Illuminati / New World Order (NWO)

The Order of the Illuminati of Bavaria (Illuminatenorden) was founded on May 1, 1776, in Ingolstadt, Bavaria, by Adam Weishaupt, professor of canon law at the University of Ingolstadt. The order, inspired by Enlightenment ideals, sought to promote reason, secularism, and equality, in opposition to the influence of the Catholic Church and absolutist monarchy. The order recruited from the intellectual elite, including Freemasons, and at its peak numbered between 2,000 and 3,000 members, including Baron Adolph von Knigge and possibly Johann Wolfgang von Goethe.

The order was banned by Duke Charles Theodore of Bavaria in 1784-1785, following the discovery of internal documents during searches. Weishaupt exiled himself to Gotha.

After the French Revolution (1789), Abbot Augustin Barruel in his ‘Memoires pour servir a l'histoire du Jacobinisme’ (1797-1798) and Scottish professor John Robison in ‘Proofs of a Conspiracy’ (1797) claimed that the Illuminati had survived their prohibition and orchestrated the French Revolution. These works founded the modern conspiracy theory surrounding the Illuminati.

In the 19th and 20th centuries, the theory merged with antisemitism, notably via the ‘Protocols of the Elders of Zion’ (a forgery fabricated by the Tsarist secret police around 1903), which purports to reveal a Jewish plan for world domination. Nesta Webster, a British author, contributed in the 1920s to linking the Illuminati, Freemasonry, and a ‘Jewish plot.’

The modern theory of the ‘New World Order’ crystallized in the 1990s, notably after the speech by George H.W. Bush on September 11, 1990, before the American Congress using the expression ‘New World Order’ to describe the post-Cold War international order. For conspiracy theorists, this is a public admission.

In its contemporary form, the theory asserts that a secret elite (sometimes identified as the Illuminati, sometimes as a broader group including the Rothschilds, the Rockefellers, European royal families) controls governments, central banks, media, and international organizations (UN, IMF, World Bank) with the goal of establishing a single world government, abolishing national sovereignties, reducing the world population, and imposing total control via technology.

The theory is propagated by authors like David Icke ('The Biggest Secret', 1999), Jim Marrs ('Rule by Secrecy', 2000), Alex Jones, and numerous websites and YouTube channels. It often serves as an overarching narrative framework for other conspiracy theories (Bilderberg, Skull & Bones, Great Reset, etc.).