Karl Marx (1818-1883)

Karl Marx was born in Trier of Rhine province in Prussia on 5th May 1818. In 1815, Prussia gained control of the duchies of Cleves, Berg, Gelderland and Jülich, the ecclesiastical principalities of Trier and Cologne, the free cities of Aix-la-Chapelle and Cologne, and nearly a hundred small lordships and abbeys which would all be amalgamated into the new Prussian Rhine Province. In 1822 Prussia established the Rhine Province by joining the provinces of Lower Rhine and Jülich-Cleves-Berg. Its capital was Koblenz; it had 8.0 million inhabitants by 1939. In 1920, the Saar was separated from the Rhine Province and administered by the League of Nations until a plebiscite in 1935, when the region was returned to Germany.

 Rhine province

At the Peace of Basel in 1795, the whole of the left bank of the Rhine was taken by France. The population was about 1.6 million in numerous small states. In 1806, the Rhenish princes all joined the Confederation of the Rhine, a puppet of Napoleon. France took direct control of the Rhineland until 1814 and radically and permanently liberalized the government, society and economy. The Coalition of France's enemies made repeated efforts to retake the region, but France repelled all the attempts.vince

 German confederation

Religions of the World

Religion knows neither frontiers nor Geographical barriers Most religious have, for some reason or another, spread beyond the lands of their origins. 

Judaism, which dates back to Moses ( Moses  is a prophet in Abrahamic religions. According to the Hebrew Bible, he was a former Egyptian prince who later in life became a religious leader and lawgiver, to whom the authorship of the Torah is traditionally attributed.) 

in the 13th century B.C. when even the most advanced societies still worshiped a multiplicity of Gods, is uncompromisingly monotheistic.

After its clash with Imperial Rome and the destruction of Jerusalem in A.D. 70 and 135, the Jews were expelled from the Holy land , and a Jewish state was not again established in Palestine until 1948  - almost 2000 years later - although the majority of adherents of Judaism remain scattered through out the world.

Hinduism     the age-old religion    of India , which honours many god and goddesses  - all of whom , however, are regarded as manifestations of the one divine spirit , Brahman, - introduced into religious thinking the concept that spiritual peace and and happiness can be attained only tghrough physical and mental discipline . Its rigid caste divisions have been the target of innumerable reformers - among them men like Gandhi, Tagore, Bhave.                                                                                        

Five largest religions	2010 (billion)[76]	2010 (%)	2000 (billion)[77][78]	2000 (%)	Demographics
Christianity	2.2	32%	2.0	33%	Christianity by country
Islam	1.6	23%	1.2	19.6%	Islam by country
Hinduism	1.0	15%	0.811	13.4%	Hinduism by country
Buddhism	0.5	7%	0.360	5.9%	Buddhism by country
Folk religion	0.4	6%	0.385	6.4%
Total	5.8	84%	4.8	78.3%

Scientific Discoveries between 1492-1780

 Then followed the scientific discoveries when expeditions by land and sea had exploration for knowledge as their aim. the greatest leader for such an was Captain Cook (Captain James Cook, FRS, RN (7 November 1728^{[NB 1]} – 14 February 1779) was a British explorer, navigator, cartographer, and captain in the Royal Navy. Cook made detailed maps of Newfoundland prior to making three voyages to the Pacific Ocean, during which he achieved the first recorded European contact with the eastern coastline of Australia and the Hawaiian Islands, and the first recorded circumnavigationof New Zealand.),

 who in only three great voyages explored Australia, New Zealand, Circumnavigated Antartica and sailed through the Bering Strait . Explorationm by land was slower and it was not until the nineteenth century that English and American expeditions crossed North America and south America was fully penetrated.

Africa was the last major continent to be crossed . Serious exploration was begun in 1795 by Mungo Park (Mungo Park (11 September 1771 – 1806) was a Scottish explorer of the African continent. He was the first Westerner known to have travelled to the central portion of the Niger River.)

in West Africa , and thirty years later the Lauder Brothers (I profiled brothers Ronald and Leonard Lauder in 2002 as two of the world’s top collectors, patrons, philanthropists, and chairmen of major New York museums. They talk every day and buy art almost as often.)

found the mouth of the river Niger.

In 1849, David Livingstone , (David Livingstone (19 March 1813 – 1 May 1873) was a Scottish Congregationalist pioneer medical missionary with the London Missionary Society and an explorer in Africa. His meeting with H. M. Stanley on 10 November 1871 gave rise to the popular quotation "Dr. Livingstone, I presume?" Livingstone was one of the most popular national heroes of the late 19th century in Victorian Britain, and he had a mythical status which operated on a number of interconnected levels: )

The major interest was then centred round the north and south polar regions. In 1909 the American , Peary , was the first to reach the north pole and in 1958 the American submarine .   

 who usually travelled alone and was perhaps the greatest land explorer ever known , began his journeys in southern and central Africa ; his work was continued after his death by his friend , Stanley.  

