sky. Gotta fill all that sky with something, so he filled it with his dreams.

Prince Harry has finally published his long-awaited memoir, Spare, and as one can expect from anything slathered with royal honey, it’s selling like hotcakes. The book is supposed to tell his side of the story, how his family’s rule has shaped him, his time at war, and his well-documented exit from royalty hand in hand with his polarizing American wife.

For Harry, there was likely an incredible financial incentive and the promise of riches that would probably have never come had he remained a backup to the throne his entire life. His story proves that every so often, a person is scorned by an organization they were once part of and even loved, only to turn their backs against that very institution, telling their story and outing secrets that were never meant for the public eye.

Here are ten examples of members of secret societies who have spilled the beans.

Related: Top 10 Things Possibly Hidden In The Vatican Secret Archives

10 John Robison—Freemasons

A scientist with a long-established reputation in the British scientific community, John Robison was also a professor at Edinburgh University and an authority on mathematics and optics. In the late 1700s, Robison was also the author of Proofs of a Conspiracy against all the Religions and Governments of Europe, a book about the reach of the Freemasons. In particular, it focused on a Masonic cell—a source of hundreds and thousands of ominous conspiracy theories—the Illuminati. As a Mason himself, he had insider information about the workings of the organization and wrote about it all. As you might expect, the first edition sold out shortly after release and was published many times after that.

From Edinburgh, he witnessed the fall of the French monarchy and the dispossessing of the church as well as the entire French Revolution. This, he subsequently blamed on the Freemasons, suggesting that all the agents involved in the revolution were mere pawns in a much bigger game with ambitious ends.^[1]

9 Ed Decker—Mormon Church

Born in 1935, Ed Decker was a member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints (or LDS Church) before he became a prominent member of the Christian group for ex-Mormons called Saints Alive in Jesus. Considered one of the most influential people with regard to the Mormon Church, Decker (in collaboration with Dave Hunt) penned a book known as The God Makers in which he exposed the inner workings of the church.

Decker’s relationship with the Mormon Church waned when he was exposed to the beliefs of other groups critical of Mormonism. He decided he could no longer live according to the premise that its founder, Joseph Smith, was called upon by God to restore pure Christianity to the world.^[2]

8 Stetson Kennedy—the KKK

Stetson Kennedy, a writer who documented life in the Depression era, produced a book showcasing the inner mechanisms of the notorious Ku Klux Klan. The work he was most known for, a book known as The Klan Unmasked, which hit the shelves in 1954, was set in motion in the 1940s when he set himself the goal of exposing the organization and its efforts to terrorize black citizens in the region.

In this book, he exposed many things that were not known to the public before then, like their folklore, secret handshakes, and passwords, as well as mocking their white sheet attire. With evidence collected from the grand dragon himself, he provided the IRS with enough information to press for collecting a $685,000 tax lien from the Klan. He also provided assistance with the drafting of a brief used by the state of Georgia to revoke the Klan’s national corporate charter and also testified in other Klan-related cases. Kennedy passed away at the age of 94 after decades of tormenting Klansmen.^[3]

7 Heinrich Himmler—Nazis

The architect of the Holocaust, the right-hand man of Adolf Hitler himself, kept a diary. Diaries kept by Himmler, compiled by Himmler’s assistant, covered most of the war and were discovered in 2013. Although Himmler did not technically “spill the beans,” as the title of the article suggests, they do provide a sobering account of one of history’s most vile men.

