What is the meaning of the word revolution

In political science, a revolution (Latin: revolutio, ‘a turn around’) is a fundamental and relatively sudden change in political power and political organization which occurs when the population revolts against the government, typically due to perceived oppression (political, social, economic) or political incompetence.^[1]

Revolutions have occurred throughout human history and vary widely in terms of methods, duration, and motivating ideology. Their results include major changes in culture, economy, and socio-political institutions, usually in response to perceived overwhelming autocracy or plutocracy.

Scholarly debates about what does and does not constitute a revolution center on several issues. Early studies of revolutions primarily analyzed events in European history from a psychological perspective, but more modern examinations include global events and incorporate perspectives from several social sciences, including sociology and political science. Several generations of scholarly thought on revolutions have generated many competing theories and contributed much to the current understanding of this complex phenomenon.

Notable revolutions in recent centuries include the creation of the United States through the American Revolutionary War (1775–1783), the French Revolution (1789–1799), the Haitian Revolution (1791–1804), the Spanish American wars of independence (1808–1826), the European Revolutions of 1848, the Russian Revolution in 1917, the Chinese Revolution of the 1940s, the Cuban Revolution in 1959, the Iranian Revolution in 1979, and the European Revolutions of 1989.

Etymology

The word «revolucion» is known in French from the 13th century, and «revolution» in English by the late fourteenth century, with regard to the revolving motion of celestial bodies. «Revolution» in the sense of representing abrupt change in a social order is attested by at least 1450.^[2][3] Political usage of the term had been well established by 1688 in the description of the replacement of James II with William III. This incident was termed the «Glorious Revolution».^[4]

Types

There are many different typologies of revolutions in social science and literature.

Alexis de Tocqueville differentiated between:

• political revolutions, sudden and violent revolutions that seek not only to establish a new political system but to transform an entire society, and;
• slow but sweeping transformations of the entire society that take several generations to bring about (such as changes in religion).^[5]

One of several different Marxist typologies^[6] divides revolutions into:

• pre-capitalist
• early bourgeois
• bourgeois
• bourgeois-democratic
• early proletarian
• socialist

Charles Tilly, a modern scholar of revolutions, differentiated between;

• coup d’état (a top-down seizure of power)
• civil war
• revolt, and
• «great revolution» (a revolution that transforms economic and social structures as well as political institutions, such as the French Revolution of 1789, Russian Revolution of 1917, or Islamic Revolution of Iran).^[7][8]

Mark Katz^[9] identified six forms of revolution;

• rural revolution
• urban revolution
• Coup d’état, e.g. Egypt, 1952
• revolution from above, e.g. Mao’s Great leap forward of 1958
• revolution from without, e.g. the allied invasions of Italy, 1944 and Germany, 1945.
• revolution by osmosis, e.g. the gradual Islamization of several countries.

These categories are not mutually exclusive; the Russian revolution of 1917 began with the urban revolution to depose the Czar, followed by rural revolution, followed by the Bolshevik coup in November. Katz also cross-classified revolutions as follows;

• Central; countries, usually Great powers, which play a leading role in a Revolutionary wave; e.g. the USSR, Nazi Germany, Iran since 1979.^[10]
• Aspiring revolutions, which follow the Central revolution
• subordinate or puppet revolutions
• rival revolutions, e.g. communist Yugoslavia, and China after 1969

A further dimension to Katz’s typology^[11] is that revolutions are either against (anti-monarchy, anti-dictatorial, anti-communist, anti-democratic) or for (pro-fascism, communism, nationalism etc.). In the latter cases, a transition period is often necessary to decide on the direction taken.

Other types of revolution, created for other typologies, include the social revolutions; proletarian or communist revolutions (inspired by the ideas of Marxism that aims to replace capitalism with Communism); failed or abortive revolutions (revolutions that fail to secure power after temporary victories or large-scale mobilization); or violent vs. nonviolent revolutions.

The term revolution has also been used to denote great changes outside the political sphere. Such revolutions are usually recognized as having transformed in society, culture, philosophy, and technology much more than political systems; they are often known as social revolutions.^[12] Some can be global, while others are limited to single countries. One of the classic examples of the usage of the word revolution in such context is the Industrial Revolution, Scientific Revolution or the Commercial Revolution. Note that such revolutions also fit the «slow revolution» definition of Tocqueville.^[13]
A similar example is the Digital Revolution.

Political and socioeconomic revolutions

Perhaps most often, the word «revolution» is employed to denote a change in social and political institutions.^[14][15][16] Jeff Goodwin gives two definitions of a revolution. First, a broad one, including

any and all instances in which a state or a political regime is overthrown and thereby transformed by a popular movement in an irregular, extraconstitutional and/or violent fashion.

Second, a narrow one, in which

revolutions entail not only mass mobilization and regime change, but also more or less rapid and fundamental social, economic and/or cultural change, during or soon after the struggle for state power.^[17]

Jack Goldstone defines a revolution as

an effort to transform the political institutions and the justifications for political authority in society, accompanied by formal or informal mass mobilization and non-institutionalized actions that undermine authorities.^[18]

Political and socioeconomic revolutions have been studied in many social sciences, particularly sociology, political sciences and history. Among the leading scholars in that area have been or are Crane Brinton, Charles Brockett, Farideh Farhi, John Foran, John Mason Hart, Samuel Huntington, Jack Goldstone, Jeff Goodwin, Ted Roberts Gurr, Fred Halliday, Chalmers Johnson, Tim McDaniel, Barrington Moore, Jeffery Paige, Vilfredo Pareto, Terence Ranger, Eugen Rosenstock-Huessy, Theda Skocpol, James Scott, Eric Selbin, Charles Tilly, Ellen Kay Trimberger, Carlos Vistas, John Walton, Timothy Wickham-Crowley, and Eric Wolf.^[19]