In 1911 the Norwegian, Amundsen (Roald Engelbregt Gravning Amundsen(Norwegian: [ˈɾuːɑl ˈɑmʉnsən]; 16 July 1872 – c.18 June 1928) was a Norwegian explorer ofpolar regions. He led the Antarctic expedition of 1910–12 which was the first to reach the South Pole, on 14 December 1911. In 1926, he was the first expedition leader for the air expedition to the North Pole.) , 

was the first to reach the south pole , followed a month later by the later by the Englishman, Scott, and in 1955-1958, Sir Vivian Fuchs led a british Commonwealth expedition which crossed the Antartic continent from the Weddell Sea to the Ross Sea.   

    

The great Explorations

The most important exploration of this period was made by Alexander The Greatin the yaers 330-323 B.C. when accompanied by land surveyors and scribes to record details of the countries through which he passed, he marched his armies through persia to Indisa , and, like a true explorer, returned by a different route.

In the 2nd and 1st century B.C.The Romans in the expansion of their empire penetrated up the Nile , as far north as the Baltic , and west ward across Europe.

Westwards exploration was extended by the Norsemen first by their discovery of Iceland  about A.D. 982, and finally by their reaching the mainland of North America about four years later. 

At about the same time the arabs were voyaging far afield in the Indian ocean , ranging fronm Spain to China , and as the south as Madagascar . Their greatest traveler was Ibn Batutawho visited every Moslem Country in a remarkablke series of journeys that lasted almost thirty years. Budhist Missionaries , passing to and fro from India to China across the deserts of Tagla Makan and Gobi , had come across what came to be known as the Jade Route, along which for centuries traders carried jade vfrom Himalyas to China in exchange far silk. 

In the same periodenvoys were sent by the Pope to great Khan of the Mughal Empire , and thus opened up the way forthe Poles , father and son - Venetian jewel merchants and the most famous land travellers of the age who journeyed twice across the Asia. 

By A.D. 1487 the Portuguese had coasted down Africa and in that year the Cape of Good Hope was rounded by Bartholomew Diaz. Thus opened the great age of Discoveries., and in thirty years all the unkown oceans were crossed  -  Columbus reaching America in 1492. Vascodama reaching India in 1498 and Magellan sailing across the Pacific and round the whole world in 1521.   

Following on the hills of Columbus , the Portuguese spread down through Brazil, and the Spaniards endeavoured to corss the continent that lay between them and the riches of the east . In A.D. 1513 Balbao crossed the Isthumus of Panama and a few years later Cortez conquered Mexico and reached the Gulf of California . The English and the French gained footings in North America and with the Dutch , began to seek a north west Passage in the Arcticas a route to China . By A.D. 1650 the existence of all the continents except America had been proved. 

  

The three growths, 1. growth of population, 2. growth of exploration and 3. growth of Scientific discoveries f

The three growths, 1. Growth of Population, 2. Growth of Exploration, and 3. Growth of Scientific discoveries in 15th to 19th centuries changed completely the face of the earth leading to two great wars.
1. Growth of Population ;

In the middle of 1800s world's population was estimated to be 1,000 million by mid 1920s , less than a century later, the population, the population had doubled. Considering all the relevant factors United Nations forecast that by A.D. 2000 the figure will have increased to over 6,000 millions and that it may reach 7,000 millions, as shown in the central  figure.    

The phenomenal expansion is shown on the chart in the center of these pages.

Movement of Population

The movement of population occur mainly for political, religious and economic reasons.The more important migrations of the past three hundred years;

1. Europeans to USA, 2. Europeans to Canada, 3. Europeans to South America, 4. Europeans to Australia and New Zealand, 5. Europeans to Central and East Africa, 6. Internal migration to Europe,

7. Dutch in South Africa; 8. Chinese in other parts of Asia, 9. Indians in Malay and Africa, 10. West Indians to Great Britain,  

Development of productive forces and change of productive relations

Introduction :
Many species, big and small,  were born on the surface of the earth . Some of them were extinguished and proved themselves unsuccessful in the fight of survival of the fittest. Some small species survived for they could grasp the Technic of living. Human being are the greatest animal among all the species on the earth and proved themselves fittest to survive and it will go on living till the earth lives.
The great men on earth including Budhadev, Jesus Christ, Prophet Muhammad, different Philosophers including Marx-Engels studied the relations between the nature and nature, nature and man,  man and man and man and god and came to different conclusions contributing well being of human society. It is only Marx-Engels who interpreted these relations in the line of Productive forces and Productive relation and showed that the contradiction between the two contributes to the development  of Human Society and this contradiction can be minimized to such a level as to make the human society developed to such an extent where the people can share to the his contribution fully and enjoy the benefits as they need.