The diaries include over a thousand pages documenting day-to-day life, executions of Nazi-allied officers in Poland who refused to fight, and other details all the way to the Final Solution. They add depth to the understanding of Himmler’s character and the atrocious acts he gave the order for. One particular such order was to equip Auschwitz concentration camp with new guard dogs that could rip the prisoners apart. The diaries are personal and do not give insight into his emotional well-being or his relationships, but is that really necessary?^[4]

6 Jeannie Mills—People’s Temple

Jeannie Mills, her husband Al, and their two children left the People’s Temple in 1974. Previously known as Elmer and Deanna Mertla, they rose to positions of responsibility within the ranks of the church, with Deanna serving as the head of the Temple’s publication office and Elmer as their official photographer. After they left the church, the husband and wife pairing became two of the most vocal critics, also founding the Human Freedom Center, which acted as a refuge for other defectors from the temple. After the Jonestown tragedy, the center offered itself as a place to go for survivors.

In February 1980, the couple, along with their daughter (15 years old at the time), were murdered in their home in Berkley, igniting rumors that a death squad made up of previous members of the church had taken their lives. Evidence later showed that the sole survivor of the ordeal, their son Eddie Mills, was perhaps not as innocent as initially suggested, quelling some fears about the church death squads.^[5]

5 Leah Remini—Scientology

Known for her supporting role in the popular sitcom King of Queens, Leah Remini was also a member of the Church of Scientology. Brought into the church at the young age of eight when her mother converted, Remini’s decision to leave the church ultimately came down to her own nine-year-old daughter. One month after her exit from the group, Remini filed a missing person’s report for Scientology leader David Miscavige’s wife, Shelly, who has not been seen since 2007.

Since then, she has been an active opponent of the ideologies of the church and throws her weight behind cases against its members. She also produced a show about the inner workings of the religion called Leah Remini: Scientology and the Aftermath.^[6]

4 India and Catherine Oxenberg—NXIVM

Catherine and her daughter India signed up for NXIVM classes that were advertised as workshops to develop their entrepreneurial skills. It was at these workshops that India was recruited into a secret society within the organization, which ultimately ruined her relationship with her mother. It took the pair seven years to free themselves from the sex cult. Catherine eventually penned a memoir about her experience trying to save her daughter from the cult-like group to no avail.

India eventually saw the folly in her ways. The group founder, Keith Raniere, was found guilty of racketeering, sex trafficking, and possession of child pornography in connection with the group.^[7]

3 Janja Lalich—Democratic Workers Party

The Democratic Workers Party (DWP) was created in the U.S. in the 1970s by a collective of women led by Marlene Dixon. The party was one of the more controversial attempts to create a Marxist-Leninist party in the U.S., which championed sectarianism toward the forces on the left. The organization disbanded in 1985, but not before establishing a cult-like following for their primitive conception of Leninism and the Leninist party.

One of the party members and defectors, Janja Lalich, joined the DWP and was exposed to a range of strange requests and rules by which the party controlled her income and cut her off from her family entirely. She was ordered to pick a name and burn her belongings and was taken to book for spending time with her dying mother. Lalich has since become a sociologist and writer and has written numerous books about cults and coercion, exposing how these organizations work and recruit.^[8]

2 Joe Valachi—The Mafia (aka Cosa Nostra)

Joe Valachi, an American gangster who turned state informer in 1962, held a high rank in the Mafia, equivalent to that of sergeant, and was a member of the Lucky Luciano’s mob family. Convicted of drug-related charges and sentenced to prison, Valachi received the promise of death from Vito Genovese. In a flat panic, Valachi killed a fellow prisoner in paranoia-induced rage, then opened up about the entire organization to the U.S. Bureau of Narcotics and Dangerous Drugs, the FBI, the Department of Justice, and the U.S. Senate in retaliation to the death threats he received.

Considered one of the most influential informants in organized crime history, Valachi was on a mission to destroy the underworld that had betrayed him and put a $100,000 bounty on his head. He had lost his wife and his mob family, and consumed with guilt, he relied on government protection to keep him alive until his final days when a heart attack finally killed the rat.^[9]

1 Carlos Lehder—Medellín Drug Cartel

Lehder, who dipped his toes into the criminal underbelly by smuggling stolen cars into Canada and the American East Coast, which led to his incarceration, quickly made friends with the wrong people. He soon became a key player in the cocaine import business, persuading Goerge Jung to use planes to transport the drugs. Fast forward a few years when Lehder had worked his way up the ranks of the Medellín cartel, where he fell out of favor with the notorious Pablo Escobar. He was arrested shortly after that and sentenced to life in prison.

