What makes a revolution?

What makes a revolution? Throughout this course we have studied numerous revolutions and their respective causes and outcomes. Can we generalize revolutions by attributing one event or situation as a cause. Earlier in the year it was my thought that many contributing factors combine to create a revolution. Perhaps economic crisis, seizure of land, oppressive rule, maybe a disgruntled and influential leader who galvanizes a group to take action against a power? No. Now, having looked at countless revolutions, i think, using ample evidence, i can prove that a revolution only requires one, simple, overlooked thing. A revolution simply requires unhappiness.

For the purposes of length i will only examine the Chinese revolution, the Indian revolution and the Industrial revolution. Let us proceed from most violent to least violent.

The Chinese revolution of 1911 was simply the result of the people's widespread belief that their government, currently the Qing, was corrupt and weak. Wikipedia best sums up the cause, saying, "The revolution was motivated by anger at corruption in the Qing government, frustration with the government's inability to restrain the interventions of foreign powers, and the majority Han Chinese's resentment toward a government dominated by an ethnic minority; the Manchus," however, lets delve a little deeper. China was being highly influenced and in some sense controlled by foreign influence. Opium, sold to China by Britain, had addictive to the entire country which resulted in a generally slow and sluggish atmosphere. Increase in Opium trade led to China more and more depending on Britain for their "needs," being Opium and trade flow. Their reliance led to British intervention in areas considered Chinese affairs. The government was inefficient and corrupt. The lack of an "able" emperor caused high government officials to become incompetent and in turn promote incompetent low officials. This process spiralled downward causing the entire government to suffer the harmful effects. High officials also received "gifts" from low officials who took government money and placed it into their own pocket through the implementation of high taxes. The taxes caused the people of China to suffer economically. China's society became incredibly poor, cultivation of land was limited and no massive industrial projects were created by the government to counteract the terrible economic conditions. A sense of unhappiness swept across the nation which resulted in the Wuchang Uprising, a revolt led by China's intellectuals, who took it upon themselves to lead the peasants. The uprising was a success and resulted in the establishment of a provisional military based central government over a fragmented country. Simple unhappiness from masses of people simply results in change.

The Indian revolutionary movement which took place from the mid 19th century to the early 20th century, was a backlash at British rule of India, where Indians were considered inferior and charged with little or no rights. Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi is credited with organizing the non-violent rebellion, through the application of Satyagraha , however acted not on his own accord but rather as a voice for the people who wished to be granted equal rights and more importantly for India to become an independent nation. British dominance and their oppression towards the people of India became commonplace by the mid 19th century. By their domination of the subcontinent, British officials grew abusive of local customs; holding parties in mosques, dancing to regimental music on the terrace of the Taj Mahal, using whips or canes to force their way through crowds and mistreating natives in a harsh and cruel manner. Popular disgust became evident with the creation of organized movements, an emergence of leadership targeting British rule. From 1885-1905, Indian nationalism took the shape of an Indian political organization. Minus failing to recruit Muslims, the organization was composed entirely of Indians fed up with British rule. After World War 1, Gandhi arrived in India and began a series of non-cooperation acts. Along with a mass of Indians, he successfully slowly began chipping away at the giant pillar of British rule. Facing strong acts of adversity such as the Jallianwala Bagh massacre or Amritsar massacre, an incident where thousands of peaceful protesters were massacred in the Indian city of Amritsar by British militants. To get a sense of this act of cruelty, here is a video from the movie Gandhi, http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0hgRLqBZuMQ. Non-cooperation reached a climax within India and resulted in the adoption of a constitution, on the 26th of January 1950, which declared India a republic and no longer under the dominion of the Crown. Popular unhappiness at foreign rule will simply result in swift change, if violent, and slow change if non-violent, especially if the numbers of unhappy people far outweigh that of the rulers.


The last revolution we shall observe is the Industrial revolution in the United Kingdom from the 18th century to the 19th. This revolution simply demonstrates how people's unhappiness with their technology and how that resulted in not only genuine inspiration and creation but a revolution of technology all together. The industrial revolution primarily focuses on the shift of manufacturing into large factories. This began with textiles and the mechanization of iron making techniques and use of refined coal. Specifically transport around the pre and during the beginning stages of the revolution were incredibly limited to horse pulled carriages and carts, simple boats and other, now primitive means of transport. Humans not only had the means to advance themselves technologically with the increase of factories and materials for manufacturing, but humans were unhappy with the way they lived. They had grown tired of their primitive means of transport and for that matter everyday life. They needed a total advancement of technology. A movement which would increase efficiency in everyday life. The industrial revolution was their ticket to the future. Immediately, with the creation of machine tools, an enormous effect on society was seen. The gigantic production of machine goods led to the implementation of them within the workplace. This effect spread to all of Europe in a process known as Industrialization . With the creation of the internal combustion engine as well as steam powered boats and trains, transportation allowed people to roam further around the world more efficiently and more easily. The industrial revolution was the result of the people's unhappiness with ineffective and old technology. This resulted in a complete change in all technology and in turn a enormous revolution which still goes on today.

Unhappiness leads to change which then leads to a revolution.