    
Savagery ;
Productive Forces;
i) In the lower stage no productive force was developed other than hands of a human being. Only fruits gathered from the forest were their foods. As a result humans were helpless to the natural phenomenon and could not prepare their food and take no food other than the fruits, stems, roots and the leaves.

Social Life of 1st stage;

 The development of articulate speech is the main result of this period. Of all the peoples known to history nothing was known at this primitive level. People lived an animal life including sexual behavior.  That originally man lived in a state of sexual promiscuity [as said by Engels] , to describe which Bachofen uses the mistaken term “hetaerism”;

ii) In the middle stage humans observing the fire by the friction of two woods and began to live on fishing.  They developed the relation between fish and fire. At first,  human being prepared bows and arrows as the first productive forces . They began to form groups for hunting.
Productive Relation;

(1) That originally man lived in a state of sexual promiscuity, to describe which Bachofen uses the mistaken term “hetaerism”;

(2) that such promiscuity excludes any certainty of paternity, and that descent could therefore be reckoned only in the female line, according to mother-right, and that this was originally the case amongst all the peoples of antiquity;

(3) that since women, as mothers, were the only parents of the younger generation that were known with certainty, they held a position of such high respect and honor that it became the foundation, in Bachofen’s conception, of a regular rule of women (gynaecocracy);

(4) that the transition to monogamy, where the woman belonged to one man exclusively, involved a violation of a primitive religious law (that is, actually a violation of the traditional right of the other men to this woman), and that in order to expiate this violation or to purchase indulgence for it the woman had to surrender herself for a limited period.

At this time it was summer and the human being need no dress to cover their body and shelter for their living. 

They began to cover their body in winter with the skin of the animals and used caves for their shelter. They used to make huts with mud or dug the earth where there was no caves.
Social stage of Middle stage;
With this new source of nourishment, men now became independent of climate and locality; even as savages, they could, by following the rivers and coasts, spread over most of the earth. Proof of these migrations is the distribution over every continent of the crudely worked, unsharpened flint tools of the earlier Stone Age, known as “palaeoliths,” all or most of which date from this period.
Development of Productive forces made food and shelter easier. At this stage they began small groups for hunting. The aged persons usually went for hunting and the females members remained in their shelter for collecting fruits and other materials for their intake. Thus Division of Labour was started between the sexes [male and female] at this stage. 

Study Guide for Engels’ Origin of the Family, Private Property and the State

Preparatory Reading

Pre-Capitalist Economic Formations, Marx 1857
Part Played by Labour in the Transition from Ape to Man, Engels 1876

Introduction and Prefaces

Introduction
Preface to the First Edition
Preface to the Fourth Edition
Henry Morgan

Origin of the Family, Private Property and the State

Chapter 1. Stages of Prehistoric Culture

Terms: Civilisation, Tribal Society.

Questions for discussion:
1. How do Henry Morgan's categorisations stand up to your own knowledge of early societies, over a hundred years later?
2. What do you think are the essential truths of Morgan's analysis that remain valid today?

Chapter 2. The Family

Questions for discussion:
1. What does “consanguinity” mean and what is meant by the “consanguine family”?
2. Marx notes Morgan's observation about “systems of consanguity” and says “the same is true of the political, juridical, religious, and philosophical systems in general”. What exactly did he mean by this?
3. What argument does Engels use to reject the idea that pair-bonding was the form of family at the very beginning of human development?
4. So far as you know, in what sense are all forms of family known in human societies different from anything found, for instance, among the primates, if any?
5. What vestiges of mother-right do you see in your own modern society?
6. What do you know of the marriage practices, taboos, rights of inheritance, and so on, in the history of the indigenous people of your own country?
7. What, according to Engels, is the relation between monogamy and the overthrow of mother-right?
8. What does Engels see as the cause for the fall of mother-right and the institution of monogamy?
9. What do you make of: “The first class opposition that appears in history coincides with the development of the antagonism between man and woman in monogamous marriage, and the first class oppression coincides with that of the female sex by the male.”?
10. Do you think Engels regards monogamy as the highest form of family possible, as the ideal form, so to speak? Or is Engels hinting at future forms of family relationship beyond capitalism?
11. What does Engels say is/will be the impact of capitalism on the family?