Authorities agreed to reduce Lehder’s jail term on the condition that he testify against former Panamanian leader Manuel Noriega, who had ties with the Medellín cartel and allowed them to ship cocaine through Panama. Lehder was placed under witness protection and eventually released from prison after serving his reduced sentence. He was deported to Germany, where he held citizenship through his father.^[10]

We’re quite used to the clean historical model of humans evolving from some manner of uncivilized, famished, desperate individuals to the well-nourished and civilized beings we know today. We’ve progressed from a series of despotisms into sophisticated republics, democracies, collectives, and so on.

Except it’s not that simple. Many times through history a society was brought down by enemies without, or subversives within. The ramifications of these regressions inevitably ripple out through the rest of the human race, even if the effects aren’t immediately obvious. So it would be best for us to get better acquainted with times when societies reversed progress in terms of technology, culture, or organization.   

10. The Ascent of Caesars 

Because Julius Caesar and Augustus Caesar both have developed a degree of personality cult since their reigns, it is easy to think they were unalloyed blessings for the Roman Empire. It’s been said of Augustus in particular that he found Rome a city of bricks and left it a city of marble. However, the lower classes of Rome actually had plenty of reason to curse the arrival of Emperor Augustus; even those who weren’t particularly invested in the concept of a senate. 

For one thing, according to Michael Parenti’s A People’s History of Ancient Rome, Augustus passed sales and death taxes which only impacted the poor or working classes. He eradicated the popular assemblies, which had brought some degree of popular representation when even the senate was proving unmanageably corrupt. As if that were not devastating enough to the working class, he also banned many guilds. The final nail in the coffin of the idea Augustus had any populist inclination was his legal restrictions on the number of slaves that an owner was allowed to free, lest free labor receive too much bargaining power. Little wonder that for all the marble construction he was supposedly overseeing, Augustus’s reign was still replete with poverty and plague.   

9. The Rise of Pinochet

In 1973, democratically-elected president Salvador Allende committed suicide in response to a CIA-backed coup. In his place rose General Augusto Pinochet, bringing a decades-long wave of terror with him. In all, an estimated 3,000 people were murdered in his coup d’etat, including a famous widespread practice of dropping 120 people from helicopters. In terms of specific cultural regression, Pinochet was so vocally anti-feminist that women of the Association of Families of the Detained-Disappeared were instrumental in ousting Pinochet from the presidency in 1990. 

Pinochet had very little compunction about biting the American hand that fed him. In 1976 he had former Chilean ambassador Orlando Letelier assassinated in Washington DC. Even as late as 1986 he was openly rejecting advice from the Reagan Administration to implement human rights, saying to General John Galvin he would “set Chile’s course without advice without anyone else.” Ambassador Harry Barnes would refer to the dictator who oversaw the deaths of so many Chileans and the revoking of rights for so many others as a “Chilean Archie Bunker.” Such is the banality of evil. 

8. Panic of 1873

The period of American history between the Civil War’s end in 1865 and, roughly, the Spanish-American War of 1898 is prone to being skimmed over in high school history classes. One thing that gets skipped over as a result is when America plunged into its first depression, largely a result of the gigantic railroad financing Jay Cooke & Co. declaring bankruptcy in 1873. They took 18,000 companies nationwide down with them, and by 1876 unemployment would peak at 14%. The economic fallout of that would last until 1877, and it would actually impact Europe longer, with France in particular having an economic slowdown that lasted until 1879. 

