Millenarian Rebellion
Peasant rebellions were common throughout the world in the 19th and first decades of twentieth century. Rebel movement tended to be most common in areas that were peripheral to, but not completely isolated from areas penetrated by the world economy. Cash crops, new taxes, desire to purchase new goods, and new regimes of private property disrupted traditional communities and created perceptions of insecurity.
Many of these uprisings (at least until nationalists and communists began grass-roots organizing in the early twentieth century) congealed around apocalyptic religious themes. Current rulers or foreigners were condemned as immoral and evil. A period of enormous turmoil was predicted, to be followed by a new reign of goodness and purity. Puritan values and fundamentalist religious beliefs were common, as were ideals of egalitarianism and communal property. Many, but not all, movements directly referred to changes brought by contact with the world market They could be an attractive alternative to members of disrupted and increasingly disenfranchised peasant communities.
The movements drew strongly on indigenous religious and magical traditions. Many of them also drew widely on religious symbols and traditions from around the world, each creating their own distinctive blend. Both European and non-European elite found it difficult to be in sympathy with these movements. The leaders of these movements spoke in languages of magic, revelation, agrarian utopianism, radical egalitarianism, absolute moral judgment, or puritan asceticism that were in conflict with ideals of scientific progress and modern rationalism. Industrial workers were much less likely to take up millenarian themes in their resistance.
Not all such movements led to rebellion. Rebellions also tended to focus on local targets, and be hampered by a lack of understanding of the global circumstances that shaped their complaints. With some exceptions (such as the Taiping rebellion in China) they were easily defeated.
The following quotes are a cross section of millenarian statements:
Shawnee prophet Tenskwatawa (1768-1834) exhorted resistance against change:
For many years we traded furs to the English or the French, for wool blankets and guns and iron things, for steel awls and needles and axes, for mirrors, for pretty things made of beads and silver. And for liquor. This was foolish, but we did not know it. We shut our ears to the Great Good Spirit. We did not want to hear that we were being foolish. But now those things of the white men have corrupted us, and made us weak and needful. Our men forgot how to hunt without noisy guns. Our women don't want to make fire without steel, or cook without iron, or sew without metal awls and needles, or fish without steel hoods. Some look in those mirrors all the time, and no longer teach their daughters to make leather or render bear oil. We learned to need the white men's goods, and so now a People who never had to beg for anything must beg for everything. And that is why Our Creator purified me and sent me down to you, to make you what you were before! . . . No red man must ever drink liquor, or he will go and have the hot lead poured in his mouth! . . . Eat not their bread made of wheat, for Our Creator gave us corn for our bread . . . Our Creator told me that all red men who refuse to obey these laws are bad people, or witches, and must be put to death. . . The Great Good Spirit will appoint a place to be our holy town, and at that place I will call all red men to come and share this shining power. For the People in all tribes are corrupt and miserable! In that holy town we will pray every morning and every night for the earth to be fruitful, and the game and game and fish to be plentiful again.
The Azamgarb Proclamation of 1857 by Emperor Bahadur Shah was promulgated during the "Indian Mutiny" of 1857 when Indian troops rebelled against British commanders. A rumor that cow and pig fat (impure products to Hindus and Muslims, respectively) were used to grease cartridges for new rifles was the most immediate cause of the rebellion:
It is well known to all, that in this age the people of Hindoostan, both Hindoos and Mohammedans, are being ruined under the tyranny and oppression of the infidel and treacherous English . . . Several of the Hindoo and Mussalman chiefs . . .have presented themselves to me, and taken part in the reigning Indian crusade. . . Parties anxious to participate in the common cause, but having no means to provide for themselves, shall receive their daily subsistence from me; and be it known to all, that the ancient works, both of the Hindoos and the Mohammedans, the writings of the miracle-workers and the calculations of the astrologers, pundits, and rammals, all agree in asserting that the English will no longer have any footing in India or elsewhere. . . The pundits and fakirs being the guardians of the Hindoo and Mohammedan religions respectively, and the Europeans being the enemies of both the religions, and as at present a war is raging against the English on account of religion, the pundits and fakirs are bound to present themselves to me, and take their share in the holy war. . . .
Hong Xiuquan, the leader of the Taiping Rebellion in China (1851-1864) claimed he was the younger brother of Jesus. He promulgated a justification of rebellion and vision of the coming establishment of the Heavenly Kingdom that was a blend of Christian and traditional Chinese imagery. Hong said the Manchu demons who ruled China must be overthrown in favor of a new regime of radical land redistribution and communal cultivation. The Taiping rebellion was the most destructive war of the nineteenth century, with over 30 million deaths, and much of central China under rebel rule for over a decade:
Who in this mortal world has not offended against the heavenly Commandments? If one was not aware of his offense in former times, he can still be excused; now, however, as the Lord God has already issued a gracious proclamation, henceforth whoever knows how to repent of his sins in the presence of the Lord God, not to worship false spirits, not to practice perverse things, and not to transgress the Heavenly Commandments, shall be permitted to ascend to Heaven and to enjoy happiness, and for thousands and myriads of years to enjoy dignity and honor without end. Whoever does not know how to repent of his sins . . will most certainly be punished by being sent down to hell to suffer bitterness, and for thousands and myriads of years to suffer sorrow and pain without end. . . China once walked in the Great Way; but within the most recent one or two thousand years, China has erroneously followed the devil's path, thus being captured by the demons of hell. now, therefore, the Lord God, out of compassion for mankind, has extended his capable hand to save the people of the world, deliver them from the devil's grasp, and lead them out to walk again in the original great Way.
The Boxer Rebellion in China (1899-1901) was famous for having besieged the foreign embassies of Beijing. Its adherents were possessed by spirits that made them invulnerable to bullets. It started in a flood-ravished area of northern China, and blamed foreign missionaries for many local problems:
Statement by the Saintly Emperor Guangong during his visitation at our divining altar: This year seventy percent of the population will die. Lives can be saved by praying to Bodhisattva Guanyin for her mercy and kindness. . . . Those who do good will be safe, those who do evil can hardly escape. If you do not believe, you will see that in the seventh and eighth months of this year countless people will die . . . Heaven now fears ten disasters. the first is about how the world is going to be in a turmoil. The second is about everything in Shandong being wiped out. The third is that flood will cover Hubei and Hunan. The fourth is that war will come to Sichuan. The fifth is that Jiangnan is to suffer from a big famine and uprising. The sixth is about the deaths of more than half of the population. The seventh is that members of the Righteous and Harmonious Boxing order are too weak. The eighth is about the foreigners disturbing Zhili. The ninth is that there will be clothes but no one to wear them. The tenth is that there will be rice but no one to eat it. Disaster, however, may be turned into a blessing. One who copies this out for somebody else will have his whole family exempted from suffering the calamity.