Rebellion
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".
An interesting feat to "rebellion" is that it has been taken in as fashion interest in America, and rebellious behaivors are usually turned into more of a new fashion statement than a statement of intellect.
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.
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
*
Theodoros Kolokotronis*
Bhagat Singh*
Jack Cade*
Bohdan Chmielnicki*
James Connolly*
Michael Davitt*
Francis of Assisi*
Mahatma Gandhi*
Owain Glyndŵr*
Che Guevara*
Ammon Hennacy*
Helgi Hóseasson*
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*
Louis Riel*
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*
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)
*
The Resisty (
Invader Zim)
*
The 1837-1838 Rebellion in Lower Canada, Images from the McCord Museum's collections
