Any rapid, far-reaching, or violent change in the political, social, or economic structure of society. It is usually applied to political change: examples include the American Revolution, where the colonists broke free from their colonial ties and established a sovereign, independent nation; the French Revolution, where an absolute monarchy was overthrown by opposition from inside the country and a popular uprising; and the Russian Revolution, where a repressive monarchy was overthrown by those seeking to institute widespread social and economic changes based on a socialist model. In 1989–90 the Eastern Bloc nations demonstrated against and voted out the Communist Party, in many cases creating a pro-democracy revolution.
While political revolutions are often associated with violence, other types of change can have just as much impact on society. Most notable is the Industrial Revolution of the mid-18th century, which caused massive economic and social changes. In the 1970s and 1980s a high-tech revolution based on the silicon chip took place, facilitating the widespread use of computers.
| 510 BC | Greece | King Cleomenes of Sparta helps the Athenians oust the tyrant Hippias, the son of Pisistratus, and the period of ‘tyranny’ in Athens ends. In return, Athens is forced to join Sparta's Peloponnesian League. |
| 499 BC | Greece | Aristagoras, tyrant of Miletus in Asia Minor, induces the Ionian cities of Asia Minor to revolt against Persia. The Spartans fail to respond to a request for help but Athens and Eretria (in Euboea) send troops. During the revolt, the pro-Persian tyrant of Mytilene is stoned to death. |
| 486 BC | Egypt, Persian Empire | Encouraged by the news of the Greek victory over the Persians at Marathon in 490 BC, the Egyptians revolt against Persian rule after the death of Darius I. |
| 433 BC | Greece | Corcyra and Corinth are at war: Athenian ships are deployed in the Battle of Sybota at the request of Corcyra, a Corinthian colony, enraging the Corinthians. The quarrel spreads to Potidaea in Chalcidice, a member of the Athenian Empire but originally a Corinthian colony, which now revolts in sympathy. |
| 428 BC | Greece | The city of Mytilene takes advantage of Athens' weakened state to revolt. |
| 427 BC | Greece | The Athenian Assembly, influenced by the demagogue Cleon, votes for the destruction of the population of Mytilene, following its revolt and surrender to Athens. However, in response to the pleading of Diodotus, this harsh decision is reversed and only the ringleaders of the Mytilenean revolt are executed. |
| 240 BC–237 BC | Carthage | The rulers of Carthage in north Africa refuse to pay the troops returning from the First Punic War in Sicily, provoking a ruthless civil war in which the proletariat join the mercenaries under Spendius and Matho, who are later executed. The Carthaginian general Hamilcar Barca finally puts down the rebellion. |
| 139 BC | Rome, Spain | The Lusitanian rebel Viriathus is murdered in Spain by his friends, who have been bribed by the Romans, and his rebellion against Rome peters out. |
| 18–27 | China | Peasant revolts break out in China and civil war begins. The usurping emperor Wang Mang is defeated in 22, but the civil wars continue. |
| 61 | UK | Boudicca (Boadicea), Queen of the Iceni of East Anglia, leads a major rebellion against Roman rule. Her people destroy the Roman settlements at Camulodunum (Colchester), Verulamium (St Albans), and Londinium (London). Boudicca commits suicide after her forces are defeated by Suetonius Paulinus, the governor of Britain. His forces defeat and massacre the British tribes of what is now Wales at Mona (modern Anglesey). |
| 66 | Palestine-Roman | A major revolt breaks out in Judea, Palestine, against the Roman procurator Gessius Florus. A vicious war between Jews and Gentiles follows. Jewish extremists seize the Masada, the strongest of Herod the Great's fortresses. |
| 67 | Palestine-Roman | The Roman soldier Vespasian is sent to restore order to Judea, Palestine. The siege and fall of Jotopata in Galilee follows, at which the Jewish general Joseph ben Matthias (later the historian Josephus) surrenders to Vespasian. |
| 70 | Palestine-Roman | Jerusalem is captured and sacked by Titus, elder son of the Roman emperor Vespasian, after a siege lasting 139 days. The Temple is burnt down. |
| 15 April 73 | Palestine-Roman | Herod the Great's fortress of Masada in Judea, Palestine, occupied by Jewish extremists, is taken by the Romans under Flavius Silva after a two-year siege. |
