Which revolution had the greatest impact on world history?

The French Revolution was a period of radical social and political upheaval in both French and European history.

Spoilers :ahee:

Spoiler

Reply 3

The industrial revolution.
C. 1750 great advances in industry allowed wealth to filter through. This caused migration to the cities, and poor, poor working conditions. Begrudged workers and newly emerging bourgeois started challenging the established aristocracy led to stringent crack-down/repression --> Rev, very rough and simplified.

Now that we've industrialised we've made huge advances in
- Technology, nothing, especially TSR, would have been possible without the IR
- Medicine, again without the advances in technology we'd have similar life expectancies as 300 years ago
- many more ...

(edited 12 years ago)

Reply 4

navarre

20

The American Revolution. Without it, we wouldn't have the United States. The entire culture of the planet would be different. Certainly the history of the world wars would have been very different.

Reply 5

Original post by navarre

The American Revolution. Without it, we wouldn't have the United States. The entire culture of the planet would be different. Certainly the history of the world wars would have been very different.

Without the Glorious Revolution we wouldn't have had the Hanovarian dynasty, therefore no George III and no spat with the colonies and no American Revolution. Anyhow, America was languishing in the backwaters until The First World War, and the affects of this revolution were not felt for over 150 years. The biggest impact by far was the industrial revolution as it changed societies across the world instantly and did not just change one country.

dot-point versus continual wave = no contest.

Edit: You say the history of the World War's would have been different, how different would they have been without industrial technology, no Maxim machine guns, no Vicars machine guns, no tanks, no planes, no semi-automatic rifles, no artillery, no barbwire, no railways, no boats and no submarines? The thing that distinguished these wars was the inhumane and faceless nature of warfare - why was The First World War the last meaningful conflict where cavalry was used? because a machine gun could gun down more than 120 horses/men a minute - technology via the industrial revolution altered conventional warfare.

(edited 12 years ago)

Reply 6

Locke54

Original post by Ultimate1

French Revolution laid the groundwork in many ways for the industrial revolution.

Not really. The UK was where the industrial revolution originated and was spread from and it alone amongst the major European nations never had a large scale rebellion inspired by the American/French Revolutionary ideas and instead progressed along a very gradual path to democracy and liberal ideas. None of which affected it's industrial progress.

The American/French Revolution (the French being a direct descendent of the American) was a political issue not really an economic one.

As for the Revolution with the biggest impact, I'd have to agree with crocker in suggesting the Industrial Revolution and also add the revolution in human society where we transitioned from being nomads to settling down in towns and developing sedentary agriculture. That was just as important as the industrial revolution.

Politically in the Western World there are two strands. The French Revolution was very important for Continental Europe but isn't really important in the Anglosphere. The Anglosphere was instead shaped much more by the English Civil War-Glorious Revolution-American Revolution triad, all of which were just new developments of the monarchy vs popular government argument that had rumbled on in England since the Magna Carta.

(edited 12 years ago)

Reply 7

Democracy

20

I'm finding it difficult to think of an insignificant revolution tbh...American, French, Russian, Iranian, etc. And social revolutions too...the Industrial, Sexual, etc. All had very profound and far reaching effects.

On the whole however I'd go for the Industrial Revolution, it totally changed economics and the means of production, labour and so on and so forth which directly had an impact on politics, society, international relations, etc.

Reply 8

paulmch

What about the (mainly) peaceful revolutions of the late 80s in Eastern Europe? It ended a period during which mankind arguably came closer to self-destruction than ever before or since.

Reply 9

SatanIsAwesome

13

http://listverse.com/2010/10/04/top-10-revolutions-felt-around-the-world/
I like how it fails to mention the help the Americans had from other European powers during their revolution.

Reply 10

mevidek

I'd say either the American, French or Russian revolutions have made the largest impact on the world we live in today, for different reasons.

Reply 11

pol pot noodles

19

Original post by Ultimate1

French Revolution laid the groundwork in many ways for the industrial revolution.

How? I cannot see a single way in which the French revolution laid groundwork for the industrial revolution. What laid the groundwork for the industrial revolution was the British agricultural revolution and English and Scottish englightenments.

Reply 12

bob247

18

Bolshevik revolution. Created a monster who killed more people than all the modern wars today combined and created a superpower that changed the face of the earth as it is today.

Reply 13

Swanbow

19

I will argue for the Agricultural revolution, because without it the Industrial revolution would have struggled. It helped increase the population and make farming less consuming on manpower, thus freeing them up for the industry.

Reply 14

Jtking3000

13

Copernican Revolution.