Scholars of revolutions, like Jack Goldstone, differentiate four current ‘generations’ of scholarly research dealing with revolutions.^[18] The scholars of the first generation such as Gustave Le Bon, Charles A. Ellwood, or Pitirim Sorokin, were mainly descriptive in their approach, and their explanations of the phenomena of revolutions was usually related to social psychology, such as Le Bon’s crowd psychology theory.^[14]

Second generation theorists sought to develop detailed theories of why and when revolutions arise, grounded in more complex social behavior theories. They can be divided into three major approaches: psychological, sociological and political.^[14]

The works of Ted Robert Gurr, Ivo K. Feierbrand, Rosalind L. Feierbrand, James A. Geschwender, David C. Schwartz, and Denton E. Morrison fall into the first category. They followed theories of cognitive psychology and frustration-aggression theory and saw the cause of revolution in the state of mind of the masses, and while they varied in their approach as to what exactly caused the people to revolt (e.g., modernization, recession, or discrimination), they agreed that the primary cause for revolution was the widespread frustration with socio-political situation.^[14]

The second group, composed of academics such as Chalmers Johnson, Neil Smelser, Bob Jessop, Mark Hart, Edward A. Tiryakian, and Mark Hagopian, followed in the footsteps of Talcott Parsons and the structural-functionalist theory in sociology; they saw society as a system in equilibrium between various resources, demands and subsystems (political, cultural, etc.). As in the psychological school, they differed in their definitions of what causes disequilibrium, but agreed that it is a state of a severe disequilibrium that is responsible for revolutions.^[14]

Finally, the third group, which included writers such as Charles Tilly, Samuel P. Huntington, Peter Ammann, and Arthur L. Stinchcombe followed the path of political sciences and looked at pluralist theory and interest group conflict theory. Those theories see events as outcomes of a power struggle between competing interest groups. In such a model, revolutions happen when two or more groups cannot come to terms within a normal decision making process traditional for a given political system, and simultaneously have enough resources to employ force in pursuing their goals.^[14]

The second generation theorists saw the development of the revolutions as a two-step process; first, some change results in the present situation being different from the past; second, the new situation creates an opportunity for a revolution to occur. In that situation, an event that in the past would not be sufficient to cause a revolution (e.g., a war, a riot, a bad harvest), now is sufficient; however, if authorities are aware of the danger, they can still prevent a revolution through reform or repression.^[18]

Many such early studies of revolutions tended to concentrate on four classic cases: famous and uncontroversial examples that fit virtually all definitions of revolutions, such as the Glorious Revolution (1688), the French Revolution (1789–1799), the Russian Revolution of 1917, and the Chinese Revolution (also known as the Chinese Civil War) (1927–1949).^[18] In his The Anatomy of Revolution, however, the Harvard historian Crane Brinton focused on the English Civil War, the American Revolution, the French Revolution, and the Russian Revolution.^[20]

In time, scholars began to analyze hundreds of other events as revolutions (see List of revolutions and rebellions), and differences in definitions and approaches gave rise to new definitions and explanations. The theories of the second generation have been criticized for their limited geographical scope, difficulty in empirical verification, as well as that while they may explain some particular revolutions, they did not explain why revolutions did not occur in other societies in very similar situations.^[18]

The criticism of the second generation led to the rise of a third generation of theories, with writers such as Theda Skocpol, Barrington Moore, Jeffrey Paige, and others expanding on the old Marxist class conflict approach, turning their attention to rural agrarian-state conflicts, state conflicts with autonomous elites, and the impact of interstate economic and military competition on domestic political change. Particularly Skocpol’s States and Social Revolutions became one of the most widely recognized works of the third generation; Skocpol defined revolution as «rapid, basic transformations of society’s state and class structures […] accompanied and in part carried through by class-based revolts from below», attributing revolutions to a conjunction of multiple conflicts involving state, elites and the lower classes.^[18]

From the late 1980s, a new body of scholarly work began questioning the dominance of the third generation’s theories. The old theories were also dealt a significant blow by new revolutionary events that could not be easily explained by them. The Iranian and Nicaraguan Revolutions of 1979, the 1986 People Power Revolution in the Philippines and the 1989 Autumn of Nations in Europe saw multi-class coalitions topple seemingly powerful regimes amidst popular demonstrations and mass strikes in nonviolent revolutions.

Defining revolutions as mostly European violent state versus people and class struggles conflicts was no longer sufficient. The study of revolutions thus evolved in three directions, firstly, some researchers were applying previous or updated structuralist theories of revolutions to events beyond the previously analyzed, mostly European conflicts. Secondly, scholars called for greater attention to conscious agency in the form of ideology and culture in shaping revolutionary mobilization and objectives. Third, analysts of both revolutions and social movements realized that those phenomena have much in common, and a new ‘fourth generation’ literature on contentious politics has developed that attempts to combine insights from the study of social movements and revolutions in hopes of understanding both phenomena.^[18]

Further, social science research on revolution, primarily work in political science, has begun to move beyond individual or comparative case studies towards large-N empirical studies assessing the causes and implications of revolution. Initial studies generally rely on the Polity Project’s data on democratization.^[21] Such analyses, like those by Enterline,^[22] Maoz,^[23] and Mansfield and Snyder,^[24] identify revolutions based on regime changes indicated by a change in the country’s score on Polity’s autocracy to democracy scale. More recently, scholars like Jeff Colgan have argued that Polity, which measures the degree of democratic or autocratic authority in a state’s governing institutions based on the openness of executive recruitment, constraints on executive authority, and political competition, is inadequate because it measures democratization, not revolution, and fails to account for regimes which come to power by revolution but fail to change the structure of the state and society sufficiently to yield a notable difference in Polity score.^[25] Instead, Colgan offers a new data set on revolutionary leaders which identifies governments that «transform the existing social, political, and economic relationships of the state by overthrowing or rejecting the principal existing institutions of society.»^[26] This most recent data set has been employed to make empirically-based contributions to the literature on revolution by identifying links between revolution and the likelihood of international disputes.

