Revolutionary wave

The events yet to transpire in North Africa and the Middle East as of Feb 2011 may change some information in this article and even its outlook considerably

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A revolutionary wave is a series of revolutions WP) occurring in various locations. In many cases, an initial revolution inspires other "affiliate revolutions" with similar aims.

The concept is important to Marxists WP), who see revolutionary waves as evidence that a world revolution WP) is possible. For Rosa Luxemburg WP), "The most precious thing...in the sharp ebb and flow of the revolutionary waves is the proletariat's spiritual growth. The advance by leaps and – bounds of the intellectual stature of the proletariat affords an inviolable guarantee of its further progress in the inevitable economic and political struggles ahead."

Examples given of revolutionary waves include:

• The wave of Wikipedia:Atlantic Revolutions occurring at the end of the eighteenth century, including the Wikipedia:American Revolution (1776), the Wikipedia:French Revolution (1789) and the Wikipedia:Haitian Revolution (1791).
  • The Latin American Wars of Independence, including the various Wikipedia:Spanish American wars of independence of 1810–1826. These revolutions are often seen as inspired at least in part by the American and French Revolutions in terms of their liberal Enlightenment ideology and aims, are counted as the second part of the Atlantic Wave.
• The Wikipedia:Revolutions of 1830, most notably the neighboring Wikipedia:July Revolution in France WP) and the Wikipedia:Belgian Revolution.
• The Wikipedia:Revolutions of 1848.
• The Wikipedia:Revolutions of 1905-1911 in the aftermath of the Wikipedia:Russo-Japanese War, including the Russian Revolution of 1905 WP), the Wikipedia:Argentine Revolution of 1905, the Wikipedia:Persian Constitutional Revolution, the Wikipedia:Young Turk Revolution, the Greek Wikipedia:Goudi Revolt, the Wikipedia:Monegasque Revolution, the Wikipedia:Portuguese Revolution of 1910, the Wikipedia:Mexican Revolution, and the Wikipedia:Chinese Revolution of 1911 involved nationalism WP), Wikipedia:constitutionalism, Wikipedia:modernisation, and/or Wikipedia:republicanism targeting autocracy and traditionalism.
• The Wikipedia:Revolutions of 1917-23 in the Wikipedia:aftermath of World War I, including the Wikipedia:Bolshevik Revolution in Russia WP) and the emergence of an international Wikipedia:communist party alliance in the Wikipedia:Soviet-led Wikipedia:Comintern, the collapse of the major territorial empires of continental Europe WP) as well as Wikipedia:nationalist, populist and Wikipedia:socialist uprisings and protests worldwide.
• A more minor (or at least, more complicated) wave in the early and mid-1930s, in general response to the global effects of the Wikipedia:Great Depression and fears of communist revolution, including the rise of the Wikipedia:fascist movements and regimes in Wikipedia:Europe. Wikipedia:Communist parties began debuting the Wikipedia:popular front strategy, making coalitions with other Wikipedia:leftist and even some Wikipedia:center-right groups in an effort to shape politics, particularly after Adolf Hitler's WP) Wikipedia:Nazis seized power in Germany WP) in 1933. Despite the alliances of the radical left with moderate Wikipedia:socialists and liberals liberals|WP), the divisions over idology WP) and Wikipedia:political parties were rife and the movements did not lead to Wikipedia:communist revolution. Rather, they largely ended in either outright military and political defeat, as in the Wikipedia:Spanish Civil War and the other collapsing democracies of the interwar era, or electoral cooption and compromise, as exemplified by the ascendancy of Wikipedia:social democratic parties over Wikipedia:communists in many places, like the Wikipedia:Front populaire in France WP) and the Wikipedia:Democratic Party (U.S.) through its Wikipedia:New Deal coalition.
• A wave (or perhaps a series of waves) occurring at the end of World War II WP) and throughout the Cold War WP) (see below).
  • Arguably, especially in the case of Wikipedia:communist revolutions, there has been a regional wave following each successful seizure of power in a given area of the world. For example,
