Study of his life nd work maximilien Rubel and Margaret Manale

CENTRAL AND WESTERN EUROPE

1818. 
      At the Congress of Aix-la-ChapeUe the four powers of the Holy Alliance (Russia, Britain, Prussia and Austria) sign a convention committing themselves to joint action to prevent a revival of Jacobinism in France. During the Congress the British socialist Robert Owen petitions the assembled heads of state to adopt his plan of agricultural-industrial co-operative communities, arguing that growing industrial production is bound to lead to social and economic disaster.
      

The German Lander of Baden and Bavaria grant constitutional forms of representation to their populations.

1818. 
      At the Conference of Karlsbad (Austria) the delegates of the German Confederation (Bund) ratify a series of measures the purpose of which is to suppress revolutionary turmoil, especially that generated by the patriotic student societies, and to enforce rigid censorship of the press.
      

— A peaceable demonstration is held at St Peter’s Fields,

Manchester, England, in protest against the insufferable conditions of the industrial working class. The unarmed demonstrators are brutally attacked by yeomanry and reserve cavalry. Later in the year the policy thus initiated by these police measures is reconfirmed in the passage of the Six Acts, directed against sedition and radicalism.

1818. 
      A military insurgency in Southern Italy, supported by® the secret society of revolutionary conspirators known® as the Carbonari, achieves its goal in forcing the king,® Ferdinand I, to promulgate a national constitution J This provokes the powers of the Holy Alliance to calls
      
1819. 
      the Congress of Leibach, where it is agreed that Austria* should invade Italy in order to provide a pretext fora restoring the earlier absolutist government; Austria® occupies Naples for three years, while the king takes® vengeance by imprisoning or sentencing to deaths hundreds of liberals and Carbonari.
      
1820. 
      At the Congress of Verona another scheme is produce® by the Russian Czar, Austria's Prince Metternich and | the French diplomat Chateaubriand, whereby France® is charged with waging war against Spain should there ! be no retraction of Spain’s liberal constitution of 1812.1 This congress marks the separation of Britain from the I
      
1821. 
      other partners in the Alliance. France then invades® Spain, abolishes the constitution and restores the absolutist king Ferdinand VII to the throne. The king! revives the Inquisition and orders the prosecution oil all connected with the liberal constitution.
      
1822. 
      Trade unions are legalised in Great Britain and laws! are passed permitting both coalitions and strikes. .
      

1828. 
      Protestant dissenters in England are granted civil liberties.
      
1829. 
      The Catholic Emancipation Act is passed, permitting ³ Catholics to hold a seat in the British Parliament. I
      
1830. 
      Catholic Belgium is declared independent of Protestant Holland.
      

The July Revolution in France results from a collision! between the monarch and the ever growing number of liberal elements. In a show of power to quieten the ] opposition King Charles X conducts a victorious war of conquest against Algeria. Then, counting on his military success to produce the necessary support, he dissolves the Chamber of Deputies and issues ‘Five| Ordinances', which would make the electoral law a privilege of the richest landowners and abolish the freedom of the press. Republican Paris revolts, declares the king deposed and proclaims the Republic. Parlia- -


Central and Western Europe 3 ment offers the crown of constitutional monarch to the Duke of Orleans, who becomes the ‘citizen king' Louis-Philippe I.

1831 • Joseph Mazzini, a participant in the Carbonarist uprisings, founds the ‘Young Italy’ movement in order to arouse popular support for national unity in the struggle against the Papacy and Austria. He advocates the expulsion of Austria through a mass insurgency, the abolution of Papal influence in temporal affairs and the establishment of a democratic Italian republic.

183 2,«» The British Parliament approves the Reform Bill, which makes representation more ‘democratic’ and extends the franchise in? the boroughs to households with a minimum income of ten pounds.

• 
  -

students and intellectuals gathered at the Castle of Hambaeh for a festival. The Prussian government answers this provocation with renewed political reprisals.

1832-33 A cholera epidemic, brought in from Asia, breaks out and causes many thousands of deaths in England, France and Germany. In 1833 all of Bohemia is touched by the ravages of this disease.

1833 A tariff union (Zollverein) is established among the German L&ndcr.

The government of Louis-Philippe in France passes an Education Act which is intended to establish state-aided primary schools in every community.

Civil war erupts in Spain and Portugal over the question of a liberal constitution. Unrest lasts until 1840 and causes Spain to lose her colonies and all overseas resources except Cuba and the Philippines.

• 
  j The British Parliament passes a Factory Act regulating
  

conditions, for the employment of young people in textile factories and instituting inspectors to enforce the law. V,

~~ Robert Owen launches in England a plan for communist production to be realised through the Grand National Consolidated Trade Union. About a half a million working men and women join this organisation

which, however, soon dies away for lack of a clear programme and financial means.

