Study of his life nd work maximilien Rubel and Margaret Manale
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- Bu səhifədəki naviqasiya:
- THE CRIMEAN WAR
- THE AMERICAS
- THE FAR EAST
- SCIENTIFIC AND TECHNOLOGICAL PROGRESS
- IMPORTANT WORKS PUBLISHED
- Liebknecht
EUROPE
Prussia. The first, known as> the ‘Humiliation of Olmiitz’, is provoked by a popular uprising in Prussia’s neighbour state of Hesse against despotic rule. Prussia intervenes on behalf of the Hessians, but Austria moves to check this aid. After an armed encounter with the Austrians, Prussia is forced to retreat. The Treaty of Olmiitz obliges her to withdraw her troops from Hesse and annul the existing conventions with the smaller German states in view of a new German union. Furthermore, Prussia agrees to renounce all claims to Schleswig-Holstein, a territory which the Danes also wish to annex, and suffers a second humiliation as Austria decides to give this land to Denmark. The Bund is convened with all its old participants. Appear ing for Prussia is Otto von Bismarck.
— Metternich reappears in Austria’s internal politics. He suspends ministerial responsibility and abolishes the right to trial by jury.
THE CRIMEAN WAR Under the pretext of protecting the Sultan’s Orthodox Christian subjects Czar Nicolaus I attempts to realise Russia’s traditional plans of conquest in the Balkans. He threatens Turkey, demanding the protectorate over all Greek Christians in the Turkish empire. English and Austrian attempts at mediation fail; Russia occupies the Danube principalities of Moldavia and Wallachia and destroys a Turkish squadron of 11 ships at Sinope. 1 54 After a new Whig ministry under Lord Palmerston takes office in England, both England and France dedare war on Russia and send troops to the Crimea. Austria, supported by Prussia, demands the evacuation of the Danube principalities. French and English forces defeat the Russians at the Battle of Alma (Sept.) and then at Inkerman (Nov.), while the outcome of their siege of Sebastopol, the Russian naval base on the Crimea, remains undecided. Diplomatic considerations induce Austria to sign a defensive alliance with France and England (Dec.) and to call a peace conference at Vienna. However, no consensus is reached on the ‘Four Points’ proposed for discussion, the most important of which concerns the limiting of Russia’s influence in the Black Sea.
THE AMERICAS 1850 The Compromise Act settles the question of whether California should be admitted to the Union as a slave— or a free state. A majority is gained for the admission of California as a free state and the Fugitive Slave Bill is passed. Henceforth Southern slave-owners have the The Americas 91 right to demand the return of slaves escaped to the North and prosecute those aiding them in their flight. jgj4 The slavery question in the as-yet-unopened territories of the Middle West is decided by the Kansas-Nebraska Bill which permits the residents of each area to vote on the issue. THE FAR EAST
— The Taipings gain territory and attack the provinces of Central China. With the seizure of Nanking, which becomes their capital, they represent a formidable op- 1854 position to the imperial Manchu dynasty. Their march is stopped by the Emperor’s troops, but they neverthe less succeed in extending control over a wide territory along the Yangtse river. 1856 The Persians attempt to seize the principality of Herat, the object of dispute between Afghanistan and Persia. The British use this move as a pretext for intervention and the Anglo-Persian War erupts. After suffering severe losses, Persia renounces her claims to Herat and the territory is returned to Afghanistan (Mar. 1857). The second Opium War breaks out over the issue of a small Chinese-owned and -manned vessel the lorcha, ‘Arrow’, which harboured two sea pirates. British demands about the settlement of the affair are refused by the Cantonese, whereupon the former take reprisals 92 1850-1856 against Canton and against Chinese junks on the water ways. SCIENTIFIC AND TECHNOLOGICAL PROGRESS 1850 The first transatlantic underwater electric cable is laid from Calais to Dover. 1854 Marcelin Berthelot establishes the principles of thermo chemistry. 1856 The Englishman Sir Henry Bessemer invents a new method of preparing steel. Fossils are found in the Neanderthal, a valley in Germany, which are identified as the bones of a Paleolithic or early Stone Age man. IMPORTANT WORKS PUBLISHED
Mexico.*
Hof-, Dorf- und Stadtverfassung.* 1856 Ludwig Lange: Romische Alterttimer.*
polonaise du Xe au XVIIIe siecle.* KARL MARX 1850-1856 1850 The first issue of the NRhZ-Revue appeared in Hamburg at the beginning of March. It included a historical essay by Marx on the ‘Defeat of June 1848’, in which he attempted an economic explanation of the reasons for this unsuccessful revo lution. He intended to show that the defeats of 1848-49 were valuable lessons for the insurgent party and helped them mature to a ‘truly revolutionary party’. The second part of the essay, entitled ‘June 13, 1849', appeared in the next issue of the NRhZ- Revue and continued the analysis of the French class struggles up to June 13. The third number of the Revue, published in mid-April, contained the conclusion of Marx's analysis entitled ‘The Consequences of June 13, 1849’. The essence of revolution ary socialism, Marx stated, is the declaration of ‘revolution in permanence' and the dictatorship of the proletariat is a necessary stage leading to the abolition of class differences, a precondition for the ‘overthrow of all ideas which arise from the existing social relations’. This