Free VCE History: Revolutions Flashcard Review

Colonial resentment of British imperial control, lack of representation in Parliament, growing colonial autonomy and self-governance, economic restrictions through mercantilism and Navigation Acts, ideological influence of Enlightenment thought and natural rights philosophy.

The Sugar Act (1764) and Stamp Act (1765) imposing direct taxation without colonial consent; the Townshend Acts (1767) on imported goods; the Boston Massacre (1770); the Tea Act (1773) and Boston Tea Party (1773); Intolerable Acts (1774) closing Boston Harbor.

The Battle of Saratoga (1777), where American forces defeated the British, persuading France to enter the war as an American ally and securing crucial military and financial support.

Argued for immediate American independence as a natural right and moral necessity; challenged the legitimacy of hereditary monarchy; promoted republican government and democratic principles; influenced colonial public opinion decisively in favour of revolution.

Asserted natural rights to life, liberty, and pursuit of happiness; declared all men are created equal; established popular sovereignty; listed grievances against King George III; justified colonial rebellion as resistance to tyranny.

Enlightenment critique of absolute monarchy and feudalism; severe financial crisis from expensive wars and court extravagance; rigid social hierarchy of the Three Estates preventing social mobility; widespread poverty and agricultural crisis among peasants and urban poor.

Famine and bread shortages (1788-1789); bankruptcy of the royal treasury; Louis XVI's failed financial reforms; calling of the Estates-General (1789); rejection of Third Estate demands for greater representation; peasant revolts and urban unrest in Paris.

The Third Estate members swore not to dissolve until a written constitution was established; represented rejection of the king's authority and assertion of popular sovereignty; marked the moment the revolution became irreversible by committing to constitutional government.

The storming of the Bastille (14 July 1789), which broke the perceived symbol of royal despotism and demonstrated popular revolutionary power; triggered rural peasant revolts and the abolition of feudalism; galvanised the National Assembly to legislate radical reforms.

Proclaimed universal rights to liberty, property, security, and resistance to oppression; established equality before the law; sovereignty resides in the nation; property is inviolable; separated from 1793 radical version by emphasis on order and property protection.

Separation of powers; popular sovereignty and social contract theory (Rousseau, Locke); natural rights to liberty, equality, and property; critique of divine right monarchy; promotion of rational government and constitutional limitations on authority.

Rapid industrialisation creating a new urban working class without political rights; rigid autocratic rule under the tsar; persistent serfdom legacy and peasant land hunger; nationalist and Marxist ideologies gaining intellectual currency; imperial overexpansion and military defeats.

Catastrophic losses and hardship in World War I; bread shortages and economic collapse in Petrograd (1917); strikes and mutinies of workers and soldiers; the February Revolution forcing the tsar's abdication; the Provisional Government's continuation of the war and failure to address land reform.

Demanded an end to Russian participation in World War I; called for transfer of all land to peasants; advocated workers' control of factories; promoted a dictatorship of the proletariat; 'All power to the Soviets'; provided Bolshevik direction and mobilised mass support for revolution.

The Bolshevik seizure of power in the October Revolution (1917), storming the Winter Palace and establishing a one-party Marxist state; followed by the Russian Civil War (1918-1922) consolidating Bolshevik control and creating the Soviet Union.

Marxist communist revolutionary who led the Bolsheviks; advocated a vanguard party directing the proletariat; promoted centralised revolutionary discipline and rapid industrialisation; implemented the dictatorship of the proletariat after 1917; reshaped Russia into the Soviet Union.

Class struggle between proletariat and bourgeoisie; materialist interpretation of history; necessity of workers' revolution to overthrow capitalism; dictatorship of the proletariat as transitional state; abolition of private property and establishment of communism.

Decline of the Qing dynasty and feudal agricultural system; semi-colonial exploitation by Western powers and Japan; weak warlord-controlled government after 1912; peasant poverty and landlessness; intellectual rejection of Confucianism in favour of Western and Marxist ideologies.

Sino-Japanese War (1937-1945) devastating the economy; Nationalist government corruption and military failures; Japanese occupation and peasant suffering; postwar civil war between Nationalists and Communists; urban economic collapse and hyperinflation; widespread rural discontent.

Mao emphasised the revolutionary potential of the peasantry, not the urban working class; his field reports documented peasant grievances and organisational capacity; this peasant-focused strategy diverged from Soviet Marxism and became central to Chinese Communist revolutionary success in rural areas.