Revolutions have also been approached from anthropological perspectives. Drawing on Victor Turner’s writings on ritual and performance, Bjorn Thomassen has argued that revolutions can be understood as «liminal» moments: modern political revolutions very much resemble rituals and can therefore be studied within a process approach.^[27] This would imply not only a focus on political behavior «from below», but also to recognize moments where «high and low» are relativized, made irrelevant or subverted, and where the micro and macro levels fuse together in critical conjunctions.

Economist Douglass North argued that it is much easier for revolutionaries to alter formal political institutions such as laws and constitutions than to alter informal social conventions. According to North, inconsistencies between rapidly changing formal institutions and slow-changing informal ones can inhibit effective sociopolitical change. Because of this, the long-term effect of revolutionary political restructuring is often more moderate than the ostensible short-term effect.^[28]

While revolutions encompass events ranging from the relatively peaceful revolutions that overthrew communist regimes to the violent Islamic revolution in Afghanistan, they exclude coups d’état, civil wars, revolts, and rebellions that make no effort to transform institutions or the justification for authority (such as Józef Piłsudski’s May Coup of 1926 or the American Civil War), as well as peaceful transitions to democracy through institutional arrangements such as plebiscites and free elections, as in Spain after the death of Francisco Franco.^[18]

See also

Lists of revolutions

• List of revolutions and rebellions

References

Bibliography

• Katz, Mark N. (1997). Revolutions and Revolutionary Waves. St Martin’s Press. ISBN 978-0312173227.

Further reading

• Beck, Colin J. (2018). «The Structure of Comparison in the Study of Revolution». Sociological Theory. 36 (2): 134–161. doi:10.1177/0735275118777004. S2CID 53669466.
• Ness, Immanuel, ed. (2009). The International Encyclopedia of Revolution and Protest: 1500 to the Present. Malden, MA: Wiley & Sons. ISBN 978-1-4051-8464-9.
• Popovic, Srdja (2015). Blueprint for Revolution: How to use rice pudding, Lego men, and other nonviolent techniques to galvanize communities, overthrow dictators, or simply change the world. New York: Spiegel and Grau. ISBN 978-0-8129-9530-5.
• Perreau-Sausine, Emile (Spring 2005). «Les libéraux face aux révolutions : 1688, 1789, 1917, 1933» [Liberals facing revolutions: 1688, 1789, 1917, 1933]. Commentaire (in French). pp. 181–193.

External links

• Arendt, Hannah (1963). IEP.UTM.edu. On Revolution. Penguin Classics. New Ed edition: February 8, 1991. ISBN 0-14-018421-X.

Last Updated:
5 Apr 2023
— Updated example sentences

2a : a sudden, radical, or complete change. b : a fundamental change in political organization especially : the overthrow or renunciation of one government or ruler and the substitution of another by the governed. c : activity or movement designed to effect fundamental changes in the socioeconomic situation.

What is a revolution in your own words?

A revolution is a very sharp change made to something. The word comes from Latin, and is related to the word revolutio (which means a turn around). Revolutions are usually political in their nature. Often, revolutions include fighting, and civil unrest. But there are also revolutions that happen without fighting.

What is ment revolution?

A revolution is a successful attempt by a large group of people to change the political system of their country by force. The period since the revolution has been one of political turmoil.

How does a revolution start?

In political science, a revolution (Latin: revolutio, “a turn around”) is a fundamental and relatively sudden change in political power and political organization which occurs when the population revolts against the government, typically due to perceived oppression (political, social, economic) or political …

What revoke means?

transitive verb. 1 : to annul by recalling or taking back : rescind revoke a will. 2 : to bring or call back.

What is the meaning of revoked message?

A revoke option appears next to a message with a single tick, WhatApp’s indicator that it has been sent to the server, but not delivered to or viewed by the recipient.

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Revocation means that your visa is no longer valid and cannot be used to re-enter the U.S. Visas may be revoked at the U.S. government’s discretion. However, this typically occurs only under extreme circumstances.

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What does revoking an account do? When you revoke a user or manager from a shared account, it closes that account. This means that the user will no longer have access to their Rev account, including any past orders. As the account owner, you will still be able to access these orders.

What is an uplink account?

Uplink is the name of the Indiana Department of Workforce Development’s Unemployment Insurance system. Through Uplink Employer Self Service (ESS), you have access to services, 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. ESS allow you to: Apply for new account status online. Review and manage your account information in detail.

What do I do if my Chegg account is revoked?

Yes, if you are getting re-directed to homepage repeatedly, then your account has been revoked. Experts are paid for all the valid solutions submitted by them at the time of final payment settlement after account revocation. Payments are settled in the upcoming payment cycle (15th date of the upcoming month).

What activities lead to revocation of an answering privilege?

A. Not Answering Any Question B. Any Violation Of Our Honor Code Would Result In Revocation Of Your Answering Privileges Being Inactive For A Month D.

How do I reactivate my suspended Chegg account?

If you have been revoked due to quality or spamming issues there is only one way you can reactivate your account that is by requesting your coordinator. Usually they reject your request because quality is most important at chegg. You can reapply after 8 months.

Which of the following practices must an expert not avoid?

the basic practices in an experiment should never be avoided by an expert. Explanation: One of the most important practice that is followed by every scientist is the precautionary measures. Precautionary measures not only helps to prevent any accident but also decreases the requirement of the raw materials.

