page_title: Revolutionary wave
section_title: Pre-19th century
hierarchical_section_title: Revolutionary wave / Pre-19th century
caption_attribution_description: Deutsch: Straßenkämpfe am Alexanderplatz in Berlin im Jahr 1848 während der Deutschen Revolution. English: Streetfights at Alexanderplatz in Berlin in 1848 during the German Revolution.
context_page_description: A revolutionary wave or revolutionary decade is a series of revolutions occurring in various locations within a similar time span. In many cases, past revolutions and revolutionary waves have inspired current ones, or an initial revolution has inspired other concurrent "affiliate revolutions" with similar aims.
  The causes of revolutionary waves have been studied by historians and political philosophers, including Robert Roswell Palmer, Crane Brinton, Hannah Arendt, Eric Hoffer, and Jacques Godechot.
  Marxists see revolutionary waves as evidence that a world revolution is possible. For Rosa Luxemburg, "The most precious thing… in the sharp ebb and flow of the revolutionary waves is the proletariat's spiritual growth. The advance, by leaps and bounds, of the intellectual stature of the proletariat affords an inviolable guarantee of its further progress in the inevitable economic and political struggles ahead."
  The phrase "revolutionary wave" has also been used by non-Marxist writers and activists, including Justin Raimondo and Michael Lind, to describe discrete revolutions happening within a short time span.
context_section_description: The Second Reformation (1566–1609), including the Revolt of the Netherlands and the Second and Third Wars of Religion in France.
  The Thirty Years War (1618–1648), including Calvinist uprisings and the Huguenot Wars in France.
  The Atlantic Revolutions occurring at the end of the 18th century, including the American Revolution (1776), the French Revolution (1789), the Haitian Revolution (1791), the Batavian Revolution (1795) and the Irish Rebellion of 1798. Also in this era, Pitt's India Act of 1784 established the India Board to supervise the East India Company, a system which lasted until the Indian Rebellion of 1857; and the Sikh Empire was founded by Ranjit Singh in 1799.
caption: Revolutions of 1848
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