How to Learn the Major Revolutions: 98 Flashcards from 1642 to the Arab Spring
Study guide to the 98-card Major Revolutions deck: the theory block, the case files, two definitional contradictions and the backs worth rewriting.
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Deck CI2681 "Major Revolutions" on Flip It is not the chronological survey its title suggests. Cards 1-55 are a comparative-politics toolkit — definitions, typologies, the scholars behind them — and cards 56-98 are case files drilling one upheaval at a time. Learn the vocabulary first, then hang the case files on it.
Study this deck: Major Revolutions
1 / 10What were the dates of the American Revolution?
Tap the card for the answer · swipe right if you knew it, left if not
Unit 1: how revolutions are classified
Dates and leaders for the American, French and Haitian revolutions, the English Civil War, the Glorious Revolution, Xinhai, the Russian and Chinese revolutions, Cuba, Iran, Nicaragua, Mexico, 1848, 1989, the Spanish American wars of independence, the Arab Spring, Siam 1932, Egypt 1952, People Power, Algeria and the decolonisation of Africa. Then the theory: Crane Brinton's four-case comparison and The Anatomy of Revolution, Theda Skocpol's States and Social Revolutions, Jack Goldstone's three elements, Mark Katz's six forms, counter-revolution, coup d'état, bourgeois versus proletarian revolution, nonviolent revolution, revolution versus civil war, and the social revolutions — Industrial, Scientific, Commercial, Digital.
Unit 2: the case files
France (Reign of Terror, Thermidorian Reaction, the Directory, 18 Brumaire, the Continental System, the Hundred Days, Waterloo, the Concert of Europe); Russia (February and October, the calendar puzzle, Bolsheviks and Mensheviks, the Civil War, War Communism, the NEP); China (the Long March, KMT versus CCP, 1 October 1949, the Great Leap Forward, the Cultural Revolution); then Iran 1979 and the hostage crisis, the Sandinistas and Contras, the 26th of July Movement and the Bay of Pigs, the named revolutions — Velvet, Carnation, Orange, Rose, Cedar, Jasmine — and Egypt 2011, Libya and Syria.
Eight cards from the deck
| Front | Back |
|---|---|
| What was significant about the Haitian Revolution? | It was the only successful slave revolt in history that led to the founding of a state |
| What were the four major revolutions Crane Brinton compared? | England (1642), America (1775), France (1789), Russia (1917) |
| According to Jack Goldstone, what three elements do all revolutions contain? | Efforts to change the political regime, mass mobilisation, and noninstitutionalised actions such as demonstrations or violence |
| What are the six forms of revolution identified by Mark Katz? | Rural, urban, coup d'état, revolution from above, revolution from without, revolution by osmosis |
| What was the original meaning of the word "revolution"? | The revolving motion of celestial bodies |
| Why is it called the October Revolution if it happened in November? | Russia used the Julian calendar; it occurred on 25 October by that calendar |
| Why was it called the 26th of July Movement? | Named after Castro's failed attack on the Moncada Barracks on 26 July 1953 |
| What was the Carnation Revolution? | The 1974 coup in Portugal that ended the Estado Novo dictatorship |
The two definitional contradictions
Card 36 defines a coup d'état as "a top-down seizure of power, distinct from a revolution" — and one card later, Katz's typology lists coup d'état as one of six forms of revolution. Same tension with card 8, which answers "what revolution replaced the English monarchy with a republic?" with "the English Civil War", while card 54 insists revolutions and civil wars are different things. Neither is a mistake to delete — it is the real scholarly disagreement, so write it on the card: coups are excluded by Skocpol's social-transformation criterion and included by Katz's typology of regime change.
Fix two backs, then thin the repeats
"Who succeeded Mao Zedong?" answers "Deng Xiaoping became paramount leader in 1978". Mao's actual successor was Hua Guofeng, Party Chairman from 1976 to 1981; Deng took real control at the Third Plenum of December 1978. Add Hua to the back. And the Syria card, calling the war "the ongoing conflict that began in 2011", is out of date: the Assad government fell in December 2024, ending the phase the deck describes.
Volume is also unevenly distributed. Iran (16 and 81), Nicaragua (17 and 84), Cuba (15 and 87), the Chinese Civil War dates (14 and 73), the Revolutions of 1848 (18 and 46) and Tunisia (23, 24 and 95) each appear two or three times, because both blocks cover them independently. Suspend the survey version — the case file always carries more detail — and the deck drops to about 88 useful cards.
Related history decks: major wars and battles and 184 key dates of ancient history.
Deck code CI2681 "Major Revolutions" on Flip It.
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