List of revolutions and rebellions
This is a list of revolutions and rebellions.
before 1000
- 206 BC: Ziying, last ruler of the Qin Dynasty of China surrenders himself to Liu Bang, leader of a popular revolt and founder of the Han Dynasty.
- 66-70: Great Jewish Revolt, the first of three Jewish-Roman wars that took place in Judea Province against the Roman Empire.
- 115-117: Kitos War, the second Jewish-Roman wars.
- 132-135: Bar Kokhba's revolt, the third and last Jewish-Roman wars.
- 184: Zhang Jiao led an unsuccessful peasant rebellion during the later Han dynasty, which later collapsed due to the destabilization.
- 496: Mazdak leads the Persian socialistic movement and overthrows Shahanshah Kavadh I of the Persian empire
1000-1600
- 1296-1328: First of the Wars of Scottish Independence between Scotland and England, leading to renewed Scottish independence in 1328.
- 1332-1357: The second long lasting instalment of the Wars of Scottish Independence, leading again to renewed Scottish independence from England and the Treaty of Berwick.
- 1302: Battle of the Golden Spurs in Flanders, after which the French were ousted.
- 1323-1328: beginning as a series of scattered rural riots in late 1323, the Peasant revolt in Flanders escalated into a full-scale rebellion and ended with the Battle of Cassel.
- 1354: revolt of Cola di Rienzi.
- 1356-1358: a peasant revolt called Jacquerie took place in northern France, during the Hundred Years' War.
- 1368: Zhu Yuanzhang led peasant Han Chinese in a rebellion against the Mongol Yuan dynasty, establishing the Ming dynasty.
- 1378: Revolt of the Ciompi.
- 1381: the Peasants' Revolt or Great Rising of 1381 took place in England.
- 1420: Bohemian Hussites begin a rebellion against both Catholicism and the Holy Roman Empire. The wars that ensue are known as the Hussite Wars.
- 1437: the Bobâlna (Bábolna) revolt broke out in Transylvania, using military tactics inspired by the Hussites wars.
- 1444-1468: Skenderbeg's rebellion in Ottoman-ruled Albania
- 1450: Kent rebellion led by Jack Cade.
- 1462-1485: Rebellion of the Remences in Catalonia.
- 1497: Cornish Rebellion of 1497 in England.
- 1514: peasant's war led by György Dózsa in the Kingdom of Hungary.
- 1515: Slovenian peasant revolt
- 1519-1523: the first Revolta de les Germanies in Valencia, an anti-monarchist, anti-feudal autonomist movement inspired by the Italian republics
- 1524-1525: Peasants' War of in the Holy Roman Empire.
- 1542: Dacke Feud in Sweden.
- 1566-1648: Eighty Years' War; revolt of the Low Countries against Spain.
- 1573: Croatian and Slovenian peasant revolt.
- 1594-1603: The Nine Years War or Tyrone's Rebellion in Ulster, Ireland against British rule in Ireland
- 1596: Club War uprising in Finland.
1600-1900
- 1642-1653: the English Revolution commence as a civil war between Parliament and King and culminates in the execution of Charles I and the establishment of a republican Commonwealth succeeded several years later by the Protectorate of Oliver Cromwell..
- 1648: Khmelnytsky_Uprising of Cossacks in Ukraine against Polish nobility in the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth.
- 1688: The Glorious Revolution overthrow in England of King James II and establishment of a Whig-dominated Protestant constitutional monarchy.
- 1693: the second Revolta de les Germanies in Valencia, prompted by feudal taxation.
- 1774-1783: the American Revolution establishes independence of the thirteen North American colonies from Great Britain, creating the republic of the United States of America. A war of independence in that it created one nation from another, it was also a revolution in that it overthrew an existing societal and governmental order: the Colonial government in the Colonies. The American Revolution heavily influenced the French Revolution that followed it and lead to the creation of a Constitutional form of government (see U.S. Constitution).
- 1780-1782: José Gabriel Condorcanqui, known as Túpac Amaru II, raises an indigenous peasant army in revolt against Spanish control of Peru.
- 1789: regarded as one of the most influential of all socio-political revolutions, the French Revolution is associated with the rise of the bourgeoisie and the downfall of the aristocracy.
