Rebellion Against Government: Is Rebellion Justified?

Rebellion Against Government

Many words are associated with the word “rebellion.” These words may include “disobedience,” “anarchy,” “instability,” or “teenagers.” A word that should be included in that group is “justified.” Throughout history, people have often been deprived of the rights and freedoms that they deserve as citizens. Some may say that the most effective way to become free of oppression is in the form of insubordination or an uprising. Rebellion against government is justified only if the people of a nation are being deprived of their natural rights to live and better their lives. This has been the case in many revolutions in history, including the French and American Revolutions. Rebellion is not always justified, but can be

The people of France tried to resolve issues peacefully but the king cared only about his power and acted at the expense of the citizens. According to the French Revolution portion of the Encyclopedia Britannica Online, the bourgeoisie wanted to have political power and the peasants did not want the feudal system to continue (French Revolution 2). A large meeting was held to discuss and solve issues, but, “rumors of an ‘aristocratic conspiracy’ by the king and the privileged to overthrow the Third Estate led to the Great Fear of July 1789.” (French Revolution 2). With the king of France being unwilling to actually resolve any conflicts, the only choice that was left was to overthrow the government as a whole and rebuild it into being a more fair and just system. Again, people need freedom and happiness in their lives in order to be satisfied with their ways of living, and the appropriate response to that lacking in their lives is to remonstrate against the burdensome

The American Civil War is a great example of an unjustified revolution. According to the American Civil War section in Funk and Wagnalls New World Encyclopedia, the primary focus of the Confederates who wished to leave the Union was to maintain the right to own slaves (Civil War, American 1). However, owning slaves prevented the people who were sold into slavery from having their natural rights, which does not exactly qualify as true freedom. The Civil War is well known as being the bloodiest war in the history of the United States of America. This is because somewhere between 750,000 and 850,000 soldiers died during the American Civil War (Civil War, American 1). The so-called “right” that the Confederates wanted to maintain was certainly not worth losing that many lives over. Causing death to allow people to be abused and killed even more is not a justifiable concept in any place in the