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History has witnessed numerous revolutions, popular revolts against governments that sought to overturn political, social, and economic oppression, and political incompetence. Some of these uprisings proved positively cataclysmic resulting in centuries-old monarchies being abolished, for example, or entirely new nations being created. One insurgency even managed to rid a country of slavery. So, what are the most important revolutions that shaped world history?

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The American Revolution was fermented as tensions between the British and their 13 American colonies reached breaking point in 1775. Revolutionary fervor had been fueled earlier, when on March 5, 1770 British troops opened fire on demonstrators in Boston in what became known as the Boston Massacre. The ugly confrontation was used by propagandists to lobby for independence from England.

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Another notable act of rebellion happened on December 16, 1773, also in Boston, when American colonists, frustrated and angry at Britain for imposing "taxation without representation," dumped 342 chests of tea, imported by the British East India Company, into the harbor, an event that became known as the Boston Tea Party.

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The opening salvos of the American Revolutionary War took place at Lexington and Concord, fought on April 19, 1775 in Middlesex County, Province of Massachusetts Bay. They marked the outbreak of armed conflict between the Kingdom of Great Britain and its 13 colonies in America.

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In Philadelphia on July 4, 1776, the Continental Congress adopted the Declaration of Independence, essentially an official proclamation rejecting the British monarchy.

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Despite the fact that the 13 colonies were now new, independent states, the violence continued. The Battle of Trenton, fought on December 26, 1776, was pivotal. A victory for the Continental Army against mercenary forces, the win boosted waning morale among George Washington's troops. The event is immortalized in a famous painting of Washington crossing the Delaware River on the night of December 25-26, to confront the enemy.

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Washington's troops, alongside French combatants led by General Jean-Baptiste de Rochambeau, won a decisive victory over the British at the Battle of Yorktown in October 1781.

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The American Revolutionary War ended two years later with the signing of the Treaty of Paris, on September 3, 1783. Signed by John Adams and Benjamin Franklin, among others, the treaty precipitated the formation of the United States of America.

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France's involvement in the American Revolutionary War had seriously depleted state coffers. But that hadn't deterred the country's nobility from enjoying lavish and expensive lifestyles. Meanwhile, ordinary folk were being taxed to the hilt and living in squalor. The people eventually turned their widespread discontent on their monarch, King Louis XVI. On July 14, 1789, revolutionaries stormed and seized control of the Bastille fortress in Paris. Thus began the French Revolution.

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The following two months were known as the La Grande Peur—"The Great Fear." Panic, riot, and mass hysteria consumed the nation. In the provinces, the peasant classes rose against their lords, attacking châteaus and destroying feudal documents. The whole country demanded an end to the ancien régime.

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The Declaration of the Rights of Man and of the Citizen was drawn up in 1789 by the National Constituent Assembly, a group of representatives from the Estates-General who were pushing for gradual change. Others, however, like the Jacobin statesmen Maximilien de Robespierre, insisted on total governmental reform.

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The Jacobins, an influential club of political extremists whose leaders included Robespierre, caught up with the French king, who was attempting to flee. On January 21, 1793, Louis XVI was executed by guillotine. His wife, Marie-Antoinette, suffered the same fate nine months later.

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The Jacobins instigated a new bloodbath, the so-called Reign of Terror. Thousands perceived as enemies of the revolution were executed. Many more died in jail awaiting trial.

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Robespierre, later regarded by many as a dictator, met his own end on July 28, 1794, executed with his conspirators by guillotine in Place de la Révolution, today known as Place de la Concorde. Robespierre's demise marked a new chapter in which the French voiced increased alarm against the excess use of violence.

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The conflict came to an end in 1799 when Napoleon Bonaparte seized power through a coup d’état. The revolution succeeded in abolishing the monarchy and demonstrated how effective people power could be in bringing about change.

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The events in France reverberated around the world, including in a small corner of the Caribbean. The French had established the colony of Saint-Domingue on the island of Hispaniola as far back as 1659. The French ruled Saint-Domingue—modern-day Haiti—with an iron fist. But on August 22, 1791, numerous groups of slaves decided that they'd had enough.

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Inspired by the French Revolution, over 100,000 self-liberated slaves joined the armed rebellion. They were led by the charismatic Toussaint L'Ouverture, and by 1792 the revolutionaries had taken control of a third of the island.