- 1795-1796: rebels in Grenada led by Julien Fédon execute the governor and wrest control of most of the island from Britain, which maintains a stronghold in St. George's, the capital. The goal was to incorporate Grenada into revolutionary France, but Fédon soon disappeared and was never heard from again.
- 1798: the Irish Rebellion of 1798 failed to overthrow British rule in Ireland.
- 1803: The rebellion of Robert Emmett in Dublin, Ireland against British rule
- 1804: the successful slave rebellion led by Toussaint Louverture establishes Haiti as the first free, black republic.
- 1810-1821: the Mexican War of Independence, a revolution against Spanish colonialism
- 1810: the Viceroy of the Río de la Plata is deposed by local officers in Argentina
- 1810-1840: the dictatorship of José Gaspar Rodríguez de Francia in Paraguay is dubbed the "autonomous revolution" by Paraguay specialist Richard Alan White.[1] Influenced by the Jacobins of the French Revolution and the meritocratic theory of socialism propounded by Henri de Saint-Simon, Francia led his country on an isolationist path, emphasizing self-sufficiency and breaking the power of the traditional colonial elite with harsh, autocratic repression. Paraguay remained one of South America's most advanced countries until the War of the Triple Alliance.
- 1820-1824: revolutionary war of independence in Peru led by José de San Martín
- 1822-1823: republican revolution in Mexico overthrows Emperor Agustín de Iturbide
- 1827-1828: failed conservative rebellion in Mexico led by Nicolás Bravo
- 1830: July Revolution - the French Revolution of 1830 was a revolt by the middle class against Bourbon King Charles X which forced him out of office and replaced him with the Orleanist King Louis-Philippe (the "July Monarchy").
- 1830: the Belgian Revolution was a conflict in the United Kingdom of the Netherlands that began with a riot in Brussels in August 1830 and eventually led to the establishment of an independent, Catholic and neutral Belgium
- 1832-1843: Abdelkader's rebellion in French-occupied Algeria
- 1835-1836: Texas secedes from Mexico in the Texas Revolution
- 1837-1838: Rebellions of 1837 - failed republican revolutions against British rule in Canada.
- 1848: the Revolutions of 1848 are a wave of failed liberal and republican revolutions that swept Europe.
- 1848: rebellion in British-ruled Ceylon
- 1851: Taiping Rebellion against the Qing Dynasty and Manchu domination.
- 1854-1855: Revolution of Ayutla in Mexico
- 1857: failed Indian rebellion against British imperialism, marking the end of Mughal rule in India. Also known as the 1857 War of Independence and, particularly in the West, the Sepoy Mutiny.
- 1858-1861: War of the Reform in Mexico
- 1865: Morant Bay rebellion
- 1866-1868: Meiji Restoration and modernization revolution in Japan. Samurai uprising leads to overthrow of shogunate and establishment of "modern" parliamentary, Western-style system.
- 1868: the Glorious Revolution in Spain deposes Queen Isabella II
- 1868: in the Grito de Lares, rebels proclaim the independence of Puerto Rico from Spain.
- 1871: Paris Commune
- 1871-1872: Porfirio Díaz rebels against President Benito Juárez of Mexico
- 1871: liberal revolution in Guatemala
- 1876: a second rebellion by Porfirio Díaz against President Sebastián Lerdo de Tejada of Mexico
- 1885: a peasant revolt in the Ancash region of Peru led by Pedro Pablo Atusparía succeeds in occupying the Callejón de Huaylas for several months
- 1885: North-West Rebellion of Métis in Saskatchewan
- 1893: a liberal revolt brings José Santos Zelaya to power in Nicaragua
- 1895: revolution against President Andrés Avelino Cáceres in Peru ushers in a period of stable constitutional rule
- 1896-1898: the Philippine Revolution, a war of independence against Spanish rule directed by the Katipunan society
1900-1950
- 1904: Liberal revolution in Paraguay
- 1905: failed bourgeois-liberal revolution against Tsar Nicholas II in Russia.
- 1905-1906: Persian\Iranian constitutional revolution
- 1908: Young Turk Revolution, Young Turks force the autocratic ruler Abdul Hamid II to restore parliament and constitution in the Ottoman Empire.
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- 1910: the Mexican Revolution overthrows the dictator Porfirio Díaz; seizure of power by Institutional Revolutionary Party.
