A rebellion is, in the most general sense, a refusal to accept authority. It may therefore be seen as encompassing a range of behaviours from civil disobedience to a violent organized attempt to destroy established authority. It is often used in reference to armed resistance against an established government, but can also refer to mass nonviolent resistance movements. Those who participate in rebellions are known as "rebels".

Overview

Throughout history many different groups that used violent methods were called rebels. In the U.S, the term was used for the Continentals by the British in the Revolutionary War and the Confederacy by the Union in the American Civil War. It also includes members of paramilitary forces who take up arms against an established government.

For example, the Boxer Rebellion was an uprising against Western commercial and political influence in China during the final years of the 19th century, and the Jacobite Risings which attempted to restore the deposed Stuart kings to the thrones of England and Scotland were called the Jacobite Rebellions by the government.

Types of rebellion

A violent rebellion is sometimes referred to as an insurgency while a larger one may escalate into a civil war. There are a number of terms that fall under the umbrella of "rebel", though they range from those with positive connotations to those that are considered pejorative. Examples, in rough order from sympathetic to pejorative, are:

• "Nonviolent resistance" or "civil disobedience"
• "Resistance" carried out by freedom fighters, often to an occupying invader
• "Revolution" by revolutionaries, often meant to indicate a desired change in the form of government and/or economic system
• "Uprising" by militants
• "Insurrection" by insurrectionists
• "Insurgency" by insurgents
• "Revolt"- A localized rebellion that, while wanting some form of change they lack the foresight that a revolution has. While they might overpower the local forces they more often then not fail to defeat a major army, if they do it tends to evolve into a full scale revolution.
• "Mutiny" by mutineers, normally of military or security forces to commanders
• "Subversion" by subversives

Famous rebellions / uprisings in history

Famous rebels

• Theodoros Kolokotronis
• Malcolm X
• Bhagat Singh
• Jack Cade
• Bohdan Chmielnicki
• James Connolly
• Michael Davitt
• Francis of Assisi
• Mahatma Gandhi
• Owain Glyndŵr
• Che Guevara
• Ammon Hennacy
• Helgi Hóseasson
• Stonewall Jackson
• Robert E Lee
• Martin Luther
• Martin Luther King
• Maccabees
• Jake Mooney
• Subcomandante Marcos
• Thomas Francis Meagher
• Emilio Aguinaldo
• Tipu Sultan
• John Mitchel
• Emelyan Pugachov
• Rani Lakshmi Bai
• Vladimir Lenin
• Stenka Razin
• William Smith O'Brien
• Subash Chandra Bose
• Spartacus
• Leo Tolstoy
• Leon Trotsky
• Pancho Villa
• George Washington
• Emiliano Zapata
• The Unknown Rebel
• William Wallace
• Michael Collins
• James Connoly
• Louis Riel

See also

• Rebellion, A German Heavy Metal / Power Metal band.
• Anarchism
• Civil disobedience
• Nonviolent resistance
• Revolution
• Joe Strummer
• American Slave rebellions (Nat Turner's rebellion, Stono Rebellion, et cetera)
• Polish uprisings
• Rokosz, a legal rebellion in the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth
• The Open Source Movement has been called a "rebellion" against closed source software and intellectual capitalism.
• Intifada

Fictional rebellions

• Maquis (Star Trek)
• Rebel Alliance (Star Wars)
• Freedom Fighters (Sonic the Hedgehog comics and cartoons)
• Returners (Final Fantasy VI)
• V (V for Vendetta)
• AVALANCHE (Final Fantasy VII)
• The Resistance (Half-Life 2)

External links

• The 1837-1838 Rebellion in Lower Canada, Images from the McCord Museum's collections

Military conflicts | Rebellion

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