The truly world-changing revolutions that have occurred in the history of civilization are far fewer than one might think. In terms of political revolutions, there are only a handful around which history actually pivots in a very real sense.
Scientific revolutions, broadly defined, have been inestimably important in the progress of civilization, of course, but scientific leaps are rare in societies that are not relatively freer than their contemporaries, despite of how their definitions of "freedom" may pale under our presentist Kleig lights. This is why it may be said that political revolutions lead to scientific revolutions.
Here are the five political revolutions which most define the present, in chronological order:
1. The adoption of Christianity by the Roman Empire 312
2. The American Revolution 1776
3. The French Revolution 1789
4. The Russian Revolution 1917
5. The Iranian Revolution 1979
A cursory glance shows us that politics was overwhelmingly static, in terms of fundamental upheaval, from the early first millennium to the late second millennium.
While I am of the opinion that Christ was Romanized far more than Rome was Christianized, the adaptation of the most powerful political entity in world history to date of a nominally pacifistic and egalitarian religion was an earthquake by any measure. The remaining four revolutions of the handful are unthinkable without this shift, despite its legion and well-documented destructive aftershocks.
The American Revolution was quite simply the most important thing that has ever happened, if one deems freedom, in a palpable rather than a Hallmark sense, to have concrete meaning and value and manifestation. The American Revolution has been castigated by modern liberals as the pet project of a racist and oligarchic elite, but this is an absurd exercise in relativism.
The Declaration of Independence represented the first time in the history of the world that individuals with real political and military authority defined the purpose of the government as the protection of the equal rights of all citizens.
We take this for granted, just as we take for granted unlimited and affordable supplies of food and clean water, but there was a time, a long time, lest we forget, when there was no guarantee of food or clean water, never mind freedom of speech or free legal representation.
Put simply, the American Revolution took more power away from the few with the guns and the money than any other thing that had ever happened.
The Declaration was not followed, of course, for nearly two centuries; we all know the saga of slavery and segregation. But the very fact that the Declaration existed made it certain that it would be fulfilled, albeit far too late for millions. The Constitution of the United States is the practical, cumulative, and uniquely legitimate tool for turning the Declaration's ideological wind into concrete and federally-protected reality.
To say that the American Revolution was not the most radical manifestation of dignity and community that has occurred in modern history is like arguing that the pyramids are unimpressive because they are not as tall as the Sears Tower; it entirely misses the point.
The French Revolution, to many liberals, was the fulfilment of the promises of the American Revolution. People that adopt this view are more likely to be apologists for Stalin and Mao as well, since the French, Russian, and Chinese Revolutions all descended into pornographic scales of murder and terror that only a willfully-blinded ideologue could excuse with such pithy exercises in amoral ism as, "you need to break some eggs to make an omelet."
The French Revolution was the American Revolution on acid. And it was a bad trip. It was a precursor to the Russian, Cuban, and Iranian Revolutions, in which a progressive coalition overthrows a calcified despotism, only to have the fringe elements proceed to purge the less radical elements from the new power structure.
The French Revolution descended not only into a nihilistic orgy of beheading and bathhouse shankings, but to a truly psychotic scale of destruction in the name of progress. My favorite anecdote about the French Revolution is how the radicals in power attempted to restart the calender at year zero, with the new calendar to run on the metric system, with ten months to a year and so forth. Before the freedom of dissent was respected, the French revolutionaries attempted to redefine the mechanics of space and time itself, as if they could slow the moon or speed up the earth.
More important than these aberrations, however, the French Revolution led to monarchy and imperialism. While Napoleon is largely given a pass by modern historians as a relatively enlightened tyrant, and while anyone would take him over Hitler any day, the fact remains that he was a dictator and an aggressor who ascended due to the overreach of the French Revolution, which held so much promise in its genesis.
The Russian Revolution is seen by conservatives in the West as on a moral level with Nazi ism and by their liberal counterparts as misguided idealism. The truth, as always, is in between.
The revolutionary Russian government was the first government to end a war at the behest of its citizens. This, like the American Revolution, was an earthquake. After the Bolsheviks purged their more moderate comrades, things got darker, but American historians are well-practiced in totally ignoring the American invasion of Russia in a failed attempt at regime change in 1918, which gave a rationale for their paranoia which was never acknowledged as legitimate by the United States.
The Russian Revolution forced things. It forced governments and industries in the West to cede far more security and prosperity to their citizens and workers than they had prior, despite the real progress of the American Revolution. The rhetoric of the Russian Revolution was infinitely more important for human history than the reality of it.
The ultimate gift of the Russian Revolution, however, was the defeat of Nazi Germany. The Russians beat Hitler, not the Americans. We were not even the Scottie Pippen to Russia's Michael Jordan in World War II; we were barely the Ringo Starr to Russia's John Lennon, Paul McCartney, and George Harrison combined.
The Russian Revolution forced a quickening and broadening of the American Revolution, which in turn raised the standard for freedom worldwide. The Russian Revolution was the Declaration of Independence to the American Revolution's Constitution; it lit a fire under our ass.
The Iranian Revolution shattered a simplistic and lazy paradigm espoused by diplomats and eggheads everywhere. This paradigm held that the world was divided into capitalist and communist camps and that political history would "end" when one of the two camps achieved critical mass.
Iranian intellectual Ali al-Shariati described the Persian mindset, however, when he rejected communism and capitalism as "two sides of the same coin." And he was right, of course; to accept the capitalist/communist duality is to accept the premise that all of human existence is driven primarily, if not solely, by economics, by material and money. That is by no means a settled debate.
The Iranian Revolution, in a menacing way, embodied a third way. This revolution, as much like its Russian, Cuban, and Chinese counterparts, was immediately attacked with American money and guns, if not American soldiers; Saddam Hussein supplied the soldiers this time. It is fortunate for the United States that Iran is neither Sunni nor Arab, because if it were, 9/11 would have happened fifty times by now.
When Chinese Revolutionary Deng Xiaoping was asked about his thoughts on the ramifications of the French Revolution, he replied, "it's too early to tell." There's a lot to be said for this perspective. But, then again, history moves a lot faster now.
It is clear to me that the American Revolution is the most essential revolution ever undertaken. It is equally clear that, after our 75-year battle with the Russian Revolution, we will spend our next 75-year battle with the Sunni imitators of the Iranian Revolution.
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