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Revolution
*** Shopping-Tip: Revolution
{{mergefrom|Revolutionary}}
{{about|revolution in the sense of a drastic change|other uses|
Revolution (disambiguation)}}
A '''revolution''' is a drastic change that usually occurs relatively quickly. This may be a change in the
social or
political institutions over a relatively short period of time, or a major change in its
culture or
economics economy. Some revolutions are led by the majority of the populace of a nation, others by a small band of
revolutionary revolutionaries. Compare
rebellion. A change in the
status quo.
{{wiktionary}}
Social and political revolutions
Political revolutions are often characterized by
violence, and vast changes in power structures that can often result in further, institutionalized, violence, as in the
Russian Revolution of 1917 Russian and
French Revolution French revolutions (with the "Purges" and "the Terror", respectively). A ''political'' revolution is the forcible replacement of one set of rulers with another (as happened in France and Russia), while a ''social'' revolution is the fundamental change in the social structure of a society, such as the
Protestant Reformation or the
Renaissance. However, blurring the line between these two categories, most political revolutions wish to carry out social revolutions, and they have basic philosophical or social underpinnings which drive them. The most common revolutions with such underpinnings in the modern world have been
liberal revolutions and
communist revolutions, with the occasional
nationalist revolution. In contrast, a ''
coup d'etat coup d'état'' often seeks to change nothing more than the current ruler.
Some
political philosophy political philosophers regard revolutions as the means of achieving their goals. Most
anarchism anarchists advocate social revolution as the means of breaking down the structures of government and replacing them with non-hierarchal institutions.
Among
Marxism Marxist Communism communists, there is a split between those who supported the
Soviet Union and other so-called '
communist states' and those who were/are critical of those states (some even rejecting them as non-communist, see
state capitalism), for example
Trotskyism trotskyists.
Social and political revolutions are often "institutionalized" when the ideas, slogans, and personalities of the revolution continue to play a prominent role in a country's
political culture, long after the revolution's end. As mentioned, communist nations regularly institutionalize their revolutions to legitimize the actions of their governments. Some non-communist nations, like the
United States,
France or
Mexico also have institutionalized revolutions, and continue to celebrate the memory of their revolutionary past through holidays, artwork, songs, and other venues.
Pre-modern revolutions
{| cellspacing=12
|align=right| 206
Common Era BCE ||colspan=2| Fall of the
Qin Dynasty in
China.
|-
|align=right| 66-70
AD .html">Great Jewish Revolt
|rowspan=2| both against the Roman Empire.
|-
|align=right| 132-135 AD ||
Bar Kokhba's revolt ||
|-
|align=right|
14th century 14th to
16th century 16th
century AD ||colspan=2|
Popular revolt in late medieval Europe, a series of attempted revolutions against the nobility.
|}
Liberal revolutions
Known to
Marxism Marxists as
Bourgeoisie bourgeois revolutions. Some of these also known as
Atlantic Revolutions.
{| cellspacing=12
|align=right| 1642-1653 ||
English Revolution .html">Parliament and King, culminating in the execution of
Charles_I.html">Charles I of England|Charles I and the establishment of a republican
Protectorate.
|-
|align=right| 1688 ||
Glorious Revolution .html">England of King
James_II.html">James II of England|James II and establishment of a
Whig-dominated
Protestant constitutional monarchy.
|-
|align=right| 1774-1783 ||
American Revolution .html">independence of the
thirteen_North American colonies.html">13 colonies|thirteen North American colonies from
Great Britain, creating the
republic of the
United States of America.
|-
|align=right| 1789 ||
French Revolution || Regarded as one of the most influential of all socio-political revolutions, associated with the rise of the
bourgeoisie and the downfall of the
aristocracy.
|-
|align=right| 1798 ||
Irish Rebellion of 1798 Irish Rebellion || Failed attempt to overthrow
Great Britain British rule in
Ireland.
|-
|align=right| 1916-1923 ||
Anglo-Irish War Irish Revolution || The period of nationalist rebellion,
guerrilla warfare, political change and
Irish Civil War civil war which brought about the establishment of the
Irish Free State.
|-
|align=right| 1804 ||
Haitian Revolution .html">Toussaint Louverture. Established
Haiti as the first free,
black.html">Black (people)|black republic.
|-
|rowspan=2 align=right valign=top| 1830 ||
July Revolution ||
|-
||
Belgian Revolution ||
|-
|align=right| 1837-1838 ||
Rebellions of 1837 || Failed republican revolutions against British rule in
Canada.
