Revolution and World Order

 According to scholars, the notion of world order emerged with the Treaty of Westphalia, 1648 (included two separate treaties, Munster and Osnabruck), which ended the Thirty Years’ War against the hegemonic power of the Holy Roman Empire. Peace of Westphalia delegitimized the transnational role of the Catholic Church and validated the idea that international relations should be driven by balance-of-power considerations rather than the ideals of Christianity and its authorities. (1, p.21)

 Westphalia treaty established rules for religious tolerance, abolishing the right of prince to establish his impose on his religion on his territory. (1, p.22)

 It is recognized that the Treaty of Westphalia established a system of world order, basic principes of which were: the principle of balance-of-power; the principle of state sovereignty (major role in international relations owned by monarchs proceeded to sovereign states); equality of rights of European states.

 The first event that shaked the world after Peace of Westphalia was Glorious Revolution in England 1688. It marked the beginning of modern English parliamentary democracy. As a result of the revolution absolute monarchy in England was replaced by the dual monarchy. In addition, discrimination of Protestants was reduced, but then discrimination of Catholic part of population increased. There are two opposing views of researchers on the events of 1688: 
1) The concept of "Glorious Revolution" as the birth of English constitutional rule;

2) The Dutch intervention concept. 
All the events of Glorious Revolution can be placed in the scheme: conspiracy – invasion - constitutional revolution.

In the result, John Locke proclaimed in 1690 the right of all citizens to rebel against the tyrants who distort and dominate the law, and suppress the people by using force and terror. Such tyrannical exploitation of power, according to Locke, may be subject to confrontation, because each person is born with the right of self-defense and self-preservation, which supersede the laws of an oppressive government. (2)

American Revolution was followed by the Glorious Revolution in 1774 but differed in its core principles. Despite the political upheavals of the last century, Britain itself in the middle of the eighteenth century was a strictly hierarchical society. At the same time on the other side of the Atlantic Ocean, Puritanism and experience life in the Frontier had created anti-authoritarian, individualistic position, while the absence of the aristocracy and the ease with which it was possible to obtain land, had made political mobility possible. In 1764, British Parliament issued a law of government revenues, also known as "Sugar Act", which was considered as a violation of the principle of a “good” government: the right of free people not to be taxed without their consent.

In the view of Europeans, the Americans put into practice the ideas of the theory of social contract. They created a government in which constitution represented the means by which people at some time fully entrusted their power to their elected representatives: the power of elected representatives was limited and temporary, and the prerogative of each government was interdependent. The principal outcome of the American Revolution was the elimination of the vestiges of feudalism and feudal tendencies. (3)

American Revolution was followed by revolution in France 1789, and many scholars tend to compare these two events. An important aspect of the origin of the two revolutions is their social roots, the driving forces. As for America, this country has not known feudalism as a system. Engels noted that the history of America started "on a more fertile soil where there were no blocking the way by the medieval ruins, and there did already exist the elements of modern bourgeois society in XVII century... ". (2) Although there were made attempts to impose the feudal relations and established feudal institutions, they have not received any broad-based development. The difference of these two revolutions is that by the end of XVIII century France, despite of American territories, was already a country with deep historical tradition and centuries-old culture.

The French Revolution is the first revolution that changed the structure of society and not simply shifted the current ruler, but even the political regime. It gave birth to the modern doctrine of nationalism, and distributed it throughout Western Europe.

In the late XVIII century France a new capitalist mode of production has made significant development. But its progress was prevented by the principles of absolute monarchy. This disparity led to a strong increase in tension within the French society, which subsequently led to a revolution.

At the turn of the XIX-XX centuries, capitalism of the free competition had been growing over into imperialism - monopoly capitalism. Monopolistic domination of the powerful industrial and financial associations exacerbated the principal contradictions of imperialism. The system of imperialism as a whole was ready for a new type of social revolution - the proletarian revolution. The unevenness of capitalist development in the intensification of class conflict created a situation that fraught with social upheaval. (2) As a result, consequences of Russian Revolution and the First World War led to the revision of international order. Emergence of a state with new social and political order became a prerequisite of rearrangement of powers on world arena and led to the appearance of so called new world order.