| 89 | Roman Empire, Germany, Dacia | The Roman governor of Upper Germany, Antonius Saturninus, persuades two legions in Mainz to declare him emperor. Emperor Domitian patches up a peace with the Dacian king Decebalus to save Rome from invasion. |
| 602 | Eastern Roman Empire | Determined to break the power of the nomadic Avars, the Eastern Roman emperor Maurice orders his army to winter in the Avar territory on the River Danube. His decision is unpopular and rebellion erupts under the leadership of Phocas, an uneducated centurion. When Maurice is killed while attempting to escape from Constantinople (modern Istanbul, Turkey) to seek help from his ally King Chosroes II of Sassanian Persia, Phocas becomes emperor in Maurice's place. |
| 695 | Byzantine Empire | The Byzantine emperor Justinian II provokes a rebellion by his ruthless taxation policies. He is captured by Leontius, a malcontent general, who cuts off Justinian's nose and banishes him to the Crimea before assuming the throne himself. |
| February 705 | China, Tang Empire | Popular discontent directed against her depraved courtiers leads to a rebellion against the empress Wu Hou of China. She is compelled to abdicate in favour of her son Zhongzong, and she retires to her palace where she is later to die. |
| 4 April 1081 | Poland | A rebellion in Poland forces King Boleslaw II into exile. He is succeeded by his brother, Wladyslaw I Herman, under whom the Polish territories disintegrate in civil war, and the crown falls into abeyance until 1300. |
| 1093 | Holy Roman Empire, Germany, Italy | King Conrad II of Germany rebels against his father, Emperor Henry IV, and is crowned as king of Italy. |
| 1115 | China, Jin Empire | A-ku-ta, leader of the Juchen (or Jurchen, a Tungusic pastoralist people in Manchuria), rebels against his overlords, the Khitans (Qitans) of Liao, and declares himself emperor, with the Chinese dynastic name of ‘Jin’. |
| 1 January 1160 | Almohad Emirate, Sicily, North Africa | The fall of Mahdiyah (in modern Tunisia) to local rebels completes the loss of all the conquests of the kings of Sicily in North Africa. |
| 21 March 1173 | England, France | The ‘young’ king Henry and his brothers Richard, Geoffrey, and John rebel against their father, King Henry II of England, with the help and encouragement of King Louis VII of France. |
| 12 June 1183 | England | Following the death of the ‘young king’ Henry, the first rebellion of King Henry II of England's sons collapses. |
| 1192 | England | With King Richard I the Lionheart absent on crusade, his brother John claims to be king of England. |
| 1341 | China | Rebellions break out in China against the Yüan dynasty. |
| 13 January 1349 | Flanders | Louis of Flanders takes Ghent, Flanders, and completes his suppression of the revolt of the Flemish weavers. |
| 1351 | China | The Chinese government provokes large-scale revolts by impressing labour to rebuild dykes along the Yellow River, and loses control of much of central China. |
| 24 June 1358 | France | The Jacquerie peasant revolt in France is savagely suppressed. |
| 1367 | China | Chu Yüan-chang, having defeated rival rebel leaders, takes Beijing, China, and expels Toghan Temur, the last Yüan (Mongol) emperor. Chu Yüan-chang, under the name Hung-wu, founds the Ming Dynasty, establishing his capital at Nanjing. |
| 21 May 1377 | Germany, Holy Roman Empire | Ulm and thirteen other German towns that are members of the Swabian League defeat the forces sent by the Holy Roman Emperor Charles IV to suppress their organization, at Reutlingen, Germany. |
| 14 June 1381 | England | The ‘peasants' revolt’ against the poll tax in England begins. The rebels (originating mainly from Essex and Kent) occupy London and kill the chancellor, Archbishop Sudbury, and the treasurer, Robert Hales. On the following day, King Richard II of England meets the rebel leader Wat Tyler, who is later killed by the mayor of London, Sir William Walworth. The revolt is subsequently suppressed. |
| 16 September 1400 | Wales, England | Owen Glendower (Owain Glyndwr), Lord of Glydyfrdwy and Cynllaith, revolts following a dispute with Reginald Grey of Ruthin, Lord of Dyfryn Clwyd, a member of the council of King Henry IV of England. |
