This is a comparative study of two epoch defining periods in the national histories of China and Britain also the world.It is not an exaggeration to claim that what happened in Britainin the seventeenth century and China in the nineteenth has played a major part in defining theworld as it is now. It has been argued that the English Civil War was the first modern revolution, without which there may not have been either an American or French revolution.The 1911 revolution amounted to a paradigm shift in Chinese history. By the time new China had been created as the Peoples Republic, she had endured at least a century of almost continuous turbulence, much ofit violent, The basis ofthis study is the question as to whethera comparative study of the two countries will highlight any features or issues that were crucial in determining the paths they took. In part, this is an enquiry into unintended consequences.It is likely that none of the varied and competing visions of England and China included anything remotely close to how the two nations eventually tumed out. One of the lessons from these two revolutions and probably every, is that they develop a life of their own and are redolent with unintended consequence.