conspiracy summary

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Below is the article summary. For the full article, see conspiracy.

conspiracy, Agreement between two or more persons to commit an unlawful act or to accomplish a lawful end by unlawful means. Some U.S. states require an overt act in addition to the agreement to constitute conspiracy. Individual conspirators need not even know of the existence or the identity of all other conspirators. In a chain conspiracy the parties act separately and successively (as in distributing narcotics). A civil conspiracy is not prosecuted as a crime but forms the grounds for a lawsuit. In antitrust law, conspiracies in restraint of trade (e.g., price fixing) are rigorously prosecuted. In the U.S. it is common to punish a conspiracy to commit an offense more harshly than the offense itself, but there has been a growing trend to follow the European example and make the punishment for conspiracy the same as or less than that for the offense itself.

Gunpowder Plot Summary

Gunpowder Plot, the conspiracy of English Roman Catholics to blow up Parliament and King James I, his queen, and his eldest son on November 5, 1605. The leader of the plot, Robert Catesby, together with his four coconspirators—Thomas Winter, Thomas Percy, John Wright, and Guy Fawkes—were zealous

Adolf Hitler and Benito Mussolini after the July Plot failed

July Plot Summary

July Plot, abortive attempt on July 20, 1944, by German military leaders to assassinate Adolf Hitler, seize control of the government, and seek more favourable peace terms from the Allies. During 1943 and early 1944, opposition to Hitler in high army circles increased as Germany’s military

François-Noël Babeuf, engraving by an unknown artist, 18th century.

François-Noël Babeuf Summary

François-Noël Babeuf was an early political journalist and agitator in Revolutionary France whose tactical strategies provided a model for left-wing movements of the 19th century. He was called Gracchus for the resemblance of his proposed agrarian reforms to those of the 2nd-century-bc Roman

Sallust Summary

Sallust was a Roman historian and one of the great Latin literary stylists, noted for his narrative writings dealing with political personalities, corruption, and party rivalry. Sallust’s family was Sabine and probably belonged to the local aristocracy, but he was the only member known to have