Does skipping questions affect CF score?

Skipping more questions with valid reason will not lead to revocation of your account or decrease in CF score. Although, it may limit your earnings as you will only be answering questions from limited pool of questions.

What is revolution in short answer?

The definition of a revolution is the movement of one object around a center or another object, a forceful overthrow of a government by the people or any sudden or grand change. An example of revolution is movement of the earth around the sun.

How do you use revolution in a sentence?

Revolution in a Sentence 🔉

1. The industrial revolution changed many of the ways in which farming was performed.
2. Tired of the dictatorship that ruled over them, the people took up arms and began a revolution to replace the government with a democracy.
3. The revolution replaced the dictator’s absolute power with democracy.

What is the revolution of a story?

The protagonists’ gifts are expressed in the Revolution Scene. This is the Core Event and Climax of the Society story where power either changes hands from the subjugators to the subjugated (protagonists succeed) or the subjugators remain in power (protagonists fail). The winner and the loser are made clear.

How does a revolution change society?

The Revolution also unleashed powerful political, social, and economic forces that would transform the post-Revolution politics and society, including increased participation in politics and governance, the legal institutionalization of religious toleration, and the growth and diffusion of the population.

What are the major causes of revolution?

In other words, similar to Johnson’s (1966) thesis, revolution is caused by the gap between political mobilization of the people and the inability of political institutions (or their failure to continuously adapt) to absorb the mobilized masses into politics.

How did the American Revolution challenge the existing order of society?

The American Revolution challenged that social order in many areas on American society. For example it challenged the order by limiting some of the rules placed on society. Jefferson said that “all men were created equal”, but women and slaves was not equal in society. Women had no rights before.

Why is revolution important for us?

First, the American Revolution secured the independence of the United States from the dominion of Great Britain and separated it from the British Empire. Today most of the world’s nations are at least nominal republics, due in no small way to the success of the American republic.

The British benefited the most, from one point of view. Most of the Indians fought on their side. These Indians perpetrated no massacres or torture of prisoners on British soldiers or civilians.

What can we learn from the American Revolution?

American revolutionaries found creative ways to change the paradigm of war in their favor. Togetherness: During Revolutionary War times, the individual colonies were not necessarily all on the same page as to what they wanted their future to be. However, these differences did not get in their way.

How did the proclamation of 1763 lead to the American Revolution?

The proclamation was intended to prevent the outbreak of another costly war like the French and Indian war by preventing further expansion into the contested areas. it was also intended to keep the colonists near the coast.

Why would the proclamation of 1763 upset the colonists?

The Royal Proclamation of 1763 was very unpopular with the colonists. This angered the colonists. They felt the Proclamation was a plot to keep them under the strict control of England and that the British only wanted them east of the mountains so they could keep an eye on them.

How did the proclamation of 1763 lead to the American Revolution quizlet?

How did the Royal Proclamation of 1763 cause the revolutionary war? British leaders feared that more fighting would take place on the frontier if colonists kept moving onto American Indian lands. This law banned British settlement west of the Appalachian Mountains.

What was the result of the proclamation of 1763 quizlet?

What was the Proclamation of 1763? The proclamation was a law that forbade colonists of to settle west of the Appalachian mountains.

Which of the following was a result of the proclamation of 1763?

It was the first measure to affect all thirteen colonies. The edict forbade private citizens and colonial governments alike from buying land or making any agreements with natives; the empire would conduct all official relations. Furthermore, only licensed traders would be allowed to travel west or deal with Indians.

What was the primary purpose of the proclamation of 1763 quizlet?

The purpose of the Proclamation of 1763 was to stabilize the relationship between the colonists and the Native Americans.

Why did the British issue the proclamation of 1763 quizlet?

In 1763, at the end of the French and Inidan War, the British issued a proclamation, mainly intended to conciliate the Indians by checking the encroachment of settlers on their lands.

What best describes the events of the Boston Massacre?

The Boston Massacre was a street battle that took place on March 5, 1770, between a “patriot” mob, dropping snowballs, bricks, and sticks, and a battalion of British forces. Several colonists were killed, and this led to a project by speech-writers to try and create the outrage of the citizenry.

Which of the following was the most immediate effect of the Proclamation of 1763? The British Empire’s Proclamation of 1763 prohibited white settlers from crossing over the Appalachian mountains into territory reserved for Native Americans.

What are the causes and effects of the proclamation of 1763?

The Proclamation of 1763 was a law prohibiting the colonists to move west of the Appalachian Mountains. Cause: England was still in debt from the French and Indian War and didn’t want to start another war. Effect: Colonists became angry and moved west anyway because owning land was important (you needed it to be vote).

What was one difficulty associated with the proclamation of 1763?

What was one difficulty associated with the Proclamation of 1763? Many land speculators continued to illegally buy native lands in secret. You just studied 17 terms!

What were the 3 goals of the proclamation of 1763?

What are the three goals of the Proclamation of 1763? Settlers were not to go west of the appalachian mountains. further purchases from indians of land to the east of that line were prohibited. the indian territories west of the proclamation line would be underthe authority of the military.

What did the proclamation of 1763 forbade British colonists from doing?

The Proclamation Line of 1763 was a British-produced boundary marked in the Appalachian Mountains at the Eastern Continental Divide. Decreed on October 7, 1763, the Proclamation Line prohibited Anglo-American colonists from settling on lands acquired from the French following the French and Indian War.

What was the main goal of the royal proclamation?

The Royal Proclamation is a document that set out guidelines for European settlement of Aboriginal territories in what is now North America. The Royal Proclamation was initially issued by King George III in 1763 to officially claim British territory in North America after Britain won the Seven Years War.

