Revolutuions

History’s turning points are frequently violent events. Revolutions are perhaps the most interesting, because they are often attended and caused by a significant change in thought or practice. The immediate causes of revolutions are often similar: a weak or unwise ruler such as Charles I and James II of England; Louis XVI or Charles X of France; or Nicholas II of Russia – in a place and time that necessitates a strong and wise one.

Another interesting feature of revolutions is that the outcome can differ greatly: the establishment of a new state such as the United States of America; a personal dictatorship, very aberrational and unique in the society’s history nature, such as that of Napoleon in France; or the ensconcing of a new ideology, as was the case with Communist Russia after the 1917 Revolution.

History seems to show a curious trait of most revolutions: they are, like Shakespeare’s Henry V, “too famous to live long”. Hitler’s “revolution” in Germany, the French Revolution, and the English Civil War are all examples of this. Rather than causing a permanent sea-change, these revolutions instead caused adjustments to previous systems. But all have in common the facts that they are unexpected, though perhaps not unforeseeable, chaotic, highly wasteful of human life, and, though interesting to read, they are difficult to live through. These pages will take you through some of the important revolutions of history.