A collection · 6 stories · 1853 to 1996
Revolutions in the name of faith
Prophets, rebel armies and clerics who tried to remake whole countries around their faith, from Qing China to the Iranian Revolution.
Most revolutions promise bread, land or freedom. These ones promised salvation as well. Each began with a leader who claimed a religious calling, a vision or a duty to God, and each drew in people who had already lost faith in the rulers above them.
Some of these movements won and built new states on religious law. Others were crushed within months. Read side by side, they show how often hard times, foreign pressure and a weak government came before the preaching, and how a shared belief could turn scattered anger into a movement strong enough to fight an army.
The stories
- 1853
The Taiping Heavenly Kingdom
Nanjing, Qing China
A village teacher who believed he was the younger brother of Jesus raised a rebel army, took Nanjing and ruled a large part of southern China for eleven years. The war that followed was one of the deadliest in history.
- 1885
The Mahdi takes Khartoum
Khartoum, Sudan
Muhammad Ahmad declared himself the Mahdi, the redeemer promised in Islamic tradition, and led a revolt against Egyptian and British rule. His followers stormed Khartoum and founded a state that lasted until 1898.
- 1890
The Ghost Dance and Wounded Knee
Pine Ridge, South Dakota, United States
A prophecy of renewal spread among Plains nations who had lost their land and the buffalo. Fear of the dance led the US Army to the killings at Wounded Knee, which ended the movement.
- 1926
The Cristero War
Jalisco, Mexico
When Mexico's government enforced strict limits on the Catholic Church, farmers in the west took up arms under the cry of Christ the King. Three years of fighting ended in a truce rather than a victory.
- 1979
The Iranian Revolution
Tehran, Iran
Months of strikes and street protests drove out the Shah, and Ayatollah Khomeini returned from exile to found an Islamic republic ruled by clerics. It is the clearest case of a modern revolution won in the name of religion.
- 1996
The Taliban take Kabul
Kabul, Afghanistan
After years of civil war, a movement of religious students from the south captured the capital and imposed its own strict reading of Islamic law on the whole country.
More collections
- When nature struck. Volcanoes, earthquakes, storms and droughts that destroyed cities, moved whole populations and changed how people build and plan.
- Communist revolutions and coups. How communist parties came to power around the world: in mass uprisings, after long civil wars, and in quiet coups backed by the army.