    • Two major waves swept Wikipedia:East Asia and Wikipedia:Southeast Asia. The first (1940s-1950s) wave grew after World War II WP) and was epitomized by the 1949 victory of the Wikipedia:Maoists in decades-long Wikipedia:Chinese Civil War, includes the establishment of a Wikipedia:communist state in North Korea WP) and the subsequent Korean War WP), a similar trajectory of the Wikipedia:Viet Minh and the communist Wikipedia:North Vietnamese regime through the Wikipedia:First Indochina War, as well as failed uprisings by the Wikipedia:Huks in the Phillipines WP) and by communists in the Wikipedia:Malay Emergency, and the Wikipedia:popular front-style alliance that led and triumphed in the Wikipedia:Indonesian War of Independence. Another 1960s-1970s wave parallels the Wikipedia:Chinese Cultural Revolution (1966-1976 and the Viet Nam War WP) (or Second Indochina War), which extended beyond Wikipedia:Vietnam and encompassed the Wikipedia:Cambodian Civil War and Wikipedia:Laotian Civil War, while the wave would include the efforts of the Wikipedia:New People's Army in the Philippines.
    • Two major waves of Wikipedia:guerrilla warfare in Latin America WP): one after the triumph of the Cuban Revolution WP) in 1959 inspiring legions of emulators pursuing rural-based focoWP) and/or urban guerrilla warfare WP); another wave following the eventual victory of one such Wikipedia:Central American Wikipedia:Castroite/Wikipedia:Guevarist movement in the Wikipedia:Nicaraguan Revolution in 1979 reinvigorated another generation of Wikipedia:vanguard party militancy, Wikipedia:popular fronts and armed insurrections WP).
    • A substantial wave in Africa WP), cresting in the 1970s, including the communist revolution Wikipedia:communist revolutions and pro-Wikipedia:Soviet military coup d'états (WP)s in Wikipedia:Somalia, Wikipedia:Congo-Brazzaville, Wikipedia:Dahomey/Wikipedia:Benin and Wikipedia:Ethiopia; the fight of the Wikipedia:communist parties allied under Wikipedia:CONCP against the Wikipedia:Portuguese Empire in the Wikipedia:Portuguese Colonial War; as well as the anti-Wikipedia:apartheid struggle, the Wikipedia:South African Border War and the Wikipedia:Rhodesian Bush War (in what is now known as Wikipedia:Zimbabwe).
    • The Wikipedia:Protests of 1968, including the May 1968 events in France, in a New Left (WP) echo of the contemporary waves elsewhere during the Cold War (WP).
• The worldwide Wikipedia:Civil rights movement from the 1950's to 80's.
• The rise of Wikipedia:Islamism, particularly its acceleration since the outbreak of the Wikipedia:Lebanese Civil War in 1975, of the Wikipedia:Afghan Civil War after 1978, and of the Wikipedia:Iranian Revolution in 1978-1979.
• The world money market pressuring its every financial move, the Wikipedia:Russian Mafia's (WP) eroding its finances, the Wikipedia:Arms race, the Wikipedia:Space race, and quite probably all manipulated or aided by further CIA manipulation, led to a USSR that quite simply gave up. All this despite having a GDP-to-debt ratio 10 or more times that of the USA, having made it to superpower status from being 40 years behind the rest of the Industrial Revolution countries, and having a climate that more resembles Canada (not a superpower) than the USA. After 70 years of anti-communist propaganda, a populace that had come to believe what we think of as Fox News propaganda led the Wikipedia:Revolutions of 1989 against the communist Wikipedia:communist and Soviet Union (USSR) (WP) sphere of influence.
• The Wikipedia:Color Revolutions, starting in 2000 with the Bulldozer Revolution in Wikipedia:Serbia.
• The Wikipedia:2010–2011 Middle East and North Africa protests, starting in Tunisia in December 2010 and spreading to Algeria, Bahrain, Egypt, Jordan, Libya, Morocco, Djbouti, Iran and Yemen by February 2011. (see: Wikipedia:Tunisia Effect)

See also

• Tunisia effect (redirected on WP, so not easily available at Wikipedia:Tunisia effect; try the little blue link at the top left corner, and look in the edit history for previous versions)
• Wikipedia:Waves of democracy
• Domino theory (political hypothesis)
• Wikipedia:Domino theory which accepts it as a theory, and where it has become, in equal parts, discussion of the hypothesis and a Wikipedia:WP:COATRACK for anti-communist critique

External links

• Wikipedia:Justin Raimondo, The Revolutionary Wave: Tunisia, Egypt, Yemen – is the West next?, Antiwar.com, January 28, 2011.
• Deborah Jerome, Can Tunisia Spark a Revolutionary Wave?, Council on Foreign Relations analysis brief, January 18, 2011.