Who benefited from the Proclamation of 1763?

After Britain won the Seven Years’ War and gained land in North America, it issued the Royal Proclamation of 1763, which prohibited American colonists from settling west of Appalachia. The Treaty of Paris, which marked the end of the French and Indian War, granted Britain a great deal of valuable North American land.

How did the proclamation of 1763 affect Canada?

It established the basis for governing the North American territories surrendered by France to Britain in the Treaty of Paris, 1763, following the Seven Years’ War. The Royal Proclamation also set the constitutional structure for the negotiation of treaties with the Indigenous inhabitants of large sections of Canada.

What is a revolution? Revolutions are the great turning points of history. A revolution is a tumultuous and transformative event that attempts to change a nation, a region or society – and in some cases even the world.

Common features

Revolutions vary in their motives and their aims. Some, like the American Revolution, seek to overthrow and replace the political order. Others, like the Russian and Chinese revolutions, also seek radical social and economic change.

Revolutions do share common features, however. One is that they are fast-moving. In a short time, often just a few years, a revolution can bring about significant change and upheaval.

Most revolutions are driven by people and groups inspired by hope, idealism and dreams of a better society. These revolutionaries attempt to change or overthrow the old order while the old order strives to maintain its power. The outcomes are confrontation, conflict, disruption and division, which can lead to war, violence and human suffering.

Eventually, the revolutionaries emerge triumphant and set about trying to create a better society. In most cases, this proves much more difficult than they had anticipated.

All revolutions are unique to their times, locations and conditions. They do not follow a single plan or model. Despite this, several revolutions have followed a similar course: they have unfolded and developed in stages or phases. Some of these phases are discussed below.

Long-term causes

Revolutions do not occur suddenly or ‘out of the blue’. They develop after a long accumulation of grievances and dissatisfaction. These grievances can be political, economic or social, or a combination of the three.

These grievances on their own may not be enough to spark a rebellion or revolution – however, they can undermine or erode faith in the ruling class, the political order or prevailing economic system. Ordinary people become dissatisfied and frustrated with their lot. Revolutionary sentiment begins to circulate and grow.

These unsettling ideas might simmer for years or even decades before any action is taken. They provide a fertile intellectual ground in which the seeds of revolution can germinate.

Short-term causes

Every revolution is triggered by at least one short-term event or crisis. These events create, worsen or highlight existing grievances, conditions or suffering. This brings about more urgent demands for action or reform.

Some events or crises that might trigger a revolution include disastrous wars or military defeats, the passing of unpopular laws, government resistance to reform, a rapid deterioration in economic conditions or standards of living, or an act of violence against the people.

Revolutionary sentiment intensifies when people believe the old regime is unwilling or incapable of reform and improvement. If the revolutionaries realise change and reform will not come ‘from above’, they become more determined to bring about change ‘from below’.

Ideology

Ideas play a critical part in all revolutions. Those who seek change are motivated by new ideas about politics, economics or society.

Revolutionary ideas are developed, adapted and articulated by important writers and thinkers, such as Jefferson and Paine in America, the philosophes in France and Marx in Russia. These ideas promote revolution, explain their objectives and justify their actions.

In the American and French revolutions, for example, old ideas about monarchy and the ‘divine right of kings’ were challenged by Enlightenment ideas of self-government and republicanism. The revolutions in Russia and China were underpinned first by liberal republicanism, then later by Marxist socialism.

Revolutions often involve a struggle of ideas between the old order and the revolutionaries – or indeed between different revolutionary factions.

Flashpoints

In the timeline of every revolution, there are critical moments when revolutionaries come into direct confrontation with the forces of the old regime.

This may be a showdown between government troops and protesting civilians, such as in Boston (America, March 1770) or on ‘Bloody Sunday’ (Russia, January 1905). Alternatively, it may be a confrontation of words or ideas, like the signing of the Declaration of Independence (America, July 1776) or the passing of the Tennis Court Oath (France, June 1789).

Whatever form they take, these flashpoints bring revolutionary ideas and movements to a head. They directly challenge the power and authority of the old regime and bring about an acceleration in the pace of revolution.

Armed struggle

Revolutions, by their nature, are violent struggles between the old regime and those who hope to remove it. Many revolutionaries prepare for armed struggle by forming militias or armies, either to protect themselves or to overthrow the old order. Meanwhile, the old regime mobilises to defend its grip on power.

Eventually, the two forces will clash – such as at Lexington Concord (America, April 1775), the Bastille (France, July 1789) and the Winter Palace (Russia, October 1917). This may lead to war.

If revolutionary war unfolds, society becomes polarised and individuals and regions are forced to take sides. The outcomes of revolutionary war may be dispossession, death and destruction.

A grab for power

Having openly demanded change and signalled their intention to fight, the revolutionaries will seek to displace or overthrow the old order.

How easily this is achieved depends on the level of popular support and military backing enjoyed by the old regime. Sometimes the old regime is so weak that a transition of political power is made swiftly and with minimal violence, such as in China (October 1911) and Russia (February-March 1917).

Sometimes the old regime may lose its political power gradually or incrementally, as occurred in France in 1788-1789. There may be a period of military struggle or attempted counter-revolution, as conservative forces resist political change and attempt to restore the power of the old regime.

Consolidation and confrontation

Once it has claimed control, the new regime will look to consolidate its grip on power. It must defeat remaining military threats or deal with lingering counter-revolutionaries. It must also face the challenge of rebuilding the new society.

Having thrown off the old political system, the revolutionaries must devise and implement a new one. Most importantly, the new regime must earn the support of the people – not just those who supported the revolution but the population at large. 

The new regime must find solutions for the same social or economic problems and grievances that caused the revolution, such as debt, inflation, food shortages or the misuse of power. They must justify their actions by fulfilling their promises and the ideals of the revolution.