This happened during a period of increased labor organization in the US. In the state of California in particular, Chinese immigrants were blamed for making the money pit railroads possible and for undercutting wages, and so widespread atrocities sprang up, such as the attack on San Francisco’s Chinatown. The anti-Chinese fallout would outlast the depression, so that in 1882 the Chinese Exclusion Act would be signed into law. The union laborers fared little better, as federal troops were sent to break up or even shoot at strikes, resulting in more than 100 laborer deaths. In the former Confederate states, the redirection of Federal resources meant the Ku Klux Klan was able to resume its campaigns of terror against Black populations with full force, resulting in, arguably, America losing its reconstruction. In short, nothing endangers progress like an economic disaster.  

7. Thirty Years War

One of the most destructive wars in European history, the Thirty Years War effectively began in 1618 when Holy Roman Emperor Ferdinand II tried to reimpose Catholic dominion on Austria and Bohemia. After five years he more or less succeeded, but the struggle left Germany vulnerable to invasion from King Christian IV of Sweden, and it went in like fashion until the Treaty of Westphalia in 1648. The Holy Roman Empire lost grievously, as the war had alienated much of Europe to the concept of a centralized religious authority in favor of secularized nation-states. Even more horribly impacted was Germany. 

In addition to the many deaths from war, plague and famine which would cost regions in what would become Germany as much as 40% of their populations due to devastation and raids by unpaid mercenary armies, many governments of Middle Europe often became effectively non-viable. Germany broke up into 300 principalities. With each having its own expensive administration, the level of costs for government services rose at a much faster rate than could be dealt with by devastated economies. Furthermore shipping goods became a nightmare, as a shipment down the Rhine could run through as many as 27 principalities, meaning constant stops through customs for the most trifling orders. With such impaired trade and poverty, little wonder that Germany remained Balkanized for centuries. 

6. Fernando VII’s Tumultuous Reign 

Few reigns were as fraught as this Spanish King’s. The event that allowed him to take the throne of Spain in 1808 was the abdication of his predecessor Charles IV, which was known as the “Tumult of Aranjuez.” As Spain was under invasion by Napoleon Bonaparte when the dictator of France was pretending to be the steward of the French Revolution and transferring monarchical power to the people, Napoleon had him put in prison that same year. Napoleon released him in 1814 as the French military withdrew from Spain.  

While the king had been imprisoned, liberal independent forces in Spain had passed a new system of government known as the Constitution of Cádiz in 1812, which among other liberal reforms limited the monarchy’s power. Ferdinand VII was not about to approve of a constitution that limited his very recently restored powers and had the liberals who’d composed the document imprisoned or exiled. To secure power he turned more and more to reactionary forces, among them his brother Don Carlos. 

Yet the forces of progress were not beaten forever, and scored a major success in 1820 when Colonel Rafael Riego joined the constitutionalists, starting a civil war that Ferdinand put to an end that year when he ratified the constitution. In 1822, Spain fell into civil war again when royalist forces rose up to declare Ferdinand be unbound from the constitution he’d signed, which prompted a royal French army to invade in their support until the liberals declared the constitution void in 1823, and Ferdinand had many of them exiled or imprisoned again. Or at least he did until 1830, when his lack of a male heir meant he deemed Princess Isabella his successor. Don Carlos did not agree to that and another civil war broke out; this time Ferdinand had to turn back to the liberals he had spent years persecuting. His sympathies would remain with them until his death in 1833. Even today the many times he rolled back progress in Spain are heavily criticized by liberal historians.    

5. Prince Metternich

Speaking of monarchs trying to keep power from the people in the 19th Century, Prince Klemens von Metternich is remembered both for maintaining peace in Europe in the wake of the Napoleonic Wars and for being extremely oppressive. He became foreign minister in 1809 and concentrated on stopping expansion of the Russian and Ottoman Empire and also democratic institutions, including putting down peoples’ uprisings. Ultimately such uprisings would force him out of office in 1848. According to books such as Alexander Gerschenkron’s Bread and Democracy in Germany, Metternich had admitted that while it was inevitable that democracy would overtake Europe in the wake of such momentous events as the French Revolution, he would roll it back for as long as he could.  

