History glossary
Mutiny
organized refusal by soldiers or sailors to obey military authority.
- Category
- Military and political action
What it means
A mutiny happens when members of the armed forces collectively refuse orders or turn against their commanders. In the First World War, exhaustion, hunger, heavy casualties, and hopeless orders could produce mutiny. The Kiel sailors' mutiny in Germany in 1918 helped turn military collapse into revolution and the end of the monarchy.
Related terms
Stories using this term
The Roman Empire
From Augustus to the fall of the Western Empire, Rome built a vast imperial system whose law, cities, armies and ideas shaped the ancient and medieval worlds.
The Age of Exploration
An era of exploration and empire linking continents through trade, conquest, and cultural exchange.
The Russian Revolution
From the 1905 crisis to the creation of the USSR, the Russian Revolution transformed imperial collapse into a new one-party socialist state.
The Soviets
From revolution to superpower, the Soviet Union rose, struggled internally, and collapsed in 1991.
Weimar Republic
A fragile democracy marked by crisis and innovation, whose collapse paved the way for Nazi rule.
The First World War
World War I reshaped empires, borders, and societies, setting the stage for World War II.
The Qing Dynasty
From Manchu conquest to republican revolution, the Qing dynasty built China's largest empire, oversaw centuries of prosperity, and then struggled to survive foreign intervention, rebellion, and the collapse of imperial legitimacy.
