Revolution! - K.J. Mason & F.J. Marriner

Ohkay so i've finally gotten around to looking at the books I borrowed from the library. Or at least one of them anyway. This particular book goes through a number of revolutions including the French and Chinese revolutions that i've been looking at throughout this investigation. It does a fantastic job at firstly defining revolution, then going through the factors of revolution for both the Chinese and French revolutions. And I think with this piece of text, i'm nearly finished formulating my presentation. I will just look at my final piece of text from Hannah Arendt and then finally the American revolution. I have come to the conclusion that I will be using this revolution, merely as part of the context behind the two I will be looking at for the time factors. I would love to have an hour presentation, but no one else wants to hear me ramble on for that long :(

The Meaning of Political Revolution

ANYWAY! To revolution! I must admit this introduction to revolution is my absolute FAVOURITE, for two reasons really. One because half of it involves a quote from Orwell, and secondly, because I think it sums up the meaning of revolution in the best way possible. I think I will include this quote as part of my presentation. Even though it is long and will probably bore half the class to death, I find it an absolutely brilliant quote. Thanks Orwell!

""Throughout recorded time there have been three kinds of people in the world, the High, the Middle and the Low - the aims of these three groups are entirely irreconcilable. The aim of the High is to remain where they are, the aim of the Middle is to change places with the High. The aim of the Low, when they have an aim - for it is an abiding characteristic of the low that they are too much crushed by drudgery to be more than intermittently conscious of anything outside their daily lives - is to abolish all distinction and to create a society in which all men shall be equal. Thus throughout history a struggle which is the same in its main outlines recurs over and over again"
With such words, George Orwell defined the concept of revolution. Of all the forces that have motivated modern history over the last two hundred years - nationalism and socialism, industrialism, imperialism, and the ever-recurring pattern of war and peace - no force has been more constant, particularly in the twentieth century, than the force of revolution"

I think the reason behind this quote having such an impact is that it is so so true. And that it certainly makes a lot of sense. Whilst I must admit that at the point I was up to reading this book I was not in search of a definition, but when I saw this one, and saw how true, and almost passionate it was, I had to include it as a part of my research and as part of the research in this book. After looking at revolution, I find the common theme of humanity wanting a better life, or wanting to be out of struggle. After the enlightenment, the lower classes became discontent with the idea that they were to be the lower class simply because that was the way things should be. They looked to more utopian ideas, things like freedom and equality. As we know, neither of those good qualities or really any good quality can be absolute, but I think it can be said that our modern world today was certainly built upon these ideas, which lead to revolution, which led to change, and these ideas being a part of our existing society. It can be said that these ideas that fuelled the revolutions, are still something that the globe strives for wholistically. But as Orwell mentioned, it is a recurring struggle, and poignantly, none of these ideas can ever be achieved. They can be acted upon, and they can provoke thought, but they can never be achieved because of the human nature.
Now onto the French Revolution.

The French Revolution - The Role of Ideas 

This particular article simply states that the period of enlightenment meant two things to the world; the value and importance of education within a society and also a questioning of the hierarchical structure of the society. This particular pattern of thought challenged the oppression of knowledge and intelligence through class distinctions and the church. Mason and Marriner state that "The age of the Enlightenment aimed to set men free from fear. It believed in rationalism, praising the laws of reason to enable man to discover himself; it believed in naturalism as a substitute for the supernatural and in the progress of man based on reason, knowledge and the natural rights of the individual." Here we find how the enlightenment resulted in the overthrow of the monarchial structure. For so long the position of King was something ordained by 'God' or a higher being, and people in the society with a lack of education were lead to fear God and fear the King, and fear every authority that was above them. When that fear is lifted, the people begin to question why the authorities were above them in the first place. 

A few scholars and philosophers to make note of are:

 - Francois Arouet (Voltaire) - attacked organised christianity and dominant role of the church, aimed to change the intolerance and censorship of ideas which he claimed prevented humanity's progress and ultimately happiness

 - Charles de Montesquieu - examined forms of government and argued that 'the rule of law' was the best form of government, valued the individual liberty over the oppression of despotism. 

