Revolutions: Gains & Losses

Revolution: an overthrow or repudiation and the thorough replacement of an established government or political system by the people governed (Dictionary.com). This definition explains what a revolution is, but not the many reasons of why it happens. Every revolution in history has happened because people were being treated poorly and felt the need to fix their quality of life, so they rebelled against their government. Most revolutions were won and people gained many new freedoms & liberties, and new governments were put in place to uphold better rights. Some failed as well in their fight for more freedoms; yet these still affected history, and some change or progress was still made. Three key revolutions that had great impacts on the world were the American Revolution of 1776 (which started in 1763), the French Revolution of 1789, and the German Revolution of 1848. All three revolutions had major gains and even some losses that shaped not only their history, but the rest of the world for years to come. The American Revolution started in 1763 when American colonists became so fed up with British rule they revolted. Tax on tea was too high, so they dumped it into their harbor; and just the sheer volume of impositions and taxes from a king across an ocean from them was too much for colonists to deal with (American Revolution). Ultimately fighting started and gains and losses began. As far as wars go, our revolution did not have a whole lot of loss of life. Many men were killed in big battles, but because the enemy was pretty easy to spot and battles were carefully planned and executed at one time, versus ambushes and guerilla warfare, not many lives were lost outside of those battles. The biggest gain of the revolution was obviously the fact that America was now its own country under its own rule. No longer did we have the British breathing down our necks and telling us how to run a country they were not even living in. We gained right for men to vote and own land

Cited: Perry, Marvin. Western Civilizations: Ideas, Politics, and Society. 8th. Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 2007. Dictionary.con "American Revolution." Wikipedia. 2008. 29 Sep 2008 <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/American_Revolution>.