A Marxist History of The World
Monday, 03 October 2011 10:34
In the latest of his series on the Marxist understanding of history, Neil Faulkner explores revolution and counter-revolution in 18th-Century France.
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In 1764, Americans thought of themselves as British subjects of King George III. By 1788, they would, by their own decisions and actions, have made themselves the free citizens of a new republic forged in revolution and war.
What gave the Enlightenment its subversive, politically corrosive character was its critique of institutions and practices which appeared comparatively irrational in the light of modern thinking, argues Neil Faulkner.
The English Revolution transformed Britain into a capitalist economy engaging in geopolitical competition. Neil Faulkner looks at how Britain became the dominant global superpower of the 19th Century.
Capitalist contradictions were most evident in the 18th century, when the wealth of the merchant-capitalist class of Britain’s port-cities was contrasted with the untold human misery of the slaves, ramping up the historical significance of racist ideology.
Neil Faulkner looks at how even the most radical bourgeois forces, if they are to preserve their property and status, must break the momentum of the movement that has brought them to power.
The attempt to impose Absolutism by Charles I led to a revolutionary civil war in which the King would be executed - Neil Faulkner looks at the English Civil War.
Neil Faulkner looks at the how the unresolved contradictions in English society and the attempt to establish Continental-style absolutism led to the execution of the king, and the establishment of a bourgeois republic.
Between 1618 and 1648 Germany was wrecked by insecurity, depopulation, disruption to trade, the destruction of property, and military plundering. Neil Faulkner looks at The Thirty Years War.
For more than 40 years, with wildly fluctuating fortunes, the Dutch Revolution of 1566-1609 took the form of a protracted popular war of national defence against the Spanish Empire.
Neil Faulkner looks at how the Reformation was followed by a counter-revolutionary response which involved a dogmatic reassertion of Catholic orthodoxy: the Counter-Reformation.
The Reformation after 1521 tore apart church and state. Neil Faulkner looks at how the new social forces formed inside late medieval Europe helped undermine the thousand year domination of the Roman Catholic Church.
The Portuguese and Spanish overseas empires founded at the beginning of the 16th century were soon followed by Dutch, English, and French empires. Neil Faulkner looks at how the transformation of the world by European colonialism began.
Neil Faulkner looks at how the transition from feudalism to capitalism introduced a new model of unified states, centralised government, royal armies, internal repression and national-dynastic wars.
Despite dominating western Europe in the 11th century by the 14th century Feudalism was faced with a crisis that generated a wave of revolutionary struggle. Neil Faulkner looks at the causes and outcomes.
Feudalism is often portrayed as a stagnant system where little changed over centuries. The reality was a system that was more dynamic and productive than anything before it argues Neil Faulkner.
The Crusades lasted 200 years and represented the most extreme expression of the futile violence inherent in western feudalism - a murderous attack on the Middle East by western feudal thugs under the banner of religion.
Following the collapse of the Roman Empire Western Europe became a politically fragmented region of warring states from which a radically new social, military, and political order developed.
Why Europe? Why was it that the second great transformation in human existence - the development of capitalism and industrial society - was pioneered on the western edge of the Eurasian land-mass?
In More Articles...
- A Marxist History of the World part 27: New World Empires: Maya, Aztec, and Inca
- A Marxist History of the World part 26: Africa: cattle-herders, iron-masters, and trading states
- A Marxist History of the World part 25: Chinese History’s Revolving Door
- A Marxist History of the World part 24: Hindus, Buddhists, and the Gupta Empire
- A Marxist History of the World part 23: The Abbasid Revolution
- A Marxist History of the World part 22: Arabs, Persians, and Byzantines
- A Marxist History of the World part 21: Huns, Goths, and Romans
- A Marxist History of the World part 20: Judaism, Christianity, and Islam
- A Marxist History of the World part 19: Mother-goddesses and power-deities
- A Marxist History of the World part 18: The Crisis of Late Antiquity
Saturday 22 June 2013
9:30am – 5pm
Central Hall Westminster
Books
How a Century of War Changed the Lives of Women
By Lindsey German
A Marxist History of the World
From Neanderthals to Neoliberals
By Neil Faulkner
The People V Tony Blair
Politics, the Media and the Anti-War Movement
By Chris Nineham
Timelines
A Political History of the Modern World
By John Rees
A People's History of London
By Lindsey German and John Rees
Counterfire Books
The People Demand: A short history of the Arab revolutions
By John Rees and Joseph Daher
Strategy and tactics: how the left can organise to transform society
By John Rees
Capitalism and Class Consciousness: the ideas of Georg Lukacs
By Chris Nineham
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