The Rebellion occurs because Mr. Jones starts drinking heavily after losing a lawsuit. Because of his drinking, he neglects the farm, sometimes spending days at a time doing nothing but sitting in a chair, reading the paper, drinking, and feeding Moses. As a result of his lack of supervision, his farm hands do little work, and the farm goes to wrack and ruin: the fields are weedy, the roofs are left unrepaired, and the animals are underfed.
Things come to a head when Mr. Jones celebrates Midsummer's Eve, gets drunk, doesn't come back until a day later, and then promptly falls asleep. His workers haven't been bothering to feed the animals. Finally, the animals get so hungry that they break into the store shed and start feeding themselves. When Mr. Jones and his men arrive and try to whip them out of the shed, the frustrated animals fight back and run the humans off the farm.
The animals had been secretly preparing for the rebellion they expected to someday take place, but they are surprised at how quickly and spontaneously it happens.
The origins of the Rebellion lie in Chapter One, when Old Major makes his speech about the evils of mankind and the necessity of overthrowing their master. Even though Old Major dies three days later, the animals are so inspired by what he told them that they begin making their preparations for the Rebellion straightaway.
The Rebellion doesn't quite go to plan, however, as we see in Chapter Two. In fact, it happens much sooner than expected. When Mr. Jones forgets to feed the animals, they become very agitated and angry. As a result, they seize their chance for freedom by attacking the humans. Their attack is successful and they evict all of the humans from the farm, including Mr. Jones.
With the humans gone, the animals waste no time in taking over the management of the farm. To consolidate their victory, the animals rename the farm from Manor Farm to Animal Farm.
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