|-
|align=right| 1848 ||
Revolutions of 1848 Revolutions of 1848 || Wave of failed liberal and republican revolutions that swept Europe.
|-
|align=right| 1851 ||
Taiping Rebellion || Rebellion against the
Qing Dynasty and
Manchu domination.
|-
|align=right| 1857 ||
Indian rebellion of 1857 Indian rebellion || Failed rebellion against British
imperialism, marking the end of
Mughal rule in India. Also known as the 1857 War of Independence and, particularly in the
Western world West, the Sepoy Mutiny.
|-
|align=right| 1905 ||
Russian Revolution of 1905 Russian Revolution || Failed
bourgeois-
liberal revolution against
Tsar Nicholas II in
Russia.
|-
|align=right| 1908 ||
Young Turk Revolution Young Turks || Forced the autocratic ruler
Abdul Hamid II to restore parliament and constitution in the
Ottoman Empire.
|-
|align=right| 1910 ||
Mexican Revolution || Overthrow of dictator
Porfirio DÃaz; seizure of power by
Institutional Revolutionary Party.
|-
|align=right| 1911 ||
Xinhai Revolution || Overthrow of ruling
Qing Dynasty and establishment of the
Republic of China.
|-
|align=right| 1917 ||
February Revolution ||
Liberal revolution against
Tsar Nicholas II in Russia.
|-
|align=right| 1918 ||
German Revolution || Overthrow of the
Kaiser by a workers' revolution; establishment of the
Weimar Republic.
|}
Socialist and/or Communist revolutions
{| cellspacing=12
|align=right| 1871 ||
Paris Commune ||
|-
|align=right| 1917 ||
Russian Revolution of 1917 Russian Revolution || The most famous and influential modern revolution, culminating in the
Bolshevik seizure of power in
Russia and the establishment of the
Soviet Union.
|-
|align=right| 1919 ||
German Revolution || Failed revolution in Germany led by
Rosa Luxemburg and
Karl Liebknecht.
|-
|align=right| 1919, 1949 ||
Hungarian Soviet Republic Hungarian Revolutions ||
|-
|align=right| 1921 ||
Mongolia ||
|-
|align=right| 1936 ||
Spanish Revolution ||
|-
|align=right| 1948 ||
North Korea ||
|-
|align=right| 1949 ||
Chinese Civil War Chinese Revolution || Victory of
Communist Party of China Communist-led peasant rebellion under
Chairman Mao over the ruling
Kuomintang Nationalist Party; establishment of the
People's Republic of China.
|-
|align=right| 1954-1962 ||
Algerian War of Independence Algerian Revolution || Revolutionary war of independence against
France French imperialism.
|-
|align=right| 1945-1975 ||
North Vietnam ||
|-
|align=right| 1959 ||
Cuban Revolution .html">Fidel Castro against
U.S..html">United States|U.S.-backed dictator
Fulgencio Batista; establishment by Castro of communist-style state.
|-
|align=right| 1964 ||
Zanzibar || [See http://home.globalfrontiers.com/Zanzibar/zanzibar_revolution.htm]
|-
|align=right| 1964, 1968 ||
Republic of the Congo Congo ||
|-
|align=right| 1966-1976 ||
Cultural Revolution .html">Maoism
Maoist-led sociological repression in the People's Republic of China.
|-
|align=right| 1967 ||
South Yemen ||
|-
|align=right| 1968 ||
May 1968 May 1968 revolt || Students' and workers' revolt against the government of
Charles de Gaulle in
France.
|-
|rowspan=2 align=right valign=top| 1969 ||
Libya ||
|-
||
Somalia ||
|-
|align=right| 1972 ||
Benin ||
|-
|rowspan=3 align=right valign=top| 1974 ||
Ethiopia ||
|-
||
Carnation Revolution || Popular
Left-wing overthrow of
right-wing dictatorship in
Portugal
|-
||
Guinea-Bissauan Revolution Guinea-Bissau ||
|-
|rowspan=7 align=right valign=top| 1975 ||
Cambodia ||
|-
||
South Vietnam ||
|-
||
Laos ||
|-
||
Madagascar ||
|-
||
Cape Verde ||
|-
||
Mozambique ||
|-
||
Angola ||
|-
|align=right| 1978 ||
Afghanistan ||
|-
|rowspan=2 align=right valign=top| 1979 ||
Grenada ||
|-
||
Nicaraguan Revolution || Popular overthrow of the
Somoza dictatorship by progressive/Marxist peasant movement.
|-
|align=right| 1983 ||
Burkina Faso ||
|-
|align=right| 1998 ||
Bolivarian Revolution || The election in
Venezuela of socialist leader
Hugo Chávez.
|}
Anarchist revolutions
In addition to the below,
Anarchy anarchists influenced many other revolutions, in particular the
Mexican Revolution (1910), the
Russian Revolution (1917) and rebellions such as the
May 1968 May 1968 revolt.