- 1910: republican revolution in Portugal
- 1910-1911: the Sokehs Rebellion erupts in German-ruled Micronesia. Its primary leader, Somatau, is executed soon after being captured.
- 1911: the Xinhai Revolution overthrowes the ruling Qing Dynasty and establishment of the Republic of China.
- 1916-1923: Irish War of Independence, the period of nationalist rebellion, guerrilla warfare, political change and civil war which brought about the establishment of the independent nation, the Irish Free State.
- 1917: the February Revolution overthrows Tsar Nicholas II in Russia.
- 1917: October Revolution in Russia - Bolshevik seizure of power in Russia and the establishment of the Soviet Union.
- 1918: German Revolution Overthrow of the Kaiser by a workers' revolution; establishment of the Weimar Republic.
- 1918-1919: a wave of strikes and student unrest shakes Peru. These events influence two of the dominant figures of Peruvian politics in the 20th century: Víctor Raúl Haya de la Torre and José Carlos Mariátegui.
- 1918-1921: Ukrainian Revolution
- 1918-1922: Third Russian Revolution, a failed anarchist revolution against both Bolshevism and the White movement.
- 1919: German Revolution
- 1919: revolution in Hungary results in the short-lived Hungarian Soviet Republic
- 1921-1924: a revolution in Mongolia re-establishes the country's independence and sets out to construct a Soviet-style socialist state
- 1922-1923: Irish Civil War, between supporters of the Anglo-Irish Treaty and the government of the Irish Free State and more radical members of the original Irish Republican Army who opposed the treaty and the new government.
- 1926: the so-called "National Revolution" in Portugal initiates a period known as the "National Dictatorship"
- 1926-1929: the Cristero War in Mexico, an uprising against anti-clerical government policy
- 1927-1933: rebellion led by Augusto César Sandino against the United States presence in Nicaragua
- 1930: Brazilian Revolution of 1930 led by Getúlio Vargas
- 1932: a Constitutionalist Revolution against the provisional president Getúlio Vargas led Brazil to a short civil war.
- 1932: an Aprista revolt in Trujillo, Peru. After about 60 officers are executed, the army responds with the killing of at least 1,000 people. The repression includes the first aerial bombing in South American history.
- 1932: the Siamese coup d'état of 1932, sometimes called the "Promoters Revolution", ends absolute monarchy in Thailand
- 1933: popular revolution against Cuban dictator Gerardo Machado
- 1934: In October, workers including radical socialists and anarchists stage coups in the Spanish regions of Asturias and Catalonia. The immediate cause was the entrance of a right-wing Catholic party into the government of the unstable Second Spanish Republic. The Asturian uprising was put down by General Francisco Franco.
- 1936: the Febrerista Revolution, oligarchic Liberal Party rule in Paraguay ended by Rafael Franco.
- 1936: General Francisco Franco leds a coup and starts the Spanish Civil War.
- 1936: Spanish Revolution
- 1936-1939: a period of so-called "military socialism" in Bolivia follows a revolution in which celebrated war hero David Toro takes power. A constitution establishing a corporative state is promulgated in 1938, following the nationalization of Standard Oil and the passage of progressive labor laws.
- 1937: the "Jornadas de Mayo", a workers' revolution in Catalonia
- 1938-1948: The Zionist Revolution - the period of Jewish nationalist rebellion and guerrilla warfare against the British Empire in Palestine which brought about the establishment of the State of Israel. Mainly fought by the Lehi and Irgun underground organizations but periodically joined by the Jewish Agency's official Haganah militia.
- 1942: Sri Lankan soldiers ignite the Cocos Islands Mutiny in an unsuccessful attempt to transfer the islands to Japanese control
- 1944: Guatemalan Revolution overthrowes the dictator Jorge Ubico by liberal military officers.
- 1944-1947: a Communist-friendly government is installed in Bulgaria following a coup d'état and the Soviet invasion. The government was nominally a coalition called the Fatherland Front, but the Communist Party faction consolidated its power with Soviet support until 1947, when Soviet troops withdrew. Many royalist and fascist leaders from the previous Axis regime were given summary trials and executed.
- 1944: Following the liberation of Albania completed on November 29, the Communist Party of Albania under Enver Hoxha consolidates its control, moves forward with industrialization and modernization, and declares the People's Republic of Albania in January 1946.
