Some thoughts on the subject
(1) From my dictionary application:
uprising - noun: an act of resistance or rebellion; a revolt : an armed uprising.
THE RIGHT WORD: There are a number of ways to defy the established order or overthrow a government.
You can stage an uprising, which is a broad term referring to a small and usually unsuccessful act of popular resistance.
An uprising is often the first sign of a general or widespread rebellion, which is an act of armed resistance against a government or authority; this term is usually applied after the fact to describe an act of resistance that has failed (eg, a rebellion against the landowners).
If it is successful, however, a rebellion may become a revolution, which often implies a war or an outbreak of violence (eg, the American Revolution). Although a revolution usually involves the overthrow of a government or political system by the people, it can also be used to describe any drastic change in ideas, economic institutions, or moral values (eg, the sexual revolution).
An insurrection is an organized effort to seize power, especially political power, while an insurgency is usually aided by foreign powers.
If you're on a ship, you can stage a mutiny, which is an insurrection against military or naval authority.
But if you're relying on speed and surprise to catch the authorities off guard, you'll want to stage a putsch, which is a small, popular uprising or planned attempt to seize power.
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(2) The American Revolution took place during the so-called
"Age of Revolution." As noted in wiki,
The Age of Revolution is the period from approximately 1775 to 1848 in which a number of significant revolutionary movements occurred in many parts of Europe and the Americas. The period is noted for the change in government from absolutist monarchies to constitutionalist states and republics. The Age of Revolution includes the American Revolution, the French Revolution, the Haitian Revolution, the Greek Revolution, the revolt of the slaves in Latin America, and the independence movements of nations in Latin America. The period would generally weaken the imperialist European states, who would lose major assets throughout the New World. For the British, the loss of the Thirteen Colonies would bring a change in direction for the British Empire, with Asia and the Pacific becoming new targets for outward expansion.
The Declaration of Independence articulated what, by the 1800s, was called (in America, at least) the
"right of revolution," the idea that associations with a government can be "dissolved" whenever the "Government" becomes destructive of the ends and rights of Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.
Alexander Stephens, the VP of the CSA, said
that the Confederacy was engaged in a revolution during his Cornerstone speech. But not everyone in the Confederacy shared this use of language; perhaps Jefferson Davis was one of those who did not want the term "revolution" to be used? Even so, the slave state secessionists, or at least some of them, were aware that they were living in an age of revolutions where people were claiming independence from their governments.
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(3) Note this language from the
DofI:
When in the Course of human events, it becomes necessary for one people to dissolve the political bands which have connected them with another, and to assume among the powers of the earth, the separate and equal station to which the Laws of Nature and of Nature's God entitle them, a decent respect to the opinions of mankind requires that they should declare the causes which impel them to the separation.
Now note the following from the
secession declarations of several Confederate States:
Georgia: "The people of Georgia having dissolved their political connection with the Government of the United States of America, present to their confederates and the world the causes which have led to the separation. For the last ten years we have had numerous and serious causes of complaint against our non-slave-holding confederate States with reference to the subject of African slavery."
Mississippi: "In the momentous step which our State has taken of dissolving its connection with the government of which we so long formed a part, it is but just that we should declare the prominent reasons which have induced our course. Our position is thoroughly identified with the institution of slavery-- the greatest material interest of the world. Its labor supplies the product which constitutes by far the largest and most important portions of commerce of the earth."
Texas: "For these and other reasons, solemnly asserting that the federal constitution has been violated and virtually abrogated by the several States named, seeing that the federal government is now passing under the control of our enemies to be diverted from the exalted objects of its creation to those of oppression and wrong, and realizing that our own State can no longer look for protection, but to God and her own sons-- We the delegates of the people of Texas, in Convention assembled, have passed an ordinance dissolving all political connection with the government of the United States of America and the people thereof and confidently appeal to the intelligence and patriotism of the freemen of Texas to ratify the same at the ballot box, on the 23rd day of the present month."
These states talk in terms of "dissolving" the connection of the states to the federal government, thus mirroring the language in the Declaration of Independence, whose "dissolution" led to what we call the Revolutionary War.
- Alan