A recent discussion made me wonder -- do y'all know of any major sociopolitical changes that were not preceded by protests (of vaguely the street kind)? Preferably positive changes in relatively modern times, but any answers are interesting, including even "I cannot recall any".
Boosts much appreciated.
@timorl Also, changes caused by a single event (e.g. any of the changes that happened in US as a direct result of attacks on WTC), changes that happened as a result of technology becoming available (easing of travel and long-distance communications come to mind as the technologies most likely to be implicated), and changes that were caused by some combination of environmental effects (e.g. migration from countryside to cities; or popularization of the concept of factory worker, which as you know caused e.g. the dowry-caused constraints on marriage to become less important).