- 1944: liberal revolution in Ecuador
- 1945: August Revolution led by Ho Chi Minh declares the independence of the Democratic Republic of Vietnam from French rule
- 1945: democratic revolution in Venezuela led by Rómulo Betancourt
- 1947: Three months after an abortive coup, civil war breaks out in Paraguay. Led by Rafael Franco, the former head of the Febrerista (see above) government displaced in 1937, the rebellion was crushed by the government of dictator Higinio Morínigo. A local commander, Lt. Col. Alfredo Stroessner, seized the presidency in 1954 and ruled until 1989.
- 1947-1952: In the Albanian Subversion, the intelligence services of the United States and Britain deploy exiled fascists, Nazis, and monarchists (especially members of Balli Kombëtar and the Legaliteti) in a failed attempt to foment a counterrevolution in Communist-ruled Albania. The exiles carried out some sabotage but found little popular support. Some exiles were captured and executed, along with some ordinary Albanians suspected of assisting them.
- 1948: following the liberation of Korea, Marxist former guerrillas under Kim Il Sung work to rapidly industrialize the country and rid it of the last vestiges of "feudalism."
- 1949: the Communist-led Chinese Revolution under chairman Mao overthrows the ruling Nationalist Party and establishes the People's Republic of China.
- 1954-1962: Algerian War of Independence - revolutionary war of independence against French colonialism
- 1945-1975: civil war in Vietnam
1950-2000
- 1952: a liberal revolution in Bolivia led by Víctor Paz Estenssoro and the Revolutionary Nationalist Movement (MNR) initiates a period of multiparty democracy lasting until a 1964 military coup.
- 1952: Rosewater Revolution in Lebanon
- 1955-1970: The Union of the Peoples of Cameroon (UPC) engages in a guerrilla struggle against French colonialism in the French Cameroons. In 1955 the UPC was for all practical purposes banned, and in 1960 Cameroon achieved independence under the conservative government of President Ahmadou Ahidjo. After the gradual assassinations of many of its top leaders and the proclamation of a one-party state in 1966, the last significant remnants of the insurgency were extinguished in 1970. The UPC, unlike many other guerrilla organizations throughout Africa, never achieved state power.
- 1956-1962: Border Campaign led by the Irish Republican Army against the British, along the border of the independent Republic of Ireland and British Northern Ireland.
- 1956: Hungarian Revolution, a failed workers' and peasants' revolution against the Soviet-supported communist state in Hungary.
- 1958: popular revolt in Venezuela against military dictator Marcos Pérez Jiménez culminates in a civic-military coup d'état
- 1958: the Iraqi Revolution led by nationalist soldiers abolishes the British-backed monarchy, executes many of its top officials, and begins to assert the country's independence from both Cold War power blocs.
- 1959: Cuban Revolution led by Fidel Castro removes the government of General Fulgencio Batista. By 1962 Cuba had been transformed into a declared socialist republic.
- 1959: the Tutsi king of Rwanda is forced into exile by Hutu extremists; racial pogroms follow an assassination attempt on Hutu leader Grégoire Kayibanda
- 1961-1975: Angolan Marxists and other radicals grouped in the Popular Movement for the Liberation of Angola (MPLA) begin guerrilla attacks on Portuguese infrastructure. With extensive military assistance from Cuba, the MPLA is able to outmaneuver two rival organizations and establish control of Luanda in time for independence on November 11, 1975. Civil war between the MPLA government and the anti-communist UNITA continued on-and-off until 2002, when UNITA leader Jonas Savimbi was killed.
- 1962-1974: The leftist African Party for the Independence of Guinea and Cape Verde (PAIGC) wages a revolutionary war of independence in Portuguese Guinea. In 1973, the independent Republic of Guinea-Bissau is proclaimed, and the next year the republic's independence is recognized by the reformist military junta in Lisbon.
- 1962: revolution in northern Yemen overthrows the imam and establishes the Yemen Arab Republic
- 1963-1967: nationalists in British-ruled Aden, with an eye on recent events in North Yemen and in Palestine, declare war on the British under the umbrella of the National Liberation Front (NLF). The UK hands over control to an independent South Yemen in November 1967. In 1969, moderate President Qahtan Muhammad al-Shaabi is edged out in favor of more radical socialists, who convoke a constituent assembly and begin to develop the state along Marxist-Leninist lines. The result is the only Communist state in the Arab world and the first in a Muslim country.
