10 Great Revolutions That Shaped Our History

Revolution is the change produced in the political, structural and social lives of the people of the country. These changes are created in a short interval of time. The changes are done either in need of the development or to rise up to revolt against the authorities. It averts the economic life style of the people.

Aristotle defined revolutions in the two categories. One to modify the existing system and other to completely change from the current Scenario to a new one. It is done for the betterment of the people. These revolutions have changed the cultural life as well. Different types of revolutions have occurred depending on different duration, methods, and ideologies.

Some of the revolutions which have brought the major changes in the world are shown here below:

1) Digital Revolution

The Digital Revolution is the change in the mechanical technology to the Digital Electronics. This revolution started in 1950 to 1970s with the inventions and proliferation of computers in the world which is still changing according to the modern generations.

The digital revolution has marked the beginning of the digitalized life with the advent of mobile phones, laptops, palmtops, and development of different microprocessors with high-speed microchips in a small size. The internet has increased the use of these devices and gadgets. This revolution has made the world closer to communicate with one another though separated at different geographical areas.

2) Green Revolution

The green revolution is also known as the agricultural revolution. This revolution occurred between the 1930s and late 1960s. The revolution increased the productivity of the agricultural products in the developing world marking it as the beginning of the agricultural era. The Norman Borlaug is known as the father of the Green Revolutions.

This revolution was started to save a billion of people who were starving for food. This revolution thus was initiated to provide cereals and vegetables to all the people. Thus the revolution adopted some of the new technologies for yielding best qualities of the cereal grains by increasing the agricultural infrastructure, a supply of water, use of agro fertilizers and pesticides, hybridized seeds and new and modernized techniques. This resulted in the cultivation of large agricultural products and saved the lives of billions, therefore, it is known as Green Revolution.

3) White Revolution

India was facing the deficiency of the milk and milk based products such as paneer, ghee etc. Thus the operation flood was launched in India as National Dairy development Board Project which is the largest dairy product program. It started in 1970 to 1996 covering all its phases. The revolution made India as the world’s largest milk producing country.

The milk products were no more imported from the foreign countries. The supply of milk increased and made the dairy farming as India's strength giving employment to the large group of poor people. The Amul was the main pillar of milk industry behind the success of the white revolution in India. Therefore the revolution is also known as operation flood.

4) Industrial Revolution

A major change in the world economic system was a result of Industrial Revolution. The transition from homemade items to the products manufactured at the industries and factories with the help of machines. This revolution has changed many countries developing state into the developed nations. The transition period of this revolution is between 1760 to 1820 and 1840.

During this period textile industry was the first industry to use the modern machines and other equipment, it provided the employment opportunities and gave the best output value from the capital invested in it. This revolution began in the Britain. This industrial revolution was a turning point in the history which has changed and influenced every sector in some or the other way.

5) American Revolution

The American Revolution was the political disruption during the 18th century. During this period the thirteen colonies of North America decided together to break from the British Empire and to establish themselves as the United States of America. They expelled from all the royal as well as the Parliament of Britain and won the independence. Thus the revolution is also known as the colonial revolt by the cities to get freedom from the British.

They formed a national Congress in each provision to form the free and independent states. The new states also joined the revolt and managed the armed force to fight against the British known as American Revolutionary Wars. The war ended with the effective victory of the Americans with the defeat of the British Empire.

6) Iranian Revolution

The Iranian Revolution also known as the Islamic Revolution was basically a revolt against the monarchy under Shah Mohammad Reza Pahlavi. The main aim of this revolution was to make the Iranian free from the dynasty and make Islamic republic. So the protest against the Shah began in January 1978. They started demonstrations and strikes which paralyzed the whole country.

Iran voted for the getting the Republican Government. The revolution created a lot of political issues but at the end, the monarchy was replaced by the Islamic Republic in the guardianship of the Islamic Jurists.

7) October Revolution

The October revolution is also known as the Great October Socialist Revolution of 1917. It is a part of the Russian Revolution. It was led by the Bolsheviks of the Russian. It took the place of rebellion in Petrograd on 25th October. During the October Revolution, it overthrew the Russian Provisional Government and was replaced by the local soviets dominated by Bolsheviks. The result was the Russian civil war and creation of Soviet Union in 1922.

8) Cuban Revolution

The Cuban revolution was an armed revolt conducted by the lawyer Fidel Castro's when General Fulgencio Batista overthrew the president of Cuba and canceled all the elections.

For the next seven years, he tried to remove the Batista's government. He gathered the force and attacked Batista but was arrested and when he was released he did not stop and again gathered a new group of rebels in Mexico. At last, his attempts proved to be fruitful and he succeeded to flee Batista from the country. He became the prime minister and later on declared himself as the president for life time executing all the Batista who were opposing him. The Cuba isolated from the surrounding world when it rebelled against Venezuela, Bolivia, and Guatemala. This brought the threat of the nuclear war.

9) Young Turk Revolution

The Young Turk Revolution took place in the Ottoman Empire in July 1908. It restored the Ottoman Parliament enacted by the Sultan Abdul Hamid ii who quit in a move and marked the return of the Constitution which was established in the Second Constitutional Era and ushered in multi-party politics in two stage electoral system.

10) French Revolution

The French revolution was the upheaval of the socioeconomic and political in both France as well as European History. The aim was to collapse the absolute Hierarchy of the France within the three years. It was started from 1789 until 1799 and was carried further by the Napoleon during the French Empires extension. The historian marked the revolution as one of the important events in the history.

This revolution threw the monarchy, established the republic and later on the culminated in the Dictatorship of Napoleon. During the revolution, the country experienced the turmoil of the political and economic issues. It changed the modern history with the decline of monarchies and replacing them with republics.

These are some of the historic great Revolutions in the world history from different centuries.