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A revolution is any fundamental change in the social or political aspects of a state. Most revolutions are political, occurring when the citizens of a country try to oust the existing government and replace it with a new one. Political revolutions tend to be tumultuous, violent events. There is no clear-cut explanation as to why people revolt, but scholars believe that some or all of the following factors lead to revolution:
Although people have always rebelled against their rulers and governments, the modern area witnessed many significant revolutions. Since the sixteenth century, most revolutions have been attempts to overthrow traditional regimes in the name of liberty. In the twentieth century alone, there were important revolutions in Russia, China, Egypt, and parts of communist Eastern Europe, as well as countless others in smaller countries. Revolutions, and countering revolutions, were a driving force of foreign policy in the twentieth century. However, three revolutions in particular have served as models for most of the world’s revolutions in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries:
Fostering Revolution
Some nations have encouraged and supported revolutions in other countries as a foreign policy tool. For most of its existence, the Soviet Union promoted communist parties and revolutions around the world, most notoriously through the Comintern. Similarly, the United States fostered revolutions in such places as Iraq, Iran, Guatemala, and Nicaragua.
Revolution |
Place |
Dates |
Major Impact |
English Civil War | England | 1642–1653 | Set the stage for limited monarchy, and eventually democracy, in England |
Glorious Revolution | England | 1688 | Permanently ended absolute monarchy in England |
American Revolution | United States | 1775–1783 | Created the first modern democratic state |
French Revolution | France | 1789–1799 | Destroyed the old French monarchy, led to the creation of the French nation-state, and promoted nationalism around Europe |
Haitian Revolution | Haiti | 1804 | Created the first free black republic |
French Revolution of 1830 | France | 1830 | Permanently ended French monarchy |
Mexican Revolution | Mexico | 1910 | Overthrew the dictator Porfirio Díaz and created the modern Mexican state |
Russian Revolution | Russia | 1917 | Ended czarist rule in Russia and created the first communist state |
Spanish Revolution | Spain | 1936 | Turned Spain into a fascist state |
Chinese Civil War | China | 1949 | Turned China into a communist state |
Algerian War of Independence | Algeria | 1954–1962 | Ended French imperial control of Algeria |
Cuban Revolution | Cuba | 1959 | Overthrew Batista and created a communist regime |
Iranian Revolution | Iran | 1979 | Overthrew the shah and created an Islamic regime |
Nicaraguan Revolution | Nicaragua | 1979 | Overthrew the despotic regime and brought Marxist Sandinistas to power |
Revolutions of 1989 | Eastern Europe | 1989 | Ended Soviet and communist rule of many Eastern European states |
Revolutions are extremely difficult to achieve. For a revolution to succeed, many people must agree that the government needs to be overthrown, and these people must be willing to put themselves in danger and prepare for the possibility of civil war. Moreover, revolutions usually fail. For example, in Europe in 1848, democratic ideas and the free market spawned a series of revolutions across the continent. Most of them failed miserably, and perhaps the main impact of the revolutions of 1848 was the strengthening of authoritarian rule.
The Industrial Revolution
Not all revolutions are political. A social revolution is a revolution that transforms society or the economy without drastically altering the existing political system. The Industrial Revolution of the late eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries had a major impact on every country in the world. Beginning around 1780 in England, industry started to replace agriculture, and machinery started to replace manual labor. By the mid-nineteenth century, new forms of production and transportation—including the invention of the steam engine, mechanical typesetting, and movies—had fundamentally altered the modern world. Consequently, the lives of Europeans changed drastically within just a couple of decades.
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