Revolutions of 1905-1911

The Revolutions of 1905 to 1911 occurred in the aftermath of the Russo-Japanese War and the Russian Revolution of 1905. It was the first revolutionary wave since The Revolutions of 1848 and it affected more than a quarter of the world's population.

These revolutions shared certain characteristics. They happened outside of the contemporary Great Powers with the exception of the Russian Empire which did have its stature shaken by the war with the Japanese Empire. These nations were often ruled by autocrats or in the case of the Argentine Revolution of 1905, an entrenched oligarchy. With few exceptions, the revolutions were led by a relatively small class of modern educated intellectuals in a largely illiterate or unindustrialized country. If any shared ideology could be attributed to them, it would be positivism. They had a strong Faith in Science and technology, believing that it will be the cure-all for their national ills (poverty, imperialism, and the lack of democracy) and often looked to Meiji Japan as a model for rapid industrialization such as the "Japanese Group" (Ομάς Ιαπώνων) in the Greek Goudi Revolt.

The biggest reason why these revolutions spread so quickly in such distant corners of the world was the telegraph which allowed rapid transmission of news. Another reason was improved transportation with railways and reliable passenger ships which allowed revolutionaries to share ideas and advice. They often mimicked each other such as the "Young Turks" in the Portuguese Revolution of 1910.

The strategy of the revolutionaries is to win over the bourgeoisie and the working class however these classes tend to be very small in their mostly rural, unindustrialized states. They barely existed as in the case of the Persian Constitutional Revolution and the Chinese Revolution of 1911. More crucial was the defection of junior officers in the military because they tended to be modern educated with a lower percentage of aristocrats. The revolution got the least support from rural landowners (nobility and gentry) and the clergy (in the case of China, the Confucian literati) as clergy tend to be of gentry background. These agrarian elites had close ties with the government and were hostile to land reform and the clergy saw intellectuals as rivals. There was often strong anti-clericalism as in the Mexican Revolution. The contributions of the peasantry, which often made up most of the population, was generally ignored.

These revolutions, with the exception of Argentina, saw rapid initial success. They often forced out dictators and monarchs or restrained them constitutionally. The revolutionaries dominated newly elected parliaments. However, they promised more than they could offer leading many supporters disillusioned. Some became apathetic or even joined the counter-revolution. Some revolutionaries, like the Young Turks, abandoned democracy and tried to impose a revolution from above. In most cases, the revolutionaries reach a compromise with the old regime so certain progressive programs would continue like public education.

In the colonized world, this was the period of national awakenings like in Indonesia and India.