{| cellspacing=12
|align=right| 1918-1921 ||
Nestor Makhno#Early Life and Ukrainian Revolution Ukrainian Revolution ||
|-
|align=right| 1918-1922 ||
Third Russian Revolution Third Russian Revolution || Failed
anarchist revolution against both
bolshevik Bolshevism and the
White movement.
|-
|align=right| 1936 ||
Spanish Revolution || Social upheaval that swept Spain in response to the anti-Republican insurgency of General
Francisco Franco.
|}
Eastern European anti-Communist/anti-dictatorship revolutions
{| cellspacing=12
|align=right| 1956 ||
1956 Hungarian Revolution Hungarian Revolution || Failed workers' and peasants' revolution against the
Soviet Russia Soviet-supported
communist state in
Hungary.
|-
|align=right| 1968 ||
Prague Spring || Failed attempt by leader
Alexander DubÄ?ek to liberalize
Czechoslovakia in defiance of the Soviet-supported communist state.
|-
|align=right| 1988 ||
Singing Revolution || Bloodless overthrow of communist states in
Estonia,
Latvia and
Lithuania.
|-
|rowspan=2 align=right valign=top| 1989 ||
Romanian Revolution || Violent overthrow of communist state in
Romania.
|-
||
Velvet Revolution || Bloodless overthrow of communist state in
Czechoslovakia.
|-
|align=right| 2000 ||
Bulldozer Revolution Bulldozer Revolution || Bloodless overthrow of
Slobodan Milošević's régime in
Yugoslavia.
|}
Color revolutions
After the precedent set by the Georgean
Rose Revolution, later revolutions that challenged autoritarian regimes are referred to by a media convention as '''Color revolutions'''.
{| cellspacing=12
|align=right| 2003 ||
Rose Revolution in
Georgia (country) Georgia ||
|-
|rowspan=2 align=right valign=top| 2004 ||
Orange Revolution in
Ukraine ||
|-
||
Azerbaijan || Failed attempt at popular color-style revolution.
|-
|rowspan=2 align=right valign=top| 2005 ||
Cedar Revolution in
Lebanon ||
|-
||
Tulip Revolution (Yellow Revolution) in
Kyrgyzstan ||
|}
Islamist revolutions
{| cellspacing=12
|align=right| 1979 ||
Iranian Revolution Iranian Revolution || Popular overthrow of
United States U.S.-backed
Shah, resulting in an
Islamist cleric-led
theocracy.
|-
|align=right| 1996 ||
Taliban || Islamist movement in
Afghanistan.
|}
Cultural, intellectual and philosophical revolutions
*
Renaissance
*
Protestant Reformation
*
Scientific revolution
*
Sexual revolution
*
Quiet Revolution
*
Consciousness Revolution
Technological revolutions
These usually lead to transformations in society, culture and philosophy.
*
Agricultural Revolution
*
Digital Revolution
*
Neolithic Neolithic Revolution
*
Price revolution
*
Industrial Revolution
*
Second Industrial Revolution
See also
{{wikiquote}}
*
Anarchism
*
Coup d'état
*
List of fictional revolutions and coups
*
Revolt
External links
-
libcom.org libcom.org History section, containing histories of revolutionary movements throughout the world.
-
United 4 Belarus Campaign, a British website drawing attention to the political crisis in
Belarus, where a popular revolution is suspected after the
Elections in Belarus 2006 presidential elections.
Category:Revolutions
ar:ثورة
bg:РеволюциÑ?
cs:Revoluce
da:Revolution
de:Revolution
et:Revolutsioon
es:Revolución
eo:Revolucio
eu:Iraultza (gizartea)
fr:Révolution
ko:�명
he:מהפכה
lv:Revolūcija
lt:Revoliucija
hu:Forradalom
nl:Revolutie
ja:�命
nn:Revolusjon
pl:Rewolucja
pt:Revolução
ru:РеволюциÑ?
sl:Revolucija
fi:Vallankumous
sv:Revolution
uk:РеволюціÑ?
zh:�命
*** Shopping-Tip: Revolution
