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Other than Taiwan/China, what other countries had revolutions where the ruling party/rulers escaped to a remote area or region and held onto power as a country/government while the rest of the country fell under revolution? I'm more concerned with governments post 18th Century. I'd rather focus on countries that had governments which continued and actually continued within the original borders at some point, so if the government fled to another location and continued there without control within the original borders I would not include them in my list. So Tibet would be excluded since the ruling government is not within the original borders of the country.

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It was actually quite common in feudal countries that the ruler fled the country when it was attacked, gathered support abroad and came back to retake the power. You probably want to restrict your question to the modern only. – Wladimir Palant Oct 19 '11 at 6:29
Good point, although I specifically note that the ruler DID NOT flee the borders so the feudal instances you noted would not really be useful for me. My goal is to limit these instances to where the government fled to maybe a corner of the country and continued. – MichaelF Oct 19 '11 at 11:58
Vichy France fits some parts. But many facts don't fit your question: No revolution but a war... – knut Oct 1 '12 at 20:20

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The Taliban seem to be an example of that phenomenon.

EDIT: I see now that the question is limited to revolution. The Taliban fled because of a war.

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A number of Roman and Byzantine Emperors did this over the course of a thousand years. The Palaiologos Dynasty comes to mind.

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A good example but they stayed in Constantinople, I'm trying to see if there are other examples like in the case of Taiwan where the leaders basically gave up all but one remote area and moved government there. – MichaelF Dec 5 '12 at 18:12
@MichaelF: Actually, the Paleologi are a good example because they fled after the 4th Crusade and built up a rump state in Nicaea. The problem with the example though is that they fled from external conquest, not revolution, and that they were not the ruling dynasty, although they were very much part of the ruling elite, broadly speaking. – Felix Goldberg Jan 8 at 18:00

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