Division and factionalism

As the new regime attempts to rebuild society, it may become divided over aims and methods.

Revolutions tend to be better at destruction than construction. They are more effective at dismantling the old order than deciding what will replace it. Plans for a new society are often formed ‘on the run’, in the fires of the revolution.

As these plans appear, ideological divisions may emerge. The revolutionaries may disagree and form internal factions or separate groups. There may be some dispute, even conflict over the future of the new society. New leaders with different ideas or methods may also appear.

Radicalisation

After the revolution, the new society may enter a period of radical political leadership. Radical leaders may claim the revolution is failing to meet its objectives; or that the needs of the people are not being met; or that the revolution is in danger from civil war, counter-revolutionaries or foreign threats.

The radicals may seek to address these problems with extreme measures, such as war, terror, grain seizures or price controls. In doing so, it may encounter opposition from political opponents, moderates or the ordinary people.

This radical phase may also mark a peak in state-sanctioned violence, such as during the Reign of Terror (France, 1793-94) and the Red Terror (Russia, 1918).

Moderation

A radical phase will come to an end when the new regime becomes more moderate. The new government may relax its position or, alternatively, the radicals may be displaced by moderates.

Radical policies and methods are abandoned and possibly discredited. The radicals may be isolated or excluded; there may even be a period of violent retribution against them (often dubbed a ‘White Terror’).

The new society winds back its radical policies and seeks to restore order, control, stability and prosperity. In most cases, it does this by returning to some of the structures, conventions and policies of earlier times – including from before the revolution.

Historical interpretations

Historians over time have offered many different interpretations of revolutions, their causes and their meaning.

The American historian Crane Brinton (1898-1968), who specialised in the French Revolution, famously likened revolutions to a “fever”. This analogy suggests that revolutions are a negative event, like an illness that needs to be treated or cured. Brinton described radical revolutionaries as “lunatics” and the moderates who slow or halt revolutionary change as “level-headed”.

Other historians have more measured views about revolutions. They see them as inevitable, human-driven events that are necessary for society to develop, progress and advance.

Citation information
Title: “What is a revolution?”
Authors: Michael McConnell, Steve Thompson
Publisher: Alpha History
URL: https://alphahistory.com/vcehistory/what-is-a-revolution/
Date published: June 20, 2018
Copyright: The content on this page may not be republished without our express permission. For more information on usage, please refer to our Terms of Use.

Online, said the term «revolution» was «a little drastic» for what was going on. ❋ Lizzie Simon (2011)

At that time Khomeini’s old friend grand Ayatollah Shariatmadari wrote a fatwa denouncing the events and for the first time used the term revolution using one of the verses of the Quran. ❋ Unknown (2009)

If you remember Figure 2.1 from Chapter 2, you might wonder whether this leap in performance from classic mass production, as practiced by GM, to classic lean production, as performed by Toyota, really deserves the term revolution. ❋ James P. Womack (2007)

In recent years the term revolution has been used to describe changes in SCIENCE, PHILOSOPHY and in terms of PARADIGMS following the work of Thomas KUHN. ❋ Unknown (1993)

In the West, the term revolution is now most commonly used to denote some above-average variation in style of life, production methods, or marketing; elsewhere it serves to designate violent seizures of power of the kind that used to be called coups d’état. ❋ Lewis, Bernard (1988)

The term revolution in these cases stresses the suddenness and the radical nature of the new development; it has no further implication than to signify a change brought about by ❋ FELIX GILBERT (1968)

The sum total of such changes may be claimed to have revolutionised warfare, but the term revolution should be reserved, for some more specific scientific innovation, which threatens to change the nature of war rather than merely improve existing weapons. ❋ Unknown (1921)

WE generally apply the term revolution to sudden political changes, but the expression may be employed to denote all sudden transformations, or transformations apparently sudden, whether of beliefs, ideas, or doctrines. ❋ Unknown (1913)

«There is an internal conflict, the word revolution is not being used — it is a not a revolutionary situation, believe me,» he said. ❋ Unknown (2012)

While this narrative is appealing and might eventually have validity, the term revolution is not yet appropriate; this is still ❋ Unknown (2010)

Because at whatever stage the revolution is at, at the moment, it will always be struggling against those who do not agree with the revolutionary goals. ❋ John Storhm (2009)

«I wouldn’t use the word revolution, because Belarusans are just calm people,» Robert Tyszkiewicz, who heads a committee on Belarus in the Polish parliament, said in a recent interview. ❋ Unknown (2011)

Man and nature will jointly benefit when this revolution is accomplished. ❋ Unknown (2009)

Tagged with class struggle, communism, Marx, the revolution is here ❋ Unknown (2009)

Back in Al Manara Square, Abtihal Eroush, 25, says while life under Israeli occupation is difficult, she is encouraged by what she calls the revolution in Egypt. ❋ Unknown (2011)

«A [little] revolution is [a good thing]» -Thomas [Jefferson] ❋ Kaladbolg (2003)

[Revolution] of [macaroni and cheese]. ❋ Ass Cheese (2003)

what [we need] ❋ R (2004)

[Revolutions] are so [much] [fun]. ❋ DarkMillennia (2003)

1. [Viva la revolution]! (The revolution lives!)
2. It takes 365.24 days for the Earth to make a full revolution [around the sun] (according to the [atomic clock]), which is why our leap year adds another day every four years— to make it reach 365.25. Because these numbers don’t match exactly, our years are actually inaccurate, moreso as time goes on. ❋ ~The Nameless One~ (2005)

«I this age of knowledge
we learn all we can learn
the [revolutions] coming
[the old] order will [burn]»
(J. Wisbey from ‘Songs For The New Nations’1995) ❋ Black Flag (2004)

[Castro] [came] to [power] through a revolution. ❋ Small Dog Named Karl (2003)

«[Revolution] is fine, I guess…but all attempts to change [humanity] are [feeble].» ❋ I Hate Bhudda (2003)

[This generation] is bringing a revolution into [motion]. ❋ Amessenger (2008)

«[You say] you want a revolution well you know we all [wanna] [change] the world» ❋ Rick (2005)

English[edit]

Etymology[edit]

From Middle English revolucion, borrowed from Old French revolucion, from Late Latin revolūtiōnem, accusative singular of revolūtiō (“the act of revolving; revolution”), from Latin revolvō (“roll back, revolve”).

