How did revolutions affect the modern world?

When we talk about historic revolutions, we talk about the changes in the government

systems from the old to the new. These changes are viewed to be an effective change,

moreover, they paved the way for the modern systems to thrive. However, roads to revolutions

were radical and violent. We can study the patterns of each revolution and relate them to the

modern world. Most of the revolutions are an attempt to solve the unbalanced power of a

governing institute by creating a new one. The cause of each revolution varies. For example,

the Glorious Revolution in England was mainly caused by religious issues and absolutism

beliefs of the King. The French Revolution was a long and violent revolution that centered

around unbalanced power fueled by the suffrage of the third estate. The American Revolution

was a fight for independence from an unfair authority.

It can be observed that each revolution gravitates toward freedom of speech of all

people in the country. Little by little, each country gave its people more rights to participate in

political matters, which is a crucial part of their lives. It is a road that eventually leads to

democracy. John Locke’s idea of natural rights had inspired many political changes in the world.

Namely, the American Revolution. America’s economy is one of the biggest today’s world, and

one of the reasons was that it has a solid social order and government. The federal system of

the USA gave the people freedom in participating in political matters, as well as inspired change

in many countries’ systems. During the reign of King Rama 7, Thailand also changed its

government system. People of Thailand feel oppressed under the rule of absolute monarchy,

consequently, it marked the beginning of the Siamese Revolution in 1932. With the revolution,

came a new government system in Thailand, the constitutional monarchy.

The underlying effect of the changed government system is the improvement of social

equality. The social class in modern-day is not as rigid as it used to be. The change to a more

free-speech-based system allows people to move up the social class. For example, before the

revolution in French, the social class was divided into 3 estates: first, second and third. The
clergies were categorized into the first estate. The second estate was dominated by nobles. The

rest was categorized into the third estate. The king, however, did not fit into any social classes.

Simply put, the king had power above all the people and his power was absolute. The nobles,

although, had wealth and status, held very little political power. The third estate mostly

consisted of the working class and peasants, which had a great amount of population in France.

They were taken advantage off by the serfdom: they had to pay money to the landlords. Even

the wealthy people in the third estate rarely moved up the social classes. The failure in

management and faulty system in the social class resulted in the starvation of the third estate,

which leads to a revolution. When the absolute power of the king was abolished, it allowed the

social class to become more fluid. The revolution helped adjusting the social class to prove

more equality.

Another important aspect of revolutions is freedom in religion. The example can be seen

in the Glorious Revolution. England used to be a country dominated by Anglicans. There would

always be a conflict if a fraction believed in any other branches of Protestantism or even

Catholic. During the reign of King Charles II, the parliaments were not satisfied with the king,

since he gave non-conformists too much social freedom. And his brother, who reigned after him,

was Catholic. This caused protesters to take the streets. But soon stopped as they know that

King James II had a protestant daughter. His daughter and her spouse, William of Orange,

together overthrew the monarchy and established a constitutional monarchy. Later on, the

Protestants became more lenient with other religious beliefs and allow the king to pass the

Toleration Act that allowed anyone to worship their religion except the Catholics. Even though

they did not fully give the right to the Catholics at that time, but it paved the way for England to

be more open to other religions. Noticeably, modern England has a diversity of religions such as

Christian, Buddhist, Hindu, Jewish, Muslim, etc.

In conclusion, the revolution had many effects on the modern world, such as political

rights, fluidity in social classes, and religious freedom. Even though the revolutions might be
seen as violent and radical, it laid the foundation for the world as we know it today. Moreover,

these events in the past act as a reminder as well as a pattern for us to study in order not to

make the same mistakes. It is up to us to decide which aspects of the revolutions should be

implemented in the modern world.