- 1964: following an American school's provocative decision to raise only the flag of the United States, Panamanian students march into the Panama Canal Zone with the flag of Panama. After the latter flag is torn, thousands more become involved, starting huge riots that lasted three days. About 20 people were killed and hundreds more injured.
- 1964: the Zanzibar Revolution overthrows the 157-year-old Arab monarchy, declares the People's Republic of Zanzibar, and begins the process of unification with Julius Nyerere's Tanganyika
- 1964: the October Revolution in Sudan, driven by a general strike and rioting, forces President Ibrahim Abboud to transfer executive power to a transitional civilian government and eventually resign.
- 1964-1975: the Mozambican Liberation Front (FRELIMO), formed in 1962, commences a guerrilla war against Portuguese colonialism. Independence is granted on June 25, 1975; however, the Mozambican Civil War complicated the political situation and frustrated FRELIMO's attempts at radical change. The war continued into the early 1990s after the government dropped Marxism as the state ideology.
- 1966-1976: Cultural Revolution, a maoist-led sociological repression in the People's Republic of China.
- 1966-1993: A guerrilla warfare is conducted against the repressive government of François Tombalbaye from the Sudan-based group FROLINAT. After the killing of field commander Ibrahim Abatcha in 1968, the movement jettisoned its socialist rhetoric and split into irreconciliable factions that often fought among themselves. Tombalbaye was brought down and executed in a 1975 military coup, and in 1979 the FROLINAT factions established the Transitional Government of National Union (GUNT). This experiment lasted until 1982, when a FROLINAT splinter, led by Hissène Habré, took control of N'Djamena. Supporters of marginalized GUNT president Goukouni Oueddei held out for a few years at Bardai, but the group eventually dissolved; but a new formation, the MPS, continued the civil war and brought to power in 1990 Idriss Déby.
- 1966-1998: The Ulster Volunteer Force is recreated by militant Protestant British Loyalists in Northern Ireland to wage war against the Irish Republican Army, and the Roman Catholic community at large.
- 1967-1970: BIAFRA; The former eastern Nigeria unsuccessfully fought for a breakaway republic of Biafra.After the mainly Ibo people of the region suffered pogroms in northern Nigeria the previous year.
- 1967: Anguillans resentful of Kittitian domination of the island expel the Kittitian police and declare independence from the British colony of Saint Christopher-Nevis-Anguilla. British forces retake the island in 1969 and make Anguilla a separate dependency in 1980. There was no bloodshed in the entire episode.
- 1968: revolution in Congo
- 1968: May 1968 revolt - students' and workers' revolt against the government of Charles de Gaulle in France.
- 1968: coup by Juan Velasco Alvarado in Peru, followed by radical social and economic reforms
- 1968: a failed attempt by leader Alexander Dubček to liberalise Czechoslovakia in defiance of the Soviet-supported communist state culminates in the Prague Spring.
- 1969-1998: Provisional Irish Republican Army and other Republican Paramilitaries wage an armed campaign against British Security forces and Loyalist Paramilitaries in an attempt to bring about a United Ireland in what is known as The Troubles.
- 1969: a mass movement of workers, students, and peasants in Pakistan forces the resignation of President Mohammad Ayub Khan
- 1969: overthrow of the pro-Western monarchy by Arab nationalist military officers in Libya
- 1969: multiparty system supplanted by a military socialist government under Siad Barre in Somalia
- 1971: the Bangladesh Liberation War led by the Mukti Bahini establishes the independent People's Republic of Bangladesh
- 1972: revolution in Benin
- 1972: military-led revolution against the civilian government of President Philibert Tsiranana in the Malagasy Republic; a Marxist faction takes power in 1975 under Didier Ratsiraka, modeled on the North Korean juche theory developed by Kim Il Sung.
- 1973: Mohammad Daud overthrows the monarchy and establishes a republic in Afghanistan.