Even into the 1950s, Metternich was still widely condemned in Germany and Austria. Films from the period depicted him and his secret police infiltrating peasant celebrations, trying to ban supposedly inflammatory waltzes in favor of traditionalist polka dances. As Metternich would have conceded, people often don’t consider peace a worthwhile substitute for freedom. 

4. Afghanistan’s Taliban Disaster

Previous TopTenz lists have mentioned how, in the 1950s, Afghanistan was perhaps the most progressive nation in the Middle East, and this history was used by General James Mattis in 2017 for an attempt to convince President Trump to continue American occupation in the hopes of returning the country to that state. That is quite ironic as it turns out American Cold War operations are the leading reason that Afghanistan became a Muslim theocracy. The popular perception is that the US began supporting the Mujahideen in an effort to expel the Soviet Invasion. The truth is that before a single Soviet boot touched the ground in Afghanistan, America was already sending funding to religious extremists such as Gulbuddin Hekmatyar, who was launching acid attacks on Afghan women. 

By 1994, having defeated the Soviet military and contributed to the dissolution of the Soviet Union, the Taliban was uniting with US-backed Mujahideen fighters. By 1996 they had taken over Kabul. If the Bush and Obama administrations were to be believed, this led to the gutting of all sorts of civil rights in the years that followed, particularly for women. After a two decade occupation by the US from 2002 to 2021, those rights ultimately were not restored.  

3. First World War America

America’s role in winning the war to end all wars for the Allies often overshadows the grievous effect that manufacturing consent had on the home front. Despite President Woodrow Wilson campaigning on keeping the US out of the war, within a month the US government was imprisoning anti-war agitators under the Espionage Act despite the clear violation of the First Amendment. To a suspicious degree, the arrests targeted strike organizers. A particular target was the Industrial Workers of the World organization, which saw as many as 100 members put behind bars in September 1917 in the Chicago area alone. Most famous of all arrests was Senator Eugene V. Debs for daring to give a speech against US involvement in the war on June 18, 1918 to an audience in Canton, Ohio. 

Additionally, a wave of anti-German sentiment swept the country. While it’s well known that sauerkraut became known as “liberty cabbage,” it took much more severe forms such as the murder of immigrants like Robert Prager in Collinsville, Illinois. As a result many Germans actively downplayed their heritage, to a degree where they changed their names and those of their communities. This rollback of acknowledging German heritage helped downplay the disproportionate role that German abolitionists played in preserving the Union in the Civil War and left a vacuum that was filled with more pro-Confederate propaganda, whitewashing the war and its aftermath. 

2. The Weimar Republic

The rise of the Third Reich looms so large in German history that the postwar 1910s through Hitler’s election to chancellor in 1933 often gets overlooked. After Kaiser Wilhelm II abdicated, the national assembly convened in the town of Weimar to draft a new constitution and ratified it in February 1919. That same year women’s suffrage was ratified in Germany and societal attitudes such as tolerance for LGBT citizens began to take hold. A welfare system was instituted. 

The Weimar Republic had the rotten luck to inherit a horribly threatened economy, and by 1923 hyperinflation threatened the new government’s survival. It was only through introducing the new America-backed currency, the Rentenmark, that the day was saved for a time. When the American economy crashed in 1929 it took the Republican economy down with it, allowing the Nazi rise through parliament and the destruction of most of those civil rights, though it did keep a robust welfare state in place for ostensibly pure-blooded Aryans. 

1. Fall of the Soviet Union 

There have been past TopTenz articles detailing the horrors of the Soviet Union, but its collapse was a horrible disaster for millions of people as well. After its last ditch effort to coup Boris Yeltsin and replace him with Mikhail Gorbachev in August 1991, the Soviet communists officially had their system of government declared defunct in December 1991. 