 - Jacques Rousseau (well haven't we heard of you before?) - philosophy was both simple and revolutionary, he suggested that the authority of the state rested within the people, that all governments exercise their power by a virtue of contract given to them through the people - essentially, that the people hold the power. 

I think it can be seen, especially from Mr Rousseau, that these ideas would have had a huge impact on the society at the time. Once you tell the people that they hold the power, the are bound to exercise it. And even after the beginnings of revolution in France, the philosophers were still questioning the rights of an individual, the division of power and the freedoms of an individual, and thus, these ideas can be argued to have fuelled the revolution. 

The Declaration of the Rights of Man and Citizen
- I know it's small but it's in French too,
so it isn't as if you could read it anyway.

The Declaration of the Rights of Man and Citizen

This book has also included the very famous document forged at the French National Assembly on the 26th of January 1789. I chose to include it as I felt it clearly reflected the ideas at the beginning of the revolution and the attempt to put them into practice. Obviously, I cannot include the entire document, but I thought it would be useful to include bits and pieces.

"Men are born and remain free and in equal rights. Social distinctions can only be based upon public utility... rights are liberty, property, security and resistance to oppression... The law has the right to forbid only such actions that are injurious to society... Law is the expression of the general will... No man can be accused, arrested, or detained, except in the cases determined by the law and according to the forms it has been prescribed... law ought to establish penalties that are strictly and obviously necessary... Every man being presumed innocent until he has been pronounced guilty... free communication of ideas and opinions is one of the most precious of the rights of man... a general tax is indispensable; it ought to be equally appointed among all the citizens according to their means... property being a sacred and inviolable right, no one can be deprived of it..." 

Throughout this entire quote, the ideas of liberalism, freedom, equality stand as the basis of this document, once again highlighting how much so these ideas had impacted the french revolution to this point.

The Chinese Revolution - The emergence of Chinese nationalism

This is simply a short little segment that comments on the nationalism that came about in the late 1800's and the early 1900's. From reading this, plus the knowledge I have acquired through other sources, I think I can say that there was almost a pre-existing nationalism within China, in the sense that they always saw themselves as superior to other nations around them. With imperialism, as those of you who have read my post on the chinese revolution would know, their sense of superiority was challenged, so much so that feudalism and the monarchy fell apart. Due to the impact of imperialism, with the West basically taking advantage of China, any nationalistic spirit that was formed became particularly aggressive and anti-foreign. And hence we have two factors behind the nationalism - one in an attempt to show China's power and might, the second in attempt to remove the foreign powers lurking within China by making her strong again. Overall, this particular form of nationalism was rather negative and it took some strong liberalist leaders such as Sun Yat-sen to bring together the ideas of nationalism and liberalism to form a revolution, and to form a new China. Whilst the roles of liberalism are not as mentioned in this segment, it is clear that it takes a strong sense of nationalism combined with a strong sense of liberalism to pull the revolution together and make it successful (or unsuccessful initially I suppose). As Gungwu Wang states that nationalists were demanding "that the very nature of chinese civilisation be changed in order to meet the challenge of these outsiders, these foreigners who had come to the shores of China". So whilst imperialism had been a huge factor, when we dig deeper, we find that ideas were still of huge significance as it was the ideas that came from imperialism (nationalism) which had led the country to need revolution as much as it did.


I think after this I pretty much have two more posts to go and I feel very confident already in piecing together this powerpoint and project on revolutions. I know you're all still waiting for the American revolution one but it is coming along! I think these posts take so long though because I have to type it all and think while I type. Thinking about thinking takes a long time!
Even though i'm already so far into this project I find every piece of information I find on revolutions so amazing and brilliant. It is amazing how a single idea can change the course of history forever. It still stuns me that much of the societies, and their political system have been founded upon these revolutionary ideas, this quest of humanity to realise what is right and what is fair to all, versus the human nature. It is remarkable, and astounding! And I certainly think this is why i've had such a passion for history in the first place. It tells us everything we are, we have been and what we are capable of. And in that, there is no better way of knowing humanity, than through history.

~ VIVA LA REVOLUTION!!! ~