One of the most significant implications of western revolutions that occurred between the 17ththrough the 20th centuries is that they contested long-held perceptions in the western world with respect to privileges of dominance in terms of class, culture, religious belief, and intellect (Goldstone, 1994). Revolutions in England, China, France, Iran, and the Russian Revolution served to disrupt historic alliances with other countries and to establish new foreign relationships (Walt, 1996). These revolutions also inspired formal and informal movements in other nations that were intended to challenge the traditional balance of power (Walt, 1996). The energy of a revolution, which is hopeful and change-oriented, is different from that of a war, and for that reason revolutions serve as models for other societies, demonstrating “that novel ways of organizing social and political life are possible [thus] inspir[ing] sympathizers in other countries” (Walt, 1996, p. i). Indeed, the lasting legacy of the revolutionary movements in the western world is that they have established the conditions that were necessary for democracy to flourish.
Revolutions posited and successfully modeled that it was not just possible, but necessary, to question the established system and to envision meaningful alternatives for the governance of a country. Furthermore, revolutions have served to make clear the role of the citizens in a country’s political systems. No western government can take for granted that it works in the service of its citizenry. If it does, then it need only look to the history of revolutions to understand that the assertion of the people’s will is likely to be exerted. Of equal importance is the fact that revolutionary movements such as the American and French Revolution complete changed the way the government saw its influence in nearly all aspects of the lives of its citizens, especially in terms of the way it collected taxes and imposed laws.
These are the broad-stroke characteristics of revolutions and their effects on the societies in which they take place, as well the consequences for the region and the world at large. In order to really understand the dynamics of revolution and the ways in which they have impacted the contemporary western world, however, it is necessary to draw the focus closer towards an examination of some of the major revolutions and the specific implications and outcomes of each. This is an especially salient point when one considers the governmental structure that nations are under when they finally gear up for a revolution.
While England’s “civil war [revolution] can hardly be considered a truly popular revolution by modern standards,” it represented one of the most significant movements of the modern world, with implications that not just reverberate, but which actually define contemporary western societies (Goldstone, 1994, p. 252). As Goldstone (1994) points out, the revolution in England “enshrined” those values and freedoms which are considered most precious by western countries, particularly individualism and personal freedoms. The monarchical systems were always the target of revolutions and had been challenged and dismantled, with the will and voice of the common people beginning to take a central place in the articulation of national goals and practices. Another significant outcome of the British Revolution was that it “accelerated [the] development of perhaps the most revolutionary force in the [preceding] five hundred years, the rise of capitalism” (Goldstone, 1994, p. 252). One can see, then, how the events that occurred during this revolution had meaning for the world at large, and not just the British people.
