How many revolutions are there

How many revolutions have occurred in the history of the world? Are they all violent? As revolutions around the world continue to make front page news, we asked Jack Goldstone, author of Revolutions: A Very Short Introduction , to help us pull together a timeline of the revolutions that have shaped the world.

One of the biggest changes in the history of revolutions is the recent shift from revolutions being mainly violent events, marked by terror and civil war, to being the result of non-violent mass uprisings that force rulers from power and usher in new political systems.

What determines whether revolutions that start as protests continue and succeed peacefully, or turn bloody? It is mainly the reactions of state rulers, who may take a hint and leave, or decide to ratchet up repression and thus trigger a descent into violence. In Libya and Syria, it was the decisions by Moammar Qaddafi and Bashar al-Assad to turn their troops loose against peaceful protesters that led to the oppositions arming for civil war.

Indeed, there are some who claim that western liberalism has now failed. Elsewhere, the anger is popular rather than populist. In upheavals from Lebanon and Iraq to Zimbabwe and Chile, resentment is particularly focused on the evidence of widespread corruption as elites flout the basic norms of transparency and equity in siphoning government money into their pockets and those of their cronies.

The United Nations, meanwhile, is floundering in its attempt to provide alternative leadership through a rules-based international system. The state of the world economy also plays a role.

In places where economic growth is stagnant, minor price increases are more than just irritants. They explode into rebellions, such as the recent tax on WhatsApp in Lebanon and the metro fare rise in Chile. There was already deep-seated anger in both places. Of course, we do not know how these protest movements will end.

While it is unlikely any of the rebellions will result in revolutionary change, we are witnessing distinctly 21st century upheavals with new characteristics.

One of the most influential approaches to understanding the long-term history and nature of protest and insurrection has come from the American sociologist Charles Tilly. Read more: Animal rights activists in Melbourne: green-collar criminals or civil 'disobedients'? In the interest of stopping the bloodshed, the Qing court began discussing the possibility of a constitutional monarchy, going so far as naming Yuan Shikai as the new premier. Even with the promise of reform, the various Chinese provinces declared their allegiance to the Revolutionary Alliance.

Representatives of the provinces gathered for the first national assembly where they elected Sun Yat-sen as the provisional president of the new Republic of China. In , the emperor abdicated the throne, bringing an end to the imperial system and the centuries-long rule of the Qing dynasty. After negotiating, Yuan Shikai agreed to the formation of the Republic as long as he was named the first official president.

By the beginning of the 20 th century, Russia was one of the most underdeveloped and impoverished countries in Europe. Struggling because of the state of their country, workers protested against the monarchy in , which led to the Bloody Sunday massacre and a failed uprising. Nonetheless, revolutionary fervor was not easily forgotten. World War I crippled the Russian economy and resulted in high death tolls.

Tsar Nicholas II left the country to command the army and inspire his troops, but he turned out to be an ineffective leader. Moreover, he left the country in the hands of his wife, a woman of German descent, unpopular among the population, who was under the influence of Grigori Rasputin, a Russian mystic and self-proclaimed prophet. During the February Revolution of , protestors once again took to the streets of Petrograd—modern-day Saint Petersburg.

Unlike the revolution in , however, this time they were joined by a significant number of soldiers who had lost faith in their ruler. A few days after the new provisional government was formed, Tsar Nicolas II abdicated the throne, bringing an end to the Romanov dynasty and the imperial system. Lenin championed a new Soviet government ruled not by capitalists, but by a collective of peasants, laborers, and soldiers.

In , the Second Republic was formally rebranded as the Second Empire, with Bonaparte on the throne. While all this upheaval totally changed the balance of power in France and it wasn't based on free and fair elections, historians don't call it a revolution, because there was no grassroots violence that triggered it. However, the later demise of Bonaparte's Second Empire did coincide with a revolution of sorts. In , it was clear that France was about to lose a war with Prussia. Bonaparte was captured, and in the midst of the political confusion, republican forces back in Paris seized control and declared the Third Republic.

But while Emperor Bonaparte was basically gone and the republicans were in charge, this didn't signal a significant change in the policies or tone of the government. However, the backlash against this "same old, same old" conservative republic did have some of the trappings of a revolution, such as barricaded streets and communist leaders.