issue included as well a review of current events which the authors Marx and Engels predicted—for August at the latest—a new British trade crisis and social revolution. From the end of February throughout the month of March Marx gave a number of lectures on political economy in his home for his friends. At this time the Communist League, which was under Marx’s leadership, decided to begin reorganising. Together, Marx and Engels composed a circular entitled ‘A Warplan against em°cracy’ which was distributed to the League's local groups, primarily in Germany. This pamphlet analysed summarily the unsuccessful 1848-49 revolutions and gave detailed directives for e coming struggle of the proletariat, whose task was far vaster than the struggle of the liberal bourgeoisie against feudal and reactionary elements. To achieve its own proper goals, the proletariat should work hand-in-hand with the bourgeoisie only until the latter had assumed political predominance. As soon as the bourgeoisie was in power, the working class should constitute itself as an independent political body and establish ‘revolution ary workers’ governments’ parallel to the official government organs. This revolutionary government might be established in the form of city councils, dubs or armed workers’ committees which would undermine the popular support of official insti tutions and set up rival candidates for the representative national assembly. The proletariat should demand the radicalisation of bourgeois reform measures. Instead of the appropriation of factories and railways, expropriation and confiscation; not pro portional taxation, but progressive and heavy taxation of capital. Conditions permitting, the proletarian political organisation should be open to public and should maintain a watchful and distrustful attitude towards the bourgeoisie. Marx and Engels characterised the democratic party as ‘far more dangerous than the earlier liberal party’ (MEW 7:246). It would continue to be powerful even among the rural proletariat as long as the pro letariat in the industrialised cities had not yet developed an independent political position. The tactics of the bourgeoisie consisted of bribing the working men with higher wages, attempting to destroy the revolutionary strength of the pro letariat by making their present situation more tolerable. The proletariat must always remain on its guard against the ruses of the bourgeoisie: ‘Their battle cry must be: the revolution in permanence' (MEW 7:553). In mid-April Engels, Marx and August Willich, representing the League, Adam and Jules Vidil for the Blanquists and Harney for the revolutionary faction of the Chartists met to discuss the founding of a Societe universelle des communistcs revolution- naires [World Society of Revolutionary Communists]. The society’s statutes were established and its purpose formulated as ‘the overthrow of all privileged classes, their subjection to the dictatorship of the proletariat under which the revolution shall be maintained sine die until the communists society, the final organisational form of the human family, has been realised (MEW 7:553). At a summer gathering of the German Working Men’s Society Marx made the acquaintance of the German socialist Wilhelm Liebknecht, recently arrived in London after release from a Swiss prison (May). At about this time he also contacted for the first time two representatives of the ‘determined revolutionary party’ of Hungary, Stephan Turr and Johann Bangya. The fourth issue of the NRhZ-Revue came out about May 20 with a number of book reviews and a monthly review of events, composed by Marx and Engels jointly. Commenting on the memoirs of the professional conspirator Adolphe Chenu and those of the police spy Lucien de la Hodde, Marx gave a historical analysis of the function served by secret societies in France. The revolutionary proletarian party, Marx stressed, would find conspiratorial methods ill-suited for promoting its cause; rather, the party must rely exclusively on the broad masses of working men in carrying out the modern social revolution. A second subject which Marx wrote upon in this Revue was suggested by Emile de Girardin’s book Le Socialisme et Vimpot [Socialism and Taxation], Here he explained the communist notion of ‘abolition of the state' as meaningful only when classes had first been abolished and therefore a state apparatus was no longer needed to enforce the domination of one class over the others (cf. MEW 7:2.86). In the ‘Revue’ for the months of March and April a crisis was predicted for the immediate future in British trade and commerce and in America, accompanied by revolution of a socialist nature on the Continent, where the effects of the commercial crisis would be particularly serious. In the Marx household during these months there were also visible signs of crisis. In March they had been evicted from their flat for failing to pay the rent, had pawned the last of their furniture and moved into a German hotel in the centre of London. Jenny Marx shared her distress with their friend Joseph Weydemeyer: My husband has nearly been crushed to death here with all the pettiest worries of bourgeois life and in such an offensive way, what is more, that he has needed all his energy, all his calm and level headed self-assurance to keep his courage up during these hourly and daily struggles ... I am asking you to send please as soon as possible any money that has been or will be received from the sale of the Revue. We need it very, very much (May 20). The Yüklə 0,64 Mb. Dostları ilə paylaş:
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