| February 1457 | China, Ming Empire | A group of military and civil service leaders stage a coup against the ailing Ching Ta'i emperor, the conspirators forcing the palace gate and enthroning the former Cheng-T'ung emperor Ying-tsung (who was deposed while a captive of the Mongol leader Esen in the period 1449–50). Thus begins the T'ien-Shun reign. |
| 26 April 1478 | Florence, Papal States, Italy | Pope Sixtus IV, resentful of Medici intervention against papal authority in the Romagna region of the Papal States, encourages the ‘Pazzi Conspiracy’, an attempted coup in Florence, Italy. Giuliano de' Medici is murdered while at Mass, but his brother and co-ruler Lorenzo survives, and the conspirators are hunted and killed by the populace. |
| 14 January 1485 | France | The Duke of Orléans (the future Louis XII) and Duke Francis II of Brittany lead a coalition of French magnates in defiance of the regent, Anne of Beaujeu, and supporting the rights of the Estates General. Thus begins la Guerre Folle (the ‘Mad War’). |
| May–July 1525 | Holy Roman Empire | The revolution of the German Bauernkrieg (‘Peasants' War’) is defeated by the mobilization of the noble classes at Würzburg and Königshofen in Franconia, at Zabern in Alsace, at Böblingen on the River Neckar, and at Wurzach and Sulzdorf in Swabia; all resistance drowns in blood. |
| 8 February–3 March 1534 | Holy Roman Empire | Jan Matthijszoon and Jan Boekelszoon (John of Leiden) from Holland lead a tempestuous Anabaptist revolution in the German city of Münster, winning council elections on 23 February, despoiling churches, and, from 27 February, expelling Lutherans and Catholics to incorporate Dutch Anabaptist refugees. |
| 23 October 1641 | UK, Ireland | After a period of increasing tension in Ireland following the removal of the strong rule of Thomas Wentworth, Earl of Strafford, the Irish Rebellion breaks out. It is accompanied by a massacre of Ulster Protestants which creates great fear in England. The Long Parliament's desire to control the armed forces that are to be raised to suppress the rebellion causes a further deterioration in relations between King Charles I and Parliament. |
| October 1678 | Hungary, Ottoman Empire, Habsburg Monarchy | Count Imre Thököly emerges as leader of another Hungarian rebellion against Habsburg rule when he launches a series of attacks on mining towns in northern Hungary. By 1680 he occupies nearly all the counties in northern and western Hungary. |
| 7 November 1687 | Ottoman Empire | As a result of Ottoman defeats in the war with Austria, an army mutiny takes place in Constantinople, in which Mehmed IV is deposed in favour of Süleyman II. Fazil Mustafa Pasa Köprülü becomes second Vizier and is promoted, in 1689, to Grand Vizier. |
| 13 November 1715 | UK | The Scottish Jacobite rising known as the ‘Fifteen Rebellion’, in support of James Francis Edward Stuart (the ‘Old Pretender’), is defeated at Sheriffmuir, Scotland, and the revolt subsequently collapses. |
| 29 March 1792 | Sweden | King Gustav III of Sweden is assassinated in the course of an aristocratic coup. |
| 23 May 1798 | Ireland, UK | A rebellion of United Irishmen and Catholic Irish nationalists against British rule breaks out in Ireland. |
| 1 January 1820 | Spain | A revolution begins in Spain due to King Ferdinand VII's failure to adhere to the constitution of 1812 and his sending of troops to South America to put down risings in the Spanish colonies that have attracted much popular support in Spain itself. |
| 6 March 1821 | Ottoman Empire, Russian Empire, Greece | A revolt occurs in the Ottoman province of Moldavia against Turkish rule. The rebels appeal to Tsar Alexander I of Russia for help, and the prospect of a successful Russian-supported revolt while the Ottoman authorities are preoccupied with defeating regional warlords prompts a first (unsuccessful) rebellion in Greece. |
| 3 March 1848 | Hungary | A revolution breaks out in Budapest and on 15 March the Hungarian diet (national assembly) is subsequently granted the reforms it advocated in March 1847, making it effectively independent under Austrian rule. |
| 12–15 March 1848 | Austrian Empire | A revolution in Vienna, the Austrian capital, begins with demonstrations by liberal students, inspired by the revolutions in Paris, France, and Budapest, Hungary. |
| 17 March 1848 | Prussia | Demonstrations in the Prussian capital, Berlin, begin a revolution in Prussia for political reform and the creation of a united Germany. |
| 13 April 1848 | Naples, Sicily, Italy | Sicily, having revolted against the rule of the Bourbon King Ferdinand II of the Two Sicilies, declares itself independent of Naples. |
