Revolution

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This article is about revolution in the sense of a drastic change. For other uses, see 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 economy. Some revolutions are led by the majority of the populace of a nation, others by a small band of revolutionaries. Compare rebellion. A change in the status quo.

Look up Revolution in Wiktionary, the free dictionary.
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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 and 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'état often seeks to change nothing more than the current ruler.

Some political philosophers regard revolutions as the means of achieving their goals. Most anarchists advocate social revolution as the means of breaking down the structures of government and replacing them with non-hierarchal institutions.

Among Marxist 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 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.

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Pre-modern revolutions

206 BCE Fall of the Qin Dynasty in China.
66-70 AD The Great Jewish Revolt both against the Roman Empire.
132-135 AD Bar Kokhba's revolt
14th to 16th
century AD 		Popular revolt in late medieval Europe, a series of attempted revolutions against the nobility.
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Liberal revolutions

Known to Marxists as bourgeois revolutions. Some of these also known as Atlantic Revolutions.

1642-1653 English Revolution Commenced as a civil war between Parliament and King, culminating in the execution of Charles I and the establishment of a republican Protectorate.
1688 Glorious Revolution The overthrow in England of King James II and establishment of a Whig-dominated Protestant constitutional monarchy.
1774-1783 American Revolution Established independence of the thirteen North American colonies from Great Britain, creating the republic of the United States of America.
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.
1798 Irish Rebellion Failed attempt to overthrow British rule in Ireland.
1916-1923 Irish Revolution The period of nationalist rebellion, guerrilla warfare, political change and civil war which brought about the establishment of the Irish Free State.
1804 Haitian Revolution Successful slave rebellion led by Toussaint Louverture. Established Haiti as the first free, black republic.
1830 July Revolution
Belgian Revolution
1837-1838 Rebellions of 1837 Failed republican revolutions against British rule in Canada.
1848 Revolutions of 1848   Wave of failed liberal and republican revolutions that swept Europe.
1851 Taiping Rebellion Rebellion against the Qing Dynasty and Manchu domination.
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 West, the Sepoy Mutiny.
1905 Russian Revolution Failed bourgeois-liberal revolution against Tsar Nicholas II in Russia.
1908 Young Turks Forced the autocratic ruler Abdul Hamid II to restore parliament and constitution in the Ottoman Empire.
1910 Mexican Revolution Overthrow of dictator Porfirio Díaz; seizure of power by Institutional Revolutionary Party.
1911 Xinhai Revolution Overthrow of ruling Qing Dynasty and establishment of the Republic of China.
1917 February Revolution Liberal revolution against Tsar Nicholas II in Russia.
1918 German Revolution Overthrow of the Kaiser by a workers' revolution; establishment of the Weimar Republic.
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Socialist and/or Communist revolutions

1871 Paris Commune
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.
1919 German Revolution Failed revolution in Germany led by Rosa Luxemburg and Karl Liebknecht.
1919, 1949 Hungarian Revolutions   
1921 Mongolia
1936 Spanish Revolution
1948 North Korea
1949 Chinese Revolution Victory of Communist-led peasant rebellion under Chairman Mao over the ruling Nationalist Party; establishment of the People's Republic of China.
1954-1962 Algerian Revolution Revolutionary war of independence against French imperialism.
1945-1975 North Vietnam
1959 Cuban Revolution Revolution led by Fidel Castro against U.S.-backed dictator Fulgencio Batista; establishment by Castro of communist-style state.
1964 Zanzibar [See http://home.globalfrontiers.com/Zanzibar/zanzibar_revolution.htm]
1964, 1968 Congo
1966-1976 Cultural Revolution Maoist-led sociological repression in the People's Republic of China.
1967 South Yemen
1968 May 1968 revolt Students' and workers' revolt against the government of Charles de Gaulle in France.
1969 Libya
Somalia
1972 Benin
1974 Ethiopia
Carnation Revolution Popular Left-wing overthrow of right-wing dictatorship in Portugal
Guinea-Bissau
1975 Cambodia
South Vietnam
Laos
Madagascar
Cape Verde
Mozambique
Angola
1978 Afghanistan
1979 Grenada
Nicaraguan Revolution Popular overthrow of the Somoza dictatorship by progressive/Marxist peasant movement.
1983 Burkina Faso
1998 Bolivarian Revolution The election in Venezuela of socialist leader Hugo Chávez.
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Anarchist revolutions

In addition to the below, anarchists influenced many other revolutions, in particular the Mexican Revolution (1910), the Russian Revolution (1917) and rebellions such as the May 1968 revolt.

1918-1921 Ukrainian Revolution
1918-1922 Third Russian Revolution Failed anarchist revolution against both Bolshevism and the White movement.
1936 Spanish Revolution Social upheaval that swept Spain in response to the anti-Republican insurgency of General Francisco Franco.
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Eastern European anti-Communist/anti-dictatorship revolutions

1956 Hungarian Revolution Failed workers' and peasants' revolution against the Soviet-supported communist state in Hungary.
1968 Prague Spring Failed attempt by leader Alexander Dubček to liberalize Czechoslovakia in defiance of the Soviet-supported communist state.
1988 Singing Revolution Bloodless overthrow of communist states in Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania.
1989 Romanian Revolution Violent overthrow of communist state in Romania.
Velvet Revolution Bloodless overthrow of communist state in Czechoslovakia.
2000 Bulldozer Revolution   Bloodless overthrow of Slobodan Milošević's régime in Yugoslavia.
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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.

2003 Rose Revolution in Georgia
2004 Orange Revolution in Ukraine
Azerbaijan Failed attempt at popular color-style revolution.
2005 Cedar Revolution in Lebanon
Tulip Revolution (Yellow Revolution) in Kyrgyzstan
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Islamist revolutions

1979 Iranian Revolution   Popular overthrow of U.S.-backed Shah, resulting in an Islamist cleric-led theocracy.
1996 Taliban Islamist movement in Afghanistan.


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Cultural, intellectual and philosophical revolutions

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Technological revolutions

These usually lead to transformations in society, culture and philosophy.

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See also

Wikiquote has a collection of quotations related to:
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External links

bg:Революция cs:Revoluce da:Revolution de:Revolution et:Revolutsioon es:Revolución eo:Revolucio eu:Iraultza (gizartea) fr:Révolution ko:혁명 he:מהפכה lv:Revolūcija lt:Revoliucija hu:Forradalom nl:Revolutie ja:革命 nn:Revolusjon pl:Rewolucja pt:Revolução ru:Революция sl:Revolucija fi:Vallankumous sv:Revolution uk:Революція zh:革命

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