“We Are the Beginning of the Beginning.” So read a hand-painted sign often seen in occupied Zuccotti Park. Every movement has its myths of origin. And many nonparticipant observers speak of Occupy Wall Street as if it emerged out of thin air, or out of cyberspace, in the summer of 2011.

But the would-be occupiers of 2011 had watched, listened to, and learned from the example of their predecessors in other places. When I ask them what inspired them to occupy, many of them cite a long list of occupations of international dimensions.

“I remember very clearly when, in Egypt and Tunisia, the revolution happened,” says Isham Christie, a Native American revolutionary from the Choctaw Nation who went on to play a vital role in the formation of Occupy. “I was in all the solidarity demos in New York. I was watching Al Jazeera constantly. It just really felt like, oh yeah, this is possible. So that was really defining. And then when it started to spread to other countries . . . we were like, we need to rise up in New York!”