| 9 August 1848 | Sardinia-Piedmont, Austrian Empire, Lombardy, Italy | Following the decisive Piedmontese defeat at Custozza in the Veneto, an armistice is concluded between Austria and Sardinia-Piedmont at Vigevano, Lombardy, by which Sardinia-Piedmont gives up Lombardy and accepts the status quo as it existed in Italy before the revolutions. |
| 9 February 1849 | Papal States, Italy | The Papal States in Italy are proclaimed a republic (the Roman Republic) under the Italian patriot Giuseppe Mazzini. |
| 3 July 1849 | Papal States | French troops enter Rome despite resistance by the Italian patriot Giuseppe Garibaldi, and restore Pope Pius IX, ending the radical Roman Republic. |
| 13 August 1849 | Hungary, Russian Empire, Austrian Empire | The army of Lajos Kossuth's Hungarian Republic capitulates at Vilagos, Hungary, after determined but hopeless resistance, to Russian troops under General Ivan Paskievich, sent to aid Austria in putting down the Hungarian revolt. |
| 22 January 1863 | Russian Empire | A Polish insurrection against Russian rule begins when the Polish National Committee, a conspiratorial body, publishes a manifesto demanding the reconstitution of an independent Polish state. |
| 30 September 1868 | Spain | Queen Isabella II of Spain flees to France and is declared deposed, following the Liberal revolt against her rule. |
| 20–21 August 1886 | Ottoman Empire | A military coup is effected in Sofia, Bulgaria, by discontented pro-Russian army officers. |
| 23 November 1891 | Brazil | The autocratic president of Brazil Deodoroda Fonseca is driven from office by a naval revolt and is succeeded by Florians Peixoto, who also governs dictatorially. |
| 2 February 1896 | Crete, Greece, Ottoman Empire | A revolution inspired by the Greeks begins on the Ottoman island of Crete in the search for independence from Turkey. |
| 13 June 1900 | China | The Boxer Rebellion by supporters of the Society of Harmonious Fists begins in China, in opposition to the growth of European influence there. |
| 7 September 1901 | China | The Peace of Beijing formally ends the Boxer Rising in China. Under the agreement, China is to pay an indemnity to the European powers, lower tariffs on imports, and accept a strengthening of European protection of its representatives and interests. |
| 12 December 1905 | Persia | A revolution begins in Persia against the corrupt rule of Shah Mohammed Ali. |
| 23 August 1906 | Cuba, USA | A liberal revolt begins in Cuba, protesting against the fraudulent activities of President Tomás Palma's government. President Palma requests US intervention and mediators US war secretary, William Howard Taft, and Robert Bacon arrive on 25 September; Taft commands the Cuban government for 13 days. |
| 23 June 1908 | Persia | In a Russian-backed counter-revolutionary coup, Shah Mohammed Ali overthrows the Persian constitution of December 1906. |
| 13 April 1909 | Anatolia, Ottoman Empire | An army counter-revolution begins in Constantinople (modern Istanbul), Ottoman Empire, against the rule of the Young Turks, following agitation by the Islamic Mohammedan Union. |
| 26 October 1911 | China | A revolutionary Chinese republic is proclaimed by revolutionaries contesting the rule of the Manchu emperors. |
| 18 February 1913 | Mexico | The commander of the Mexican army, Victoriano Huerta, joins the rebel Mexican soldiers and forces President Francisco Madero to resign. He subsequently declares himself president, and civil war ensues. |
| 24 April–1 May 1916 | United Kingdom | With the support of Sinn Fein, members of the Irish Republican Brotherhood take part in the ‘Easter Rising’ in Dublin, Ireland, in an attempt to end British rule in Ireland. The rising is suppressed by British forces after heavy fighting, and its leaders (including Patrick Pearse and James Connolly) are executed. |
| 15 January 1919 | Germany | Volunteer soldiers suppress the Spartacist rising in Berlin, Germany, in which the Spartacist leaders Karl Liebknecht and Rosa Luxemburg are arrested and shot. |
| 13–17 March 1920 | Germany | The ‘Kapp Putsch’ takes place in Germany, the government fleeing when US-born German journalist Wolfgang Kapp and his right wing military supporters seize Berlin, Germany. However, a general strike prevents the conspirators from establishing their authority. |