1833. 
      Britain sets an example to the Western world by passing a law prohibiting slave trade and slavery in its territories.
      
1834. 
      Mazzini founds the ‘Young Europe’ movement in Germany, Poland and Switzerland.
      

• 
  The Whig Poor Law in England reforms the system of relief aid and reorganises the work houses.
  
• 
  After the French government passes a law restricting the rights of association, Mazzini succeeds in inciting the working men of Lyon to revolt and the uprising spreads throughout the country. The Massacre of the rue Transnonain illustrates the brutality of the government troops who suppress these outbreaks. In protest against such reprisals new secret societies are organised. Auguste Blanqui founds the Societe des families, whose immediate purpose is military action, later reconstituting it as the Societe des saisons (1847). German refugees in Paris found the League of the Banished, which is renamed League of the fust in 1836 and is a forerunner of the Communist League.
  

1838. 
      General discontent with the 1832 Reform Bill and with the present system of trade-unionism in England manifests itself in the Chartist movement. William Lovett and Francis Place draw up a six-point ‘People's Charter’ which serves as the movement’s political platform. The Chartists demand (1) adult male suffrage; (2) secret balloting; (3) abolition of property qualifications for members of parliament and (4) payment for their terms in office; (5) annual general elections and (6) equal electoral districts.
      
1839. 
      Agitation also begins in England for the repeal of the restrictive corn laws. Richard Cobden establishes the Anti-Corn Law League and there are popular demonstrations in support of its free trade policy.
      
1840. 
      After expulsion from France for participation in a Blanquist conspiracy German emigrants in London found a Workers' Educational Society.
      

1842 The British Parliament passes a bill limiting the labour |

of women and children in the mines, but rejects th«|

Central and Western Europe 5 Chartist petition. Between 1842-45 Prime Minister Sir Robert Peel passes a series of liberal budgets which reintroduce income tax and establish a sliding scale of duties on corn. _x843 The Irish demonstrate for the repeal of the Act of

Union. Home rule becomes the cry of Catholic Ireland, and of her representative in Parliament—Daniel O’Connor.

— In Spain a military junta assumes power in Barcelona,

proclaiming Isabella queen and ending the military regency of General Espartero.

EASTERN EUROPE AND THE MIDDLE EAST

1821-29 The Greek War of Independence develops out of popular resistance to Turkish hegemony and to the repressive 1822 treatment of Christians by the Moslems. The Turks

massacre over 20,000 Greeks on the Island of Chios. However, the Holy Alliance denies any official international aid to the threatened people, who are considered to be insurgents.

1825 Russia's childless Czar Alexander I dies and his suc

cession becomes a matter of prolonged dispute. With the support of the secret societies, the Russian army stages a revolt, hoping to call a national assembly and establish a constitution. This mutiny—the Decembrist Uprising—is rapidly quelled and the throne assumed by Nicolaus I. The new Czar now 1827 sends aid to the Greek Christians; eventually France

and England follow suit. The London Treaty guaranteeing protection for the Greeks is signed jointly by all three countries, who subsequently send military and naval forces to Turkey. At Navarino Bay the 1829 Turkish fleet is destroyed by allied sea powers. Hostili

ties end with the conclusion of the Treaty of Adrianople which recognises the independence of Greece. Russia receives the territory south of the Caucasus in Asia and the islands of the Danube delta and is proclaimed protector of the Sultan’s Christian subjects. The Straits of Constantinople and the Dardanelles are opened to free merchant shipping.

1830. 
      Republican sentiment begins to threaten the hegemony® of the Russian Czar in Poland, where an uprising leads®
      
1831. 
      to his dethronement by proclamation of the Polish® parliament. Russian troops invade the country and j force the patriotic troops to retreat. Government and ! parliament flee, while the Czar revokes the constitution | of 1815 and proceeds to govern Poland henceforth* as a Russian province.
      

1833 With the secret Treaty of Unkiar-Skelessi between

Russia and Turkey the latter agrees to close the Dardanelles to all ships except the Russian in case of war, thus rendering the Straits a Russian stronghold,9 Russia in turn promises to support the Porte in case of| a conflict with Egypt,

1839. 
      Hostilities break out between the Turkish sultan and his Egyptian vassal. Anglo-French intervention prevents Russia from exploiting the dispute.
      
1840. 
      A quadripartite alliance of England, Russia, Austria! and Prussia, excluding France who supported the Egyptian cause, negotiates a settlement which represents a diplomatic defeat for the French. To offset this France demands the return of the Western Rhine] provinces from Germany. The matter is ultimately!
      