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The rebellion caught Paris off guard. To appease the revolutionaries, the National Assembly belatedly granted limited civil rights to men of color on Sainte-Domingue. But is was a ploy. British troops agreed to conquer the colony and restore slavery. Later, Spain was dragged into the conflict. Despite an attempt to draw up a peace treaty with Toussaint L'Ouverture in 1798 (pictured), the British eventually left the island.

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In 1801, Toussaint L'Ouverture declared himself governor-general of Hispaniola and called for black autonomy and a sovereign black state. His demands displeased Napoleon greatly.

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Napoleon deployed troops to Saint-Domingue in a bid to recapture the island. During the conflict Toussaint L'Ouverture was captured and deported to France, where he died in prison on April 7, 1803.

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The French army met stiff resistance from determined revolutionary forces, now led by one of L'Ouverture's generals, Jean-Jacques Dessalines. At the Battle of Vertieres, fought on November 18, 1803, the French were routed.

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On January 1, 1804, Sainte-Domingue was declared independent and renamed Haiti. Jean-Jacques Dessalines became the island's first ruler as Haiti became the first country to permanently abolish slavery. The Haitian Revolution is regarded by historians as the most successful slave rebellion in the Western world, its impact felt across the region and beyond.

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A little over 100 years later on the other side of the world, an event took place that would precipitate the birth of a nation—the Chinese Revolution. By the early 20th century, China's once-powerful Qing dynasty had lost most of its influence in Asia. Puyi was destined to become the last emperor of China as the 11th and final Qing dynasty ruler. Bernardo Bertolucci's 1987 film 'The Last Emperor, chronicles Puyi's life up until he was forced to abdicate on February 12, 1912 during the Xinhai Revolution.

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The Chinese Revolution is often referred to as the Xinhai Revolution, because it occurred in 1911, the year of the Xinhai in the traditional Chinese calendar. With the Qing dynasty in its death throes, a revolutionary spark was ignited across the nation. Fanning this rebellious flame was Sun Yat-sen (pictured), who played a key role in the Revolutionary Alliance, formed in an attempt to abolish the imperial system.

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On October 10, 1911, after several revolts had been quelled by the Qing army, an armed rebellion known as the Wuchang Uprising seized the initiative and the revolution was born.

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The Chinese imperial army fought in vain to stem the insurgency, but as more blood was spilled the Qing court began discussing the possibility of a constitutional monarchy.

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The proposal fell on deaf ears. Eventually the mutineers established a military government representing the Hubei province, which effectively established the Republic of China. Sun Yat-sen was named its provisional president.

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After Puyi abdicated the throne in 1912, Yuan Shikai, a military and government official, became the first President of the Republic of China. The events of 1911 indirectly influenced the Chinese Communist Revolution in 1949, after which the People's Republic of China was established under the rule of Mao Zedong.

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The seeds of the Russian Revolution were sown in January 1905 when troops and police opened fire on a peaceful demonstration by workers protesting against the monarchy outside the Winter Palace in Saint Petersburg. Around 1,000 people were killed and injured in the massacre, which became known as Bloody Sunday.

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Russia, an undeveloped and impoverished nation, was struggling to feed itself, the economy crippled by the country's participation in the First World War. In February 1917, workers again took to the streets of the now renamed Petrograd (Saint Petersburg sounded too German), joined this time by a significant number of soldiers, pictured here, who'd lost faith in the czar. Their banners read "down with the monarchy."

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The February protests, which saw over 1,300 people killed, forced Czar Nicolas II to abdicate the throne, ending Romanov dynastic rule and the Russian Empire. A few days later, the new provisional government was formed. However, most of its officials were deemed privileged and bourgeoisie. Furthermore, they still supported a war that was regarded as ruinous.

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In April 1917, Lenin, the founder of the Bolshevik Party, returned from exile. He was immediately deemed a threat by the government and in July was forced into hiding as new street protests were brutally suppressed.

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The October Revolution saw the Winter Palace stormed by revolutionaries led by Lenin. The government was overthrown in a well-organized coup d’état.

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Lenin envisaged a land ruled not by capitalists, but governed collectively by the working class and members of the military. Pictured are Russian army officers taking the oath of allegiance to the October Revolution at the Winter Palace.

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The events of October prompted a civil war in Russia, with remaining imperial loyalists opposed to Bolshevik rule. Five years later, in 1922, Lenin, together with Josef Stalin, General Secretary of the Communist Party, oversaw the creation of the Soviet Union.

Sources: (History) (Britannica) (BlackPast) (Facing History and Ourselves) (The British Library) (Smithsonian Magazine)