Pronunciation[edit]

• IPA^(key): /ˌɹɛv.əˈl(j)uː.ʃən/
• Rhymes: -uːʃən
• Hyphenation: re‧vo‧lu‧tion

Noun[edit]

revolution (countable and uncountable, plural revolutions)

1. A political upheaval in a government or state characterized by great change.
2. The removal and replacement of a government, especially by sudden violent action.

   • 1837, George Sand, Stanley Young, transl., Mauprat‎^[1], Cassandra Editions, published 1977, →ISBN, page 237:

     For a long time the dormouse and polecat had seemed to him overfeeble enemies for his restless valour, even as the granary floor seemed to afford too narrow a field. Every day he read the papers of the previous day in the servants’ hall of the houses he visited, and it appeared to him that this war in America, which was hailed as the awakening of the spirit of liberty and justice in the New World, ought to produce a revolution in France.

3. Rotation: the turning of an object around an axis, one complete turn of an object during rotation.
   • 1912, P. M. Heldt, The Gasoline Automobile: Its Design and Construction, Volume II: Transmission, Running Gear and Control, The Horseless Age Co. (1913), page 147:

     The ratio between the speeds of revolution of wheel and disc is substantially equal to the reciprocal of the ratio between the diameter of the wheel and the diameter of the mean contact circle on the disc.

   • 1864, D. M. Warren, The Common-School Geography, Revised Edition, H. Cowperthwait & Co., page 6:

     The Earth has two motions: a daily revolution (or turning around) upon its axis, and a yearly course around the sun.

   • 1878, George Fleming, A Text-Book of Veterinary Obstetrics, Baillière, Tindall, & Cox, page 123:

     Numerous cases are recorded which incontestibly prove that during pregnancy, the uterus perform a half or even a complete revolution, on itself, producing torsion of the cervix […]

4. In the case of celestial bodies, the traversal of one body along an orbit around another body.
5. A sudden, vast change in a situation, a discipline, or the way of thinking and behaving.
6. A round of periodic changes, such as between the seasons of the year.
7. Consideration of an idea; the act of revolving something in the mind.

Usage notes[edit]

• Astronomers today do not use revolution to refer to the turning of an object about an axis: they use rotation for that, and revolution only for the traversal of a body through an orbit (which also happens around some axis). (This may be somewhat customary, however, strictly speaking, using either word for either process would not be incorrect.)

Antonyms[edit]

• (sudden, vast change): evolution

Hyponyms[edit]

• (sudden, vast change): quiet revolution

Derived terms[edit]

• Revolution
• revolutionary
• revolutionize
• the revolution will not be civilized
• the revolution will not be televised

Compounds

• agricultural revolution
• French Revolution
• Green Revolution
• Industrial Revolution
• information revolution
• Orange Revolution
• palace revolution
• quiet revolution
• Reagan Revolution
• robot revolution
• Rose Revolution
• Russian Revolution
• sexual revolution
• solid of revolution
• White Revolution

[edit]

• revolve

Translations[edit]

Further reading[edit]

• «revolution» in Raymond Williams, Keywords (revised), 1983, Fontana Press, page 270.

Danish[edit]

Etymology[edit]

From French révolution.

Pronunciation[edit]

• IPA^(key): /rɛvolusjoːn/, [ʁɛvoluˈɕoːˀn]

Noun[edit]

revolution c (singular definite revolutionen, plural indefinite revolutioner)

1. revolution (political upheaval)
2. revolution (removal and replacement of a government)
3. revolution (sudden, vast change in a situation or discipline)

Inflection[edit]

Derived terms[edit]

• revolutionere
• revolutionær

Further reading[edit]

• revolution on the Danish Wikipedia.Wikipedia ^da

Interlingua[edit]

Pronunciation[edit]

• IPA^(key): /revoluˈt͡sjon/

Noun[edit]

revolution (plural revolutiones)

1. revolution

Swedish[edit]

Pronunciation[edit]

• IPA^(key): /rɛvʊlɵˈɧuːn/

Noun[edit]

revolution c

1. a revolution (upheaval, replacement of government, sudden change)

Declension[edit]

Declension of revolution
	Singular	Plural
Indefinite	Definite	Indefinite	Definite
Nominative	revolution	revolutionen	revolutioner	revolutionerna
Genitive	revolutions	revolutionens	revolutioners	revolutionernas

[edit]

• revolt
• revoltera
• revolutionsgardist

1	0   0 See Earth revolution.

2	0   0 Revolution 1 [countable, uncountable] an attempt, by a large number of people, to change the government of a country, especially by violent action a socialist revolution the outbreak of the American Revolution i [..]

3	0   0 Revolution late 14c., originally of celestial bodies, from Old French revolucion «course, revolution (of celestial bodies)» (13c.), or directly from Late Latin revolutionem (nominative revolutio) » [..]

4	0   0 Revolution  one complete turn through 360º.

5	0   0 Revolution orbit, or a complete journey of an object around a more massive object.

6	0   0 Revolution overthrow or total change of government.

