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The role ideologies play in revolutions is not to be underestimated. Neither the French nor the Chinese Cultural Revolutions would have been possible without the ideologies that spurred on the revolutionaries. As celebrated historian Morris Berman said, “an idea is something you have; an ideology is something that has you”. The ideologies of each revolution held the nations and assisted in creating leaders and organisations, caused international influences on the revolutions, and fosters extreme violence and terror.
The Chinese Cultural Revolution lasted from 1966 until 1976 and was instigated by Chairman Mao Zedong to continue developing Marxism-Leninism in China and quash his enemies. In the 1960s, opposition against Chairman Mao was growing amongst the general population, and the revolution was a way for him to demonstrate his strength and capabilities, as well as removing any potential threats to his power. The heart of the Chinese Cultural Revolution was found in the ‘4 olds’ – the central ideologies of the revolution. Old ideas, culture, customs and habits of mind were seen by the Chinese Communist Party and Mao as threats to their power, and disguised as a movement for the people, Mao destroyed these elements of Chinese culture. Mao recorded his ideologies in his ‘Little Red Book’ which became compulsory reading for the military, but soon everybody owned it and the book was elevated to Bible-like status. The main followers of the powerful leader were known as Red Guards, who idolised Mao and his ideologies, and committed humiliating and violent acts against those who refuted these ideologies. Mainly composed of students, the Red Guards were entirely loyal to Mao, not his party. They had been conditioned into believing the propaganda they had seen in schools, such as songs, newspaper articles and posters, and publicly humiliated, tortured or murdered those who did not. The ideologies of the revolution had consumed the Guards, who were reduced to violence when faced with opposition of them. Just as much as the Red Guards depended on the revolution, however, the revolution depended on the Red Guards. They were a massive popular organisation, with numbers well into the millions, and had the power to completely sway the revolution in Mao’s favour. Military and political organisations also tended to sway towards Mao, immediately quelling any protests against Mao’s ideologies. As most power stems directly from government and military organisations, it was vital for Mao to sway them towards his ideologies. However, Mao also believed that power could be obtained by harnessing the masses, so much of his revolutionary propaganda was aimed at proletarians and students, who had the most mouldable minds and could be harnessed more easily than intellectuals, who were more likely to question his teachings. To combat this, Mao branded intellectuals and the bourgeoisie ‘class enemies’ who were against his revolutionary teachings. He quietly encouraged violence and dazibao, or ‘big character posters’, a poster condemning somebody as anti-socialist and anti-communist, against these groups to force them to retreat and assert his dominance, but he could not control everyone. In 1971, Belgian professor Simon Leys said, ‘The ‘Cultural Revolution’ had nothing revolutionary about it except the name, and nothing cultural about it except the first tactical excuse. It was a power struggle fought at the top between a handful of men and behind the smokescreen of a fictitious mass movement.’ However, he does acknowledge that Mao’s ability to create effective propaganda did eventually create a revolutionary movement. Although it was not intentional, Mao’s ideologies were so attractive to the people of China that a genuine revolution occurred.
The French Revolution, a decade-long period of political upheaval, occurred between 5 May 1789 and 9 November 1799. One of the most famous slogans of the revolution, ‘liberté, egalité, fraternité’, or ‘liberty, equality and fraternity’, is still one of the official French mottos to this day. It first appeared painted on the front of Parisian houses in 1793, and grew to become the main ideologies of the entire revolution. This ideology was spread quickly through France through societies and groups such as the Jacobins, led by revolutionary leader Maximilien Robespierre. Robespierre was not the only leader, however – there were also people like Marquis de Lafayette Gilbert du Motier, the author of the Declaration of the Rights for Man and of the Citizen, and Napoleon Bonaparte, a revolutionary general who became the first Consul of the Republic after the Directory was overthrown in 1799. The French Revolution was characterised by not only the leadership, but also the organisations.
Dozens of political organisations were formed during the Revolution, each member representing their organisation’s own ideologies. Two of the most radical opposing groups were the Jacobins and the Royalists. The Jacobins believed strongly in the idea of having a republic as opposed to a monarchy, and are often associated with a period known as the ‘reign of terror’, where anybody suspected of treason would be arrested and executed. The Royalists staunchly opposed the Jacobins’ ideologies, and believed in an absolute monarchy. Both organisations were highly elitist and exclusive, and were mainly composed of upper class citizens. The main popular organisation was made up of sans-culottes, named after the fact that they did not wear breeches like the upper classes, who were the lower-middle classes of French society. Their demonstrations were characterised by spontaneity, mass involvement, and violence, and as a result the French Revolution is considered one of the most violent revolutions in modern history. Although previously this violence was only thought to occur during the Reign of Terror, historian François Furet has challenged this notion, believing that it occurred all through the revolution. This is supported by evidence at the storming of the Bastille, which occurred in 1789. Members of the garrison were murdered by uprisers, and the commander’s head was displayed on a pole as a message to royalists. There were many more violent events preceding the Reign of Terror; the March to Versailles, Louis XVI’s execution, the September Massacres, and the Champ de Mars are just some of the examples. All of these events resulted in bloodshed at the hands of the revolutionaries, and all of them occurred before the beginning of the Reign of Terror in September 1793. These attacks were also all governed by a central ideology: to end the monarchy and replace it with a new era of rule. Other nations were concerned by this ideology, and sought to end the revolution. Neighbouring monarchical countries such as Great Britain, Austria and Prussia defended the French monarchy in the hopes of preserving their own, in what came to be known as the French Revolutionary Wars. French victories in these wars resulted their revolutionary ideologies being spread around the world. The ideologies shaped the French Revolution, and in turn the world around it.
Ideologies are one of the key factors in revolutions, and the French and Chinese Cultural Revolutions are no exception. Mao’s “4 olds” and the French “liberté, egalité, fraternité” helped spread the messages of the revolution across the nations. Each revolution was violent, and involved powerful leaders and influential organisations. There was also some international influence, however this was less noticeable. The revolutions revolved around the ideologies, and they have shaped the nations to this day.
Bibliography
- Fielding, M & Morcombe, M 1999, The Spirit of Change: France in Revolution, McGraw Hill, Sydney, NSW.
- Hammond, C 2006, ‘The French Revolution and the Enlightening of Military Justice’, Journal of the Western Society for French History, vol. 34, pp. 1-3, viewed 8 September 2019, Library – University of Michigan, Regents
- Leys, S 1978, The Chairman’s New Clothes: Mao and the Cultural Revolution, St. Martin’s Press, Brussels
- Silva-Grondin, M 2010, ‘Degrees of Violence in the French Revolution’, Inquiries Journal, vol. 2, no. 1, pp. 1-1, viewed 8 September 2019, Inquiries Journal, Student Pulse LLC
- Encyclopaedia Britannica n.d., French Revolutionary Wars, viewed 8 September 2019, https://www.britannica.com/event/French-revolutionary-wars
- France Diplomatie n.d., Liberty, Equality, Fraternity, French Government, viewed 8 September 2019, https://www.diplomatie.gouv.fr/en/coming-to-france/france-facts/symbols-of-the-republic/article/liberty-equality-fraternity
- Wikipedia n.d., List of political groups in the French Revolution, viewed 8 September 2019, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_political_groups_in_the_French_Revolution
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