The result of 15 largely impoverished governments emerging was ruinous for many lives. Loss of medical care and switching to less nourishing home grown diets meant that by 1994 average male life expectancies in Russia had dropped six years, and three years for women. Infrastructure standards dropped, privatization lost many citizens their mass housing and sense of social cohesion. Hardly surprising then that a 2018 survey found that 66% of Russians expressed nostalgia for the Soviet system. 

Dustin Koski is bracing for the next major loss of progress, because his post-apocalyptic ghost novel Return of the Living is sure to get him put against the wall.

Not many people are aware of the contributions made by several secret societies in shaping the world as we know today. For the most part, their endeavours are not justly recorded in our history books. The secret societies listed here have sometimes managed to push their country forward and sometimes backwards. Never-the-less, they helped shape the world. Now, let’s take a look into 10 secret societies that shaped our world:

10. The Germanenorden (Germany)

Germanenorden established in 1812 was a society born out of their adversity towards Jews and their belief in the Aryan race superiority. Therefore it was not surprising when in 1916 they adopted the Swastika symbol. They recruited members based on evidences of their Aryan ancestry by proof of their birth certificates among other things, which was followed by initiation rituals where members were to dress up like nymphs, knights, kings et al.

The group changed into the Thule Society in 1918 and assisted in defeating communalism. They further renamed themselves into the German Workers Party. In 1920 Adolf  Hitler took over the society and made sure to do away the unnecessary absurd rituals.

9. Afrikaner Broederbond (South Africa)

The Afrikaner Broederbond group, founded in 1918, went one step ahead and had actually aimed at seizing control over the whole of South Africa. Membership was only opened to white men over 25 years of age who were guided by their self-promoted Afrikaner nationalism seeking to dominate over the economy, culture and politics of South Africa. There managed to influence the Reunited National Party so much so that it irked the prime minister who called the party as “nothing more than the secret Afrikaner Broederbond operating in public.” And they started controlling the South African Bureau of Racial Affairs in 1947.

Their rise to power was astounding and almost every important political person was a member of the society. This gave rise to a saying, “The South African government today is the Broederbond and the “Broederbond is the government.” It was only after Nelson Mandela’s election in 1994 that the society began seeing downhill.

After this they renamed themselves into Afrikanerbond and now, are open to include members irrespective of their colour, religion, gender et al with a goal of making South Africa a better country.

8. The Carbonari (Italy)

No one knows how or exactly when the Carbonari came into existence. But as speculation goes, it originated around the time when the Congress of Vienna was deciding on what to do with the territories conquered by Napoleon. By 1815, Italy was cut into several pieces. This Italian secret group is said to have had 60,000 members and they rose in revolt against King Ferdinand who was ruling over Sicily and Naples. He soon had to give up his power. This was followed by the whole of Italy rising up into a widespread movement that eventually ended in the unification of Italy in 1861.

7. La Trinitaria (Dominican Republic)

The La Trinitaria, or The Trinity was founded in July 1838 in Dominican Republic which was under Haitian rule since the year 1822. The Republican citizen wanted freedom from the clutches of the Haitians. It was among such sentiments that Juan Pablo Duarte rose as a national leader and founded The Trinity. He was only 25 years old and his secret society comprised of only 8 members.

The society aimed at spreading national sentiment and achieving independence. They used cryptic methods in communication and pseudonym to keep their existence hidden. Besides helping other rebel groups they had attempted at a revolution in 1843, which failed. The members were imprisoned while Duarte fled the country. But The Trinity’s audacious work had set the ball rolling and while they remained dormant, Republicans rose up a fought until Dominican Republic was declared free on February 27, 1844. Unfortunately, when Juan Pablo Duarte returned to preside over the country he had helped to create, he was overthrown by a military coup. Duarte died in exile in 1864.