1841. 
      settled by a five-nation conference held in London! where the Dardanelles Treaty is concluded. Henceforth the slave trade is prohibited and the Borporus and Dardanelles are closed to all ships of war.
      

THE FAR EAST

*839 The First Opium War begins after the Chinese!

authorities vainly protest against the British opium] trade by destroying the stocks of opium in Canton;

1838. 
      A British naval victory permits the colonialistsito
      

dedare Hong Kong a British possession. Hostilities continue until the superior forces of the British compell

1838. 
      the Chinese to agree to the terms of peace stipulated
      

in the Treaty of Nanking. Britain is accorded the right-

I to trade in opium at four ports in addition to Canton

and paid an indemnity of 21 million dollars.


The Far East 7

1841. 
      42 The first Anglo-Afghan War begins when the British attempt to take possession of Afghanistan, buffer territory between India and Russia. The British resident is slain and thousands on both sides lose their lives 1843 before the colonial power emerges victorious. At the same time British troops subdue the rulers of Sinde and annex this strategic passage-way to India.
      

SCIENTIFIC AND TECHNOLOGICAL PROGRESS

1820 Andre Ampere presents a new theory of magnetism

as electricity in motion, thus founding the science of electrodynamics^'

1826 Nicephore Niepce produces the first true photograph,

a heliogravure,

1830. 
      The first railway line is opened between Manchester and Liverpool, y
      

— Barthelemy Thimonnier takes out a patent in France for

the invention of the sewing machine.

1830. 
      , Michael Faraday discovers the generation of electric
      

currents by means of magnets. This phenomenon comes to be called electromagnetic induction.

1830. 
      The American Joseph Henry, working independently on electromagnetic phenomena, discovers self- induction. -
      
1831. 
      Carl Friedrich Gauss and Wilhelm Weber in Germany use electromagnetisnrto effect the first long-distance telegraphic communication.
      

!834 Cyrus McCormick patents the first horse-drawn mech

anical reaping machine in the USA,

1838 * Faraday formulates a coherent precis of his theory of

electridtysitfi*

*839 Louis Daguerre, an associate of Niepce, carries on and

perfects the latter’s work with the construction of tbe first photographic apparatus known as the 'daguerreotype'. ~

The German baron Justus von Liebig marks the founding of the science of agro-chemistry witb tbe publication of his book on chemistry appbed to agridilture.




IMPORTANT WORKS PUBLISHED

* read by Marx t presumably read

1819 David Ricardo: Principles of Political Economy.*

L. S. de Sismondi: Principes d! economic politique.*

• 
  Arthur Schopenhauer: Die Welt als Wille und Vor- I stellung.
  

1821 G. F. W. Hegel: Grundlinien der Philosophic des I Rechts.*

• 
  Claude Henri de Saint-Simon: Du Systeme industriel.*
  

1825 Claude Henri de Saint-Simon: Le Nouveau Christian-

isme*

1828. 
      Ludwig Gall: Philanthropische Blatter.
      

Philippe Buonarotti: La Conspiration pour Vegalite, I dite de Babeuf.*

1828. 
      Francois Guizot: Histoire generale de la civilisation en Europe.*
      

• 
  Charles Fourier: Le Nouveau Monde industriel et societaire.*
  

1830-45 Georg von Giilich: Geschichtliche Darstellung des Handels, des Gewerbes und des Ackerbaus *

1830-42 Auguste Comte: Cours de philosophic positive.

1831 L. J. A. de Potter: De I a Revolution | faire.*

1833. 
      Heinrich Heine: Franzdsische Zustdnde.*
      

• 
  Thomas Hamilton: Men and Manners in America.*
  

1833. 
      Georg Buchner: Der hessische Bote.
      

• 
  Felicite de Lamennais: Paroles d’un croyant. +
  

1833. 
      D. F. Strauss: Das Leben Jesu.t
      

1835. 
      40 Alexis de Tocqueville: De la Democratic en Amerique.* I
      

1833. 
      Charles Fourier: La Fausse Industrie morcelee.*
      

• 
  Malthus, Thomas Robert: An Inquiry into the Nature I and Progress of Rent (2nd ed.).
  

1835. 
      38 Victor Considerant: Destinee sociale.
      

1836. 
      44 Robert Owen: The Book of the New Moral World.* |
      

1833. 
      H. C. Carey: Principes d’economic politique.*
      

L. S. de Sismondi: Etudes sur I’economic politique.*

• 
  G. F. W. Hegel: Vorlesungen iiber die Geschichte der Philosophic.*
  

1836. 
      39 Charles Dickens: Oliver Twist.*
      

Bk M


Important