Brain Zap
Back to the library

Revolutions

Revolutions: a chapter of the Turning Points of History Book, with the moments, people and dates that shaped the world.

10 cards · History

Start learning

Each Zap teaches up to 5 new cards, so you learn the deck a few at a time.

Checked by the Brain Zap team · reviewed 26 Oct 2026

Sources: World history (Encyclopaedia Britannica), World History Encyclopedia

Preview

  • Year of the US Declaration of Independence

    Show answer: Year of the US Declaration of Independence

    1776

    Learn more: Thirteen colonies broke with Britain, declaring that 'all men are created equal'.

  • The storming of the Bastille, start of the French Revolution

    Show answer: The storming of the Bastille, start of the French Revolution

    1789

    Learn more: The fall of the Paris prison became the symbol of the people rising against the king.

  • Battle where Napoleon was finally beaten, in 1815

    Show answer: Battle where Napoleon was finally beaten, in 1815

    Waterloo

    Learn more: Wellington and Blücher beat him there; he spent his last years on the island of Saint Helena.

  • Engineer whose steam engine powered industry

    Show answer: Engineer whose steam engine powered industry

    James Watt

    Learn more: His separate condenser made engines far more efficient, driving factories, mines and later trains.

  • Country where the Industrial Revolution began

    Show answer: Country where the Industrial Revolution began

    Britain

    Learn more: From about 1760, machines and factories changed how people lived and worked, then spread worldwide.

About this topic

Between 1750 and 1920 the world was turned upside down. American and French revolutionaries overthrew kings, colonies across Latin America and the Caribbean won their freedom, steam engines and factories changed how people lived, and new ideas about evolution and equal rights changed how they thought. Dates are easier to remember once you know the story behind them, so every card comes with the reason it mattered.

This is a chapter of the Turning Points of History Book. Each card asks one question, with a hint before you answer and a short reason after. Once you know most of this chapter, the next one starts arriving in your Daily Zap.

All 10 cards

  1. Year of the US Declaration of Independence

    1776

    Learn more: Thirteen colonies broke with Britain, declaring that 'all men are created equal'.

  2. The storming of the Bastille, start of the French Revolution

    1789

    Learn more: The fall of the Paris prison became the symbol of the people rising against the king.

  3. Battle where Napoleon was finally beaten, in 1815

    Waterloo

    Learn more: Wellington and Blücher beat him there; he spent his last years on the island of Saint Helena.

  4. Engineer whose steam engine powered industry

    James Watt

    Learn more: His separate condenser made engines far more efficient, driving factories, mines and later trains.

  5. Country where the Industrial Revolution began

    Britain

    Learn more: From about 1760, machines and factories changed how people lived and worked, then spread worldwide.

  6. First nation founded by a successful slave revolt

    Haiti

    Learn more: Once the French colony of Saint-Domingue, it declared independence in 1804 after Toussaint Louverture's revolt.

  7. 'The Liberator' of much of South America

    Simón Bolívar

    Learn more: He led Venezuela, Colombia, Ecuador, Peru and Bolivia to independence from Spain.

  8. Published On the Origin of Species in 1859

    Charles Darwin

    Learn more: His theory of evolution by natural selection changed how we see the history of life.

  9. US president of the Emancipation Proclamation, 1863

    Abraham Lincoln

    Learn more: It freed slaves in the rebel states; the 13th Amendment ended slavery across the US in 1865.

  10. Year of the Russian Revolution

    1917

    Learn more: The tsar fell, then Lenin's Bolsheviks took power, creating what became the Soviet Union.

More history decks

Each deck takes about 1 min a day.

All history decks