6. The Hawaiian League (Hawaii)

The Hawaiian League was formed by 200 affluent Europeans and Americans discontented with the Hawaiian ruler King Kalakaua. They alleged the king of being too extravagant so they hatched a plan to overthrow the monarchy with backing from the American businessmen. In 1887, the secret society came into existence with a constitution written by Lorrin A. Thurston, though unfortunately the document didn’t survive the passage of time.

With 405 members and alliance with the Honolulu Rifles, they managed to overthrow Queen Liliuokalani in the year 1893. For 5 years, Hawaii remained a republic until it became a territory of the US in 1898. In 1959 Hawaii was officially recognized as the 50th state of the US.

5. Filiki Etaireia (Greece)

In 1814, Nikalaos Skoufas and Athanasios Tsakalov, together along with a few other merchants founded the Filiki Etaireia (“Friendly Brotherhood”) to overthrow the Ottoman rule in their country. The society took their ‘secret’ part very seriously and when one of their member named Nikolaos Galatis began beating drums out in the open about the existence of their society, he was murdered by the Brotherhood.

The society had a very complicated recruiting system with six level of membership, the top level of which was occupied with men of great education and money. With the help of a Russian officer named Alexander Ypsilantis, the Brotherhood initiated the Greek Revolution in the Spring of 1821. Unfortunately, into the very beginning of the war, the secret society dissembled but the revolution ended with Greece winning their independence.

4. Katipunan (Philippines)

Katipunan came into existance in the Philippines in 1892 with the goal of opposing the Spanish domination. The single worded name is actually the abbreviated form of Kataastaasan Kagalang-galang Na Katipunan Nang Manga Anak Nang Bayan that translates into the ‘Supreme Worshipful Association of the Sons of the People.’

This society had a male-only membership that was inherited by the sons from their fathers. They had all sorts of rituals and codes as expected form a secret society but the singularity of their rituals was that they signed every document with their own blood, beginning with their founding document back in July 7th 1892. For many years thousand of the members remained mum without giving a clue as to their existence to the Spanish authority. When their secret was out they overthrew their concealment and went for an all-out rebellion that ended with the Filipinos gaining their independence in June 12, 1898.

3. Irish Republican Brotherhood (Irb)

James Stephens along with a few other fellowmen founded the Irish Revolutionary Brotherhood on St Patrick’s Day in 1858. They had centers in as many as seven different countries – Canada, USA, England, Australia (that was under the British Empire), New Zealand and South America. Each center had a colonel with nine captains, nine sergeants and nine privates. Each recruit knew only his superior so as to keep their identities hidden.

By 1910, the brotherhood had several Irish members and under the leadership of Thomas Clarke rose up in revolt in 1916, now known as the Easter Rising. The rising, however, failed. A few years later IBR lead the Anglo-Irish war that eventually saw the Irish Free State being created in 1921.

2. The Black Hand (Serbia)

Unification Or Death, was a Serbian organization better known as the Black Hand. It was founded on May 9, 1911 to fight against the Ottoman rule. All 2,500 members of the society took oath to put secrecy of the group before their own lives. They operated on different levels and took significant steps to make sure each member was not in contact with most of the other members so that when one member was caught he would have no information to offer about the other members.

The Black Hand was leaded by Colonel Dragutin Dimitrijevic, also known as ‘Apis’ after the bull deity of Ancient Egypt. And it was he who planned the assassination of Archduke Franz Ferdinand that led to the breaking out of World War I.

1. The Union Of Salvation (Russia)

The society was founded by six military officers and friends whose aims were, initially, rather vague and dissimilar form each other. When the Russian Czar died, the Union under the leadership of Pavel Pestel organised the Decembrist Uprising of 1825 to prevent his descendents from taking over the power. The uprising saw around three thousand Russians attempting to usurp Czar Nicholas I on his very first day in power which failed with disastrous consequence like censorship for press and education, establishment of spy networks et al. This uprising however was responsible for sowing the seeds for the next revolution, 100 years later in 1917, when the Russian Empire fell.