| 25 July 1934 | Austria | Engelbert Dollfuss, leader of the Fatherland Front, chancellor, and effective fascist dictator of Austria, is assassinated by the Nazis in an attempted coup. |
| 1 March 1935 | Greece | The former Greek prime minister Eleutherios Venizelos leads a rebel group attempting to prevent the restoration of the monarchy. The attempt fails and he flees to France. |
| 18 July 1936 | Spain, Morocco | The right-wing Spanish general Francisco Franco leads an army mutiny in Morocco against the Spanish Republican government. Other mutinies break out on the Spanish mainland, marking the start of the Spanish Civil War. |
| 10 November 1937 | Brazil | The Brazilian president Getúlio Vargas organizes a coup that annuls the 1934 constitution and sets up the totalitarian Estado Novo (New State). |
| 27 March 1941 | Yugoslavia | Prince Paul, Regent of Yugoslavia, is deposed in a coup organized by air force officers exploiting the unpopularity of adherence to the Tripartite Pact between the Axis powers (Germany, Italy, and Japan). |
| 17 June 1953 | East Germany | A strike in East Berlin on 16 June turns into a rising against East Germany's communist government; in the afternoon the Soviet commandant of Berlin proclaims a state of emergency and Soviet military forces put down the rising. |
| 14 July 1958 | Iraq, Jordan | Brigadier Abdul Karim Kassem mounts a coup in Baghdad, Iraq, and King Faisal II, his heir, and the prime minister Nuri-es-Said are murdered. King Hussein of Jordan assumes power as head of the Arab Federation. |
| 19 September 1958 | Algeria, Egypt | The Algerian rebel leader Ferhat Abbas makes a proclamation in Cairo, Egypt, of the establishment of a Provisional Government of the Republic of Algeria. |
| 1 January 1959 | Cuba | The Cuban guerrilla campaign of the 26 July Movement forces General Fulgencio Batista to resign and flee to Dominica. A military junta appoints Carlos Piedra as provisional president. |
| 5–6 July 1960 | Congo Republic | The army in the newly independent Congo Republic mutinies, and Europeans in the country flee from the Léopoldville (now Kinshasa) area to Brazzaville (French Congo). |
| 28 September 1961 | Syria | An army coup in Damascus, Syria, overthrows the government there. On 29 September, Syria secedes from the United Arab Republic and forms the Syrian Arab Republic. |
| 2 March 1962 | Burma | A military coup in Burma (now Myanmar), led by General Ne Win, overthrows the government of Prime Minister U Nu. |
| 12 January 1964 | Zanzibar | A rebellion takes place in Zanzibar (now part of Tanzania), which is declared a republic. The sultanate is abolished and the sultan banished, and Abdullah Kassim forms a pro-communist government. |
| 5 August 1964 | Congo Republic | Antigovernment rebels in the Congo Republic capture Stanleyville (now Kisangani), and declare the foundation of a People's Republic of the Congo on 7 August. |
| 30 May 1967 | Nigeria | The secession from Nigeria of the province of Biafra, under Colonel Chukwuemeka Odumegwu-Ojukwu, provokes civil war in Nigeria. |
| 31 October 1968 | China | During the Cultural Revolution in China, the Communist Party expels President Liu Shaoqi after a protracted campaign against him by the Red Guards. |
| 1969 | China | The Ninth Chinese Communist Party Congress ends the Cultural Revolution and re-establishes authority structures. |
| 1 September 1969 | Libya | Colonel Moamer al-Khaddhafi deposes King Idris of Libya in a military coup. |
| 12 January 1970 | Nigeria, Biafra | In the Nigerian civil war, the Biafran leader General Chukwuemeka Ojukwu flies into exile. On 15 January, Nigeria accepts Biafra's unconditional surrender. |
| January 2003 | Israel Palestine | In the Middle East, two Palestinian suicide bombers kill 22 people and injure more than 100 in an attack on Tel Aviv-Yafo in Israel. In response, the Israeli government bars Palestinian delegates from attending a diplomatic conference in London organized by British prime minister Tony Blair. Towards the end of the month, the Israeli army mounts its deepest punitive incursion into Palestinian Gaza City since 1994. |
| 27 October–14 November 2005 | France | In France's worst social unrest for nearly 40 years, rioting and violence in a poor, mainly immigrant suburb of Paris spreads daily over three weeks to towns and cities across the country, highlighting problems of unemployment and ethnic discrimination and forcing the government to declare a state of emergency to regain control of the streets. |
