rebellion
rebellion, revolutionRelatively rare but historically important events in which an entire social and political order is overturned, usually by violent means, and reconstructed on new principles with new leaders. The word revolution has come to be applied loosely to any dramatic social change—as in ‘industrial revolution’, ‘computer revolution’, ‘style revolution’, and so forth. But its central meaning is still political. It is difficult to make a sharp distinction between a political revolution and a rebellion, although some have argued that the term ‘revolution’ should be reserved for those instances in which the new governing elite attempts to make fundamental changes in the social structure of the post-revolutionary society, whereas rebellions are more limited political upheavals involving only the replacement of one ruling group by another. On this criterion, rebellions clearly shade into revolutions, depending upon...
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