Violence Across Six Revolutions: A Structured Comparison

A structured comparison of violence asks the same questions of every case. How much violence was there, who carried it out, against whom, and why? England in 1688 saw little fighting in England but war in Ireland and Scotland. The American Revolution involved a long war and harsh treatment of Loyalists, but no centralized terror. France experienced foreign war, civil war in the Vendée and the Terror. Haiti's revolution was fought against slavery and two European armies and included massacres by several sides.

Spanish American independence involved some fifteen years of war, including 'war to the death'. Russia's revolution led to a civil war, famine and an institutionalized terror that killed millions. The comparison suggests that violence grew where revolutions faced foreign invasion and internal civil war, where social stakes were highest, and where ideologies cast opponents as enemies to be eliminated rather than rivals to be outvoted.