It was the start of challenging orthodox views on science. I think the word's etymology actually refers to this as Copernicus's idea was literally 'a revolution'.

Reply 15

Original post by paulmch

What about the (mainly) peaceful revolutions of the late 80s in Eastern Europe? It ended a period during which mankind arguably came closer to self-destruction than ever before or since.

The significance of the collapse of former USSR states in the late 1980's early 1990's had little impact on peoples actual way of life around the world. All well and good that the political sphere had moved from bi-polar to new and Paul Huntingdon called it 'class of civilisations' but how would the world have got to such a stage without the Second World War and the need for a weapon to end the war, namely the H-bomb ---> industrialised nations fighting a technology fueled war. We're too close to the event to access the full impact of the collapse of the USSR but it's safe to say that it pales in comparison to the Industrial Revolution.

Original post by mevidek

I'd say either the American, French or Russian revolutions have made the largest impact on the world we live in today, for different reasons.

Great input, why do you think these made the most impact, over say, the Renaissance?

Original post by bob247

Bolshevik revolution. Created a monster who killed more people than all the modern wars today combined and created a superpower that changed the face of the earth as it is today.

Ok so the mass genocide and brutal war casualties that the USSR inflicted were important in the context - imagine if they didn't have the capability to produce automatic rifles, or tanks, or planes, could it of still happened? Stalin understood that Russia was hopeless in this department, after The First World War, and the collapse of Russia's infrastructure, and so attempted to industrialise Russia in 15 years via 3 Five Year Plans. He knew that without vital industrial capability the USSR would collapse just like Imperial Russia.

I seem to be arguing quite forcibly for the industrial revolution, although I do think it's of such significance in the modern world, I do think there are other key revolutions which have as much weight as this, such as the collapse of Feudalism or The Renaissance as these changed peoples attitudes and not specific socio-political events.

Reply 16

piecesofpiece

Does the internet count as a revolution?
It's happening at the moment, so it will have an impact on world history.

I would argue that it's the biggest.

It's revolutionised the way we communicate, and globalisation loads. I have friends in China, Peru, the US, Iran, just on the internet. Social networking sites has made everything so much easier.

It's drastically changed political protests. Middle east protests - no need for a fixed organisation with twitter. Information is sent so fast and it's impossible to stop.

Not only those, it's revolutionised business. In today's society, a facebook status for a restaurant can cause a boost in popularity while a chain of complaints can kill a business. Everything is about pleasing the consumer.

Just thoughts :smile:

Reply 17

mevidek

Original post by crocker710

...

Great input, why do you think these made the most impact, over say, the Renaissance?

...

1. American War for Independence, arguably the war that brought about the very first truthful and respected human rights laws.
2. French Revolution was another revolution that brought about massive social change, peoples' lives improved (after the great terror), and France advanced generally within a century than it had over about the previous 2.
3. The October Revolution changed history, by leading to numerous other Communist revolutions, and also created a Super Power that was in the most dangerous war of all (Cold War).

Reply 18

Original post by mevidek

1. American War for Independence, arguably the war that brought about the very first truthful and respected human rights laws.
2. French Revolution was another revolution that brought about massive social change, peoples' lives improved (after the great terror), and France advanced generally within a century than it had over about the previous 2.
3. The October Revolution changed history, by leading to numerous other Communist revolutions, and also created a Super Power that was in the most dangerous war of all (Cold War).

The American war of independence brought about the 'very first truthful and respected human rights law' lol wut? Magna Carta was the first 'respected human rights law' and the American revolution only protected white males in its laws, slavery was still allowed hence the American Civil War in 1861.

The French Revolution changed French peoples lives, great. Where was the affect on 'World History'? the socio-economic climate of France at the time needed change and that's what it got, 30 years later it was back under authoritarian rule.

'The October Revolution' lead to communist revolutions in different countries? no - it lead to the break-up of the Russian Empire, and the subsequent countries which formed were kept under the pretense of a USSR. Following Communist revolutions were keen to distance themselves from the USSR, the ComInter was useless, Cuba and Khrushchev were only allied in public, and China disagreed with Russia after 1964. ROFL 'The most dangerous war of all'? The one where no shots were fired? - potentially it had the capability to, but due to Mutually Assured Destruction neither side were going to fire and used secondary battlegrounds to fight, such as Afghanistan or many African countries.

You need to stop looking at the affects on one country and look on a broader scale - does the french revolution of 1789 really affect the world today? or does the industrial revolution that allowed for incredible advances in technology have the longest effect?

Reply 19