Chapter 3. The Iroquois Gens

Questions for discussion:
1. What is the difference between gens and gentes?
2. How can we explain the close similarity between Greek, Roman, American, Australian and other systems of kinship during the period before the emergence of the state?
3. What do you know of the kinship systems which operate(d) among the indigenous people in your own country?
4. Can you explain in a common-sense way the 10 “laws” of the Iroquois gens, given the kind of way the Iroquois produced their living?
5. What do you think an Iroquois of the 16th century would make of the notions of Freedom, Equality and Democracy, if you had the opportunity to explain them?
6. Why was there no slavery among the Iroquois?

Chapter 4. The Greek Gens [The Rise of Private Property]

Terms: Slave Society, Private Property.

Questions for discussion:
1. What similarities and differences do you see between the ancient Greek constitution and the Iroquois constitution?
2. What factors led to the decline of the Iroquois nation, and what factors led to the collapse of the tribal constitution in Greece?
3. How did inequality arise in ancient Greece, what form did this inequality take, and how do you think it would have been viewed by the people at that time?
4. What do you think a Greek of 600 BCE would make of the notions of Freedom, Equality and Democracy, if you had the opportunity to explain them?

Chapter 5. The Rise of the Athenian State

Terms: State, Commodity, Centralisation, Nation, Money, Division of Labour, Class, Politics, Democracy.

Questions for discussion:
1. What is the difference between the “people in arms” and an armed “public force”, and do you think an armed “public force” is something which is feasible now or in the future?
2. What were the factors that brought about the downfall of the old gentile constitution in Greece? Which do you think was the most important?
3. What is relation between territory, kinship and rights - in tribal times, in early Greece before the time of Solon, and nowadays?
4. What rights did women have in ancient Greece?
5. Engels talks about the impact of commodity production, money, markets, credit and debt on ancient Greece. Could you say that capitalism existed at that time? If not, why not?
6. What form of property did the constitution of 594 BCE attack and what form of property did it promote?
7. In what way did the political revolution Engels describes restore tribal rights and in what way did it abolish tribal rights?
8. Why was this revolution called a political revolution?
9. In what way was “the state was perfectly adapted to the new social conditions of the Athenians”?

Chapter 6. The Gens and the State in Rome

Questions for discussion:
1. As Engels points out, the early Roman constitution was essentially the same as that of the Iroquois, but what is/are the significant difference(s)
2. Who were the populus and the plebs, what were their respective political and economic interests, and what is the nature of the revolution which Engels supposes to have occurred?
3. In what way did the new Roman constitution make sense in terms of how the Romans made their living?

Chapter 7. The Gens Among Celts and Germans

Questions for discussion:
1. Why does Engels see "lax" marriage and chastity laws as evidence of the persistence of elements of the gentile constitution?
2. To what does Engels ascribe the high status of women among the Germans in the time of the Roman Empire?
3. In the light of all the chapters up to here, how would you describe the limits of the gentile constitution?

Chapter 8. The Formation of the State Among the Germans

Terms: Feudal Society.

Questions for discussion:
1. What did Engels means by “the Roman state had become in the course of time their worst enemy and oppressor”?
2. What was the problem with the Roman system of large-scale agriculture?
3. Why, would you say, was there not a revolution in Rome? Why did it collapse without being replaced by a new and higher social order?
4. What does Engels mean by “The moment had come to transform the military leadership into kinship”? and in what way is the new system of society that arose in Europe after the fall of the Roman Empire essentially different from both the Roman Empire and tribal society?
5. In what positive way did the Roman contribute to the conditions for the rise of feudal society?
6. In what sense did the institution of feudalism restore elements of tribal society?
7. Given the way people made their living in Europe at the time, how did the new form of society make good sense?

Chapter 9. Barbarism and Civilization

Terms: Surplus Value, Labour Power, Individualism, Distribution and Exchange, Alienation, Necessity, Wage Labour, Capital, Right, .

Questions for discussion:
1. Why was division into classes impossible among (for example) the Iroquois?
2. What brought about the rupture of society into classes?
3. What conditions, in Engels' opinion, brought about the subjugation of women?
4. What conditions does Engels see as laying the basis for women's liberation?
5. In what way does Engels see the subjugation of women as bringing about the fall of the gentile constitution?
6. From where and how and under what conditions does the bourgeoisie arise?
7. In what sense is the state a product of society itself, rather than something imposed on society from above, and why does it appear to stand above society?
8. In this context, what would you say is the “essence” of the state?
9. “The highest form of the state, the democratic republic ... no longer officially recognizes differences of property”. Is this true?
10. What does Engels mean by “Universal suffrage is thus the gauge of the maturity of the working class”?
11. How would the state become “a positive hindrance to production”?

Andy Blunden, 2002

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