OTL History: Largest revolt with very little chance of success?

What was one of the largest revolts that had almost no chance to succeed?
The 1857 Indian Mutiny....though it had some chance of success.....All revolts have some chance at success, even if it's far out of left field, so the premise is a bit flawed.
 
If not the Irish Revolt of 1857 or the CSA Secession, how about the Jewish Revolts 66-70 and 132-135 CE?
 
The Taiping Rebellion I guess.
I think that that could have at least broke off of the Qing Dynasty, even though the Heavenly Kingdom probably couldn't encompass all of China. I mean, look at how long it lasted and how much support it got at its peak.
 
I think that that could have at least broke off of the Qing Dynasty, even though the Heavenly Kingdom probably couldn't encompass all of China. I mean, look at how long it lasted and how much support it got at its peak.

Umm... but once it stopped growing it pretty much started to collapse.

Besides, it was a pretty wacko philosophy, and i really dont see it surviving. Im not saying the Qing would have beaten them, but if not, then the Qings successors, whoever they ended up being. Which isnt going to be the Taiping.

And it was a HECK of a lot bigger than israel.
 
Either the Zenj rebellion or the Mayan Caste war, because both focused on seizing one region within a multinational polity.
 

Rush Tarquin

Gone Fishin'
Not that big, but the Malayan Emergency was pretty much doomed to fail due to it being pretty much confined to one ethnicity.
 
Either the Zenj rebellion or the Mayan Caste war, because both focused on seizing one region within a multinational polity.

I fail to see why thats particularly hard, the Mayan Caste War went for a very long time and its entirely possible that mexico could just give up at some point.
 
The Algerian Colonists' 'Day of the Barricades' uprising against De Gaulle. Simultaneously, it was in opposition to the Algerian Nationalists.
 
I fail to see why thats particularly hard, the Mayan Caste War went for a very long time and its entirely possible that mexico could just give up at some point.
The Maya rebels came within inches of taking the last city in Yucatan which could easily have ended the war then and there, once the Republic of Yucatan is utterly crushed and nobody's left to offer the Yucatan's sovereignty in exchange for help. Without any Yucatecos to assist them or a decent point from which to fight back against the rebels, Mexico may very well give up on the situation. And given that the taking of Merida was extremely likely, I'd say the Caste War doesn't fit the OP in the slightest, too high chance of success.
 
The various republican revolutions across Europe in the 1820s and 1830s were pretty much doomed from the get-go due to the nature of the Concert of Europe. It was only after the Concert broke down after the Revolutions of 1848 that revolutionaries had any hope of success.
 
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