Armenians, whose homeland in the nineteenth century was partitioned between the Ottoman Turkish and Russian empires, began revolutionary activities in the 1880's to secure social and political rights. This struggle soon turned into the prototype of twentieth century national liberation movements. Modern Armenian political consciousness evolved as a reaction to the suffocating effects of the disintegrating and clearly militaristic Ottoman Empire; it also opposed the more modern but nonetheless despotic Tsarist Russian government. Under the leadership of an intellectual class and devoted guerrilla leaders, they developed a vision of collective existence which transcended the independence movements dominant among Balkan peoples during the nineteenth century. The vision of Armenian freedom fighters called for the end to all discrimination, the institution of equality of all citizens under the law, economic justice, and cultural self-determination.