Revolutions and Rebellions

This chapter investigates further effects of decolonization. Most of the newly independent nation-states had poor infrastructure. Their populations were very diverse and poorly educated, and their leaders not committed to democracy. The strongest institution in many of those countries was the military. Revolutions and rebellions were frequent. Tripathi discusses some of the greatest revolutionary events that shaped world politics before and after the Second World War. The American War of Independence (1775–1783) and the 1917 Bolshevik Communist Revolution were two of them. No less important was the 1949 Chinese Communist Revolution. In the second half of the twentieth century, revolutions in Afghanistan, Egypt, Iran, the Philippines, and Europe after the breakup of the Soviet bloc also made history. This chapter analyzes the impact of those revolutions.