7	0   0 Revolution The orbital motion of one object around another. The Earth revolves around the Sun in one year. The moon revolves around the Earth in approximately 28 days.

8	0   0 Revolution a drastic and far-reaching change in ways of thinking and behaving; "the industrial revolution was also a cultural revolution" the overthrow of a government by those who are [..]

9	0   0 Revolution the overthrowing of a government by rebels who want another kind of government

10	0   0 Revolution The orbital motion of one object around another. The Earth revolves around the Sun in one year. The moon revolves around the Earth in approximately 28 days.

11	0   0 Revolution A revolution is a historical period involving dramatic political, social and/or economic change in a particular nation or region.

12	0   0 Revolution Sudden and radical change in society; a complete overthrow of an established government or political system.

13	0   0 Revolution A rotation through a full circle, or 360 degrees.

14

0   0 Revolution The overthrow of a government by the governed; a process of change involving the mobilization of a mass social movement in order to radically transform society. It also refers to a drastic and far reaching political, economic, social, or technological change (as in the Agricultural or Industrial Revolutions). Finally, it refers to a category in Rob [..]

15	0   0 Revolution The codename given to a Nintendo game console system while in its development and beta phases. The Revolution codename is the console which was released under the official name of Wii. The Wii was rel [..]

16	0   0 Revolution The circling of a smaller object around a larger object.

17	0   0 Revolution — A way to describe the movement of one celestial body as it orbits another. A complete revolution is a complete orbit.

18	0   0 Revolution (n) — the movement of an object around another object

19	0   0 Revolution The movement of a celestial body in an orbit around another celestial body.

20	0   0 Revolution The movement of one mass around another.

21	0   0 Revolution  motion of a body that travels around another body in space. ribonucleic acid (RNA)

22	0   0 Revolution the violent overthrow of a governmental system, as in the

23	0   0 Revolution A large-scale change in the political leadership of a society and the restructuring of major features of that society.

24	0   0 Revolution A more or less sudden, complete, and often violent movement to change a political or social system.

25	0   0 Revolution (n) a drastic and far-reaching change in ways of thinking and behaving(n) the overthrow of a government by those who are governed(n) a single complete turn (axial or orbital)

26	0   0 Revolution One complete voyage of a celestial body around its point of orbit (Lesson 29)

27	0   0 Revolution the overthrow of a government by those who are governed

28	0   0 Revolution Armed Conflict that resulted in separation of American colonies from Britain and established the United States of America.

29	0   0 Revolution Conflict during which traditional monarchy was ended and modern Government functions were instituted.

30	0   0 Revolution Process of the Earth circling the sun in its orbit. Revolution determines the seasons, and the length of the year. In addition, differences in seasons occur because of Earth’s inclination (tilt o [..]

31

0   0 Revolution In Gnosis, the revolution is the battle of the consciousness against the ego. This revolution is symbolized in many ways, in many traditions, often as a war (The Mahabarata). This is a revolution against animal instinct, desire, mechanicity and complacency, all of which make up our own mind.

32	0   0 Revolution Orbital motion of a body around a common center of mass or another body.

33	0   0 Revolution Orbital motion about a primary.

34	0   0 Revolution The orbital motion of one object around another. The Earth revolves around the Sun in one year. The moon revolves around the Earth in approximately 28 days.

35	0   0 Revolution A political upheaval in a government or nation state characterized by great change. The removal and replacement of a government. Rotation: the turning of an object around an axis. * »’1912»’, [..]

36	0   0 Revolution Any of several political/military revolutions (or revolutionary wars), taken specifically.

37	0   0 Revolution revolution|lang=en * »’1820»’ July 31st, »», ? 10,999, [http://www.newspapers.com/image/32769607/ page 2/5] : *: We wish to speak te [..]

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Kill all the rich people. Break up their cars and apartments. Bring the revolution home, kill your parents, that’s where it’s really at.

Bill Ayers

ETYMOLOGY OF THE WORD REVOLUTION

Via Old French from Late Latin revolūtiō, from Latin revolvere to revolve.

PRONUNCIATION OF REVOLUTION

GRAMMATICAL CATEGORY OF REVOLUTION

Revolution is a noun.

WHAT DOES REVOLUTION MEAN IN ENGLISH?

Definition of revolution in the English dictionary

The first definition of revolution in the dictionary is the overthrow or repudiation of a regime or political system by the governed. Other definition of revolution is the violent and historically necessary transition from one system of production in a society to the next, as from feudalism to capitalism. Revolution is also a far-reaching and drastic change, esp in ideas, methods, etc.

WORDS THAT RHYME WITH REVOLUTION

SYNONYMS OF «REVOLUTION»

The following words have a similar or identical meaning as «revolution» and belong to the same grammatical category.

TRANSLATION OF REVOLUTION

Find out the translation of revolution to 25 languages with our English multilingual translator.

TENDENCIES OF USE OF THE TERM «REVOLUTION»

The term «revolution» is very widely used and occupies the 5.016 position in our list of most widely used terms in the English dictionary.

Principal search tendencies and common uses of revolution

FREQUENCY OF USE OF THE TERM «REVOLUTION» OVER TIME

10 QUOTES WITH «REVOLUTION»

Famous quotes and sentences with the word revolution.

10 ENGLISH BOOKS RELATING TO «REVOLUTION»

Discover the use of revolution in the following bibliographical selection. Books relating to revolution and brief extracts from same to provide context of its use in English literature.

10 NEWS ITEMS WHICH INCLUDE THE TERM «REVOLUTION»

Find out what the national and international press are talking about and how the term revolution is used in the context of the following news items.

REFERENCE

« EDUCALINGO. Revolution [online]. Available <https://educalingo.com/en/dic-en/revolution>. Apr 2023 ».