- 1973: worker-student demonstrations in Thailand force dictator Thanom Kittikachorn and two close associates to flee the country, beginning a short period of democratic constitutional rule
- 1974: revolution in Ethiopia
- 1974: Carnation Revolution overthrows of right-wing dictatorship in Portugal
- 1975: revolution in Cambodia
- 1975: revolution in Laos overthrows the monarchy by guerrilla forces of the Pathet Lao
- 1975: revolution in Cape Verde
- 1976: student demonstrations and election-related violence in Thailand lead police to open fire on a sit-in at Thammasat University, killing hundreds. The military seizes power the next day, ending constitutional rule.
- 1978: the Saur Revolution led by the Khalq faction of the People's Democratic Party of Afghanistan deposes and kills President Mohammad Daud.
- 1979: the dictatorship of Eric Gairy overthrown by the New Jewel Movement in Grenada.
- 1979: the popular overthrow of the Somoza dictatorship by progressive/Marxist Nicaraguan Revolution.
- 1979: the Iranian Revolution overthrows the U.S.-backed Shah, resulting in an Islamist cleric-led theocracy.
- 1979: Cambodia is liberated from the Khmer Rouge regime by the Vietnam-backed Kampuchean People's Revolutionary Party
- 1980: Santo Rebellion in the Anglo-French condominium of New Hebrides. The primary nationalist leader, Father Walter Lini, favored Cold War nonalignment and opposed nuclear weapons in the Pacific. The French resident, Jean-Jacques Robert, who feared that an independent Vanuatu would provide inspiration to similar movements in New Caledonia and French Polynesia, collaborated with an uprising led by Jimmy Stevens' Nagriamel movement in Espiritu Santo. With logistical help and training from supporters of the Phoenix Foundation of the United States, Stevens declared independence as the State of Vemarana. The Nagriamel society had decisively lost elections to the territorial assembly in 1975 and 1979, which revealed its lack of a mass base of support. The revolt was put down by the Vanuatu Mobile Force and Papua New Guinean troops soon after independence was granted on July 30, 1980. [2]
- 1983: Overthrow of the ruling Conseil de Salut du peuple (CSP) by Marxist forces led by Thomas Sankara in Upper Volta, renamed Burkina Faso in the following year.
- 1984-1985: Pro-independence FLNKS forces in New Caledonia revolt following an election boycott and occupy the town of Thio from November 1984 to January 1985. Thio is retaken by the French after the assassination of Éloi Machoro, the security minister in the FLNKS provisional government and the primary leader of the occupation.[3]
- 1986: The 1986 EDSA Revolution peacefully overthrows Ferdinand Marcos after his two decade rule in the Philippines.
- 1988: Singing Revolution, bloodless overthrow of communist states in Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania
- 1989: the violent Caracazo riots in Venezuela. In the next few years, there are two attempted coups and President Carlos Andrés Pérez is impeached.
- 1989: the Romanian Revolution violently overthrows the communist state in Romania.
- 1989: the bloodless Velvet Revolution overthrows the communist state in Czechoslovakia.
- 1996: islamist movement in Afghanistan led by the Taliban
- 1998: the election in Venezuela of socialist leader Hugo Chávez is called the Bolivarian Revolution.
- 1998: Indonesian Revolution of 1998
2000-today
- 2000: the bloodless Bulldozer Revolution overthrows Slobodan Milošević's régime in Yugoslavia.
- 2001: The 2001 EDSA Revolution peacefully ousts Philippine President Joseph Estrada after the collapse of his impeachment trial.
- 2001: Supporters of former president Joseph Estrada violently and unsuccessfully stage a rally, so-called the EDSA Tres, in an attempt of returning him to power.
- 2003: Rose Revolution, the first of five Color revolutions, displaces the president of Georgia, Eduard Shevardnadze, and calls new elections.
- 2004: after Viktor Yanukovych was declared the winner of the presidential election, the Orange Revolution arose and installed Viktor Yushchenko as president, believing the election to have been fraudulent.
- 2004: failed attempt at popular color-style revolution in Azerbaijan, led by the groups Yox! and Azadlig
- 2005: the Cedar Revolution, triggered by the assassination of Rafik Hariri, asks for the withdrawal of Syrian troops from Lebanon.
- 2005: the Tulip Revolution (a.k.a. Yellow Revolution) overthrows the President of Kyrgyzstan, Askar Akayev, and set new elections.