Ch. 1 - What is a revolution?

Question 1

What significant event occurred on the morning of July 14, 1789?

Answer 1

Parisian workers attacked the royal prison of the Bastille.

Question 2

How did the Parisian crowd successfully enter the Bastille fortress on July 14, 1789?

Answer 2

They were joined by deserting soldiers with cannons and were ignored by nearby Royal Army troops.

Question 3

What was King Louis XVI’s reported reaction to the storming of the Bastille? A: He asked, “Is this a revolt?”

Answer 3

What was King Louis XVI’s reported reaction to the storming of the Bastille? A: He asked, “Is this a revolt?” to which the Duc de la Rochefoucauld replied, “No, Sire, it is a revolution!”

Question 3

What was the Parisian crowd supporting during the storming of the Bastille?

Answer 3

They were acting in support of the National Assembly, led by representatives of the Third Estate.

Question 4

What did the National Assembly declare three weeks before the storming of the Bastille?

Answer 4

They declared that they, not the Estates of Nobles or Clergy, were the true leaders of France.

Question 5

What are the two great visions that shape our views of revolutions?

Answer 5

1) The heroic vision, where revolutions overthrow unjust rulers for freedom and justice, and 2) the chaotic vision, where revolutions unleash destructive waves of violence.

Question 6

Who promoted the heroic vision of revolution?

Answer 6

Thomas Paine, Jules Michelet, Karl Marx, Vladimir Lenin, Mao Zedong, and their followers.

Question 7

What is the chaotic vision of revolution?

Answer 7

The idea that revolutions produce waves of violence and destruction, laying waste to society, and often leading to the downfall of even revolutionary leaders.

Question 8

Which thinkers were proponents of the chaotic vision of revolution?

Answer 8

Edmund Burke, Thomas Carlyle, Charles Dickens, and later critics of the Russian and Chinese revolutions.

Question 9

What is the reality of revolutions according to historical evidence?

Answer 9

Revolutions are varied; some are nonviolent while others lead to bloody civil wars, with outcomes ranging from democracies to brutal dictatorships.

Question 10

What is the main question this book seeks to answer about revolutions?

Answer 10

Why revolutions occur, why they surprise us, and how they have shaped national and global politics.

Question 10

What is a common focus of modern political leaders when studying revolutions?

Answer 10

Understanding why revolutions occur, how they evolve, and their national and global impacts.

Question 11

What conditions make revolutions possible according to political and historical scholars?

Answer 11

Revolutions occur when rulers are weak and isolated, elites attack the government, and the people believe they are part of a united group capable of creating change.

Question 12

How do most scholars define revolutions?

Answer 12

Revolutions involve forcible changes in government, mass participation, and changes in institutions, though they may differ in suddenness and violence.

Question 13

What example is given of a revolution that took over twenty years to succeed?

Answer 13

The Chinese Communist Revolution, where Mao Zedong mobilized the peasantry and fought the Nationalist regime for over two decades.

Question 14

What recent examples of “color” revolutions are mentioned?

Answer 14

The People Power Revolution in the Philippines and the Orange Revolution in Ukraine.

Question 15

What characterized many “color” revolutions such as those in the Philippines and Ukraine?

Answer 15

They were rapid, unfolding in weeks, and remained nonviolent.

Question 16

What was the class composition of many anticolonial revolutions, such as the American Revolution?

Answer 16

They involved members of all classes against the colonial power and produced little redistribution of wealth or social status.

Question 16

What did structuralists in the 20th century focus on when studying revolutions?

Answer 16

They focused on observable features of conflict and institutional change, avoiding the subjective side of revolution.

Question 17

What recent realization have students of revolution come to about the role of ideologies?

Answer 17

Ideologies and narratives of social justice are critical to revolutionary mobilization and outcomes.

Question 18

How can revolutions be best defined?

Answer 18

Revolutions involve mass mobilization, institutional change, and a driving ideology with a vision of social justice.

Question 18

What are peasant revolts typically aimed at?

Answer 18

Resisting demands from landlords or state agents, calling attention to local hardships, and seeking government help.

Question 19

What are grain riots?

Answer 19

Mass protests against food shortages or high prices, involving seizures of grain and efforts to distribute food to the poor.

Question 19

What is a key difficulty in defining revolutions?

Answer 19

Distinguishing them from similar disruptive events such as peasant revolts, grain riots, strikes, and civil wars.

Question 19

What are strikes usually focused on?

Answer 19

Workplace issues such as pay, hours, and safety, though some strikes, like general or political strikes, aim at government policy changes.

Question 20

How do social movements differ from peasant revolts and grain riots?

Answer 20

Social movements focus on issues like discrimination or oppression and aim to resolve grievances for specific groups, often through nonviolent tactics.

Question 21

What do reform movements seek?

Answer 21

To change existing government institutions through legal procedures like court rulings, electoral campaigns, or new laws.

Question 22

What can cause reform movements to become revolutionary?

Answer 22

When the government resists or delays meaningful change and lashes out at reformers.

Question 23

What is a coup d’état?

Answer 23

The forcible takeover of a government by elite leaders without mass mobilization or civil struggle, often claiming to restore order or end corruption.

Question 24

How do coups differ from revolutions?

Answer 24

Coups rarely involve mass mobilization or a vision of social justice, focusing instead on political power and stability.

Question 25

When can coups lead to revolutions?

Answer 25

When coup leaders or followers present a vision for reshaping society, engage in mass mobilization, and enact new institutions based on principles of justice and social order.

Question 26

What do radical social movements need to become effective revolutionary movements?

Answer 26

They must build a broad coalition of varied groups that share the goal of forcibly overthrowing the state.

Question 26

What is an example of a coup that led to revolution?

Answer 26

Attaturk’s secular nationalist revolution in Turkey and Nasser’s Arab nationalist revolution in Egypt are examples of coups that transformed into revolutions.

Question 27

What differentiates civil wars from revolutionary wars?

Answer 27

Revolutionary wars are driven by a leader with a vision of social justice, aiming to overthrow the government and transform political institutions.

Question 28

When do revolutionary civil wars arise?

Answer 28

After an old regime is overthrown, when counterrevolutionary forces fight against a new revolutionary government, as seen in the Russian Civil War (1918-21) and the Mexican Civil War (1913-20).

Question 29

What is a rebellion?

Answer 29

Any act by a group or individual that refuses to recognize or seeks to overturn the authority of the existing government.

Question 29

How is an uprising different from an insurrection?

Answer 29

Uprisings are usually unarmed or primitively armed, while insurrections involve military training, organization, and the use of military weapons.

Question 30

What is guerrilla warfare, and why is it often chosen by revolutionaries?

Answer 30

Guerrilla warfare uses smaller, mobile fighters who live off the land and blend into the population, often chosen by revolutionaries facing more powerful governments.

Question 31

How did groups like the Chinese Communists and the Viet Cong use guerrilla warfare?

Answer 31

They started with guerrilla tactics but shifted to conventional warfare as they gained more supporters and resources.

Question 32

What distinguishes a revolution from other events like peasant revolts or civil wars?

Answer 32

Revolutions involve the forcible overthrow of a government, mass mobilization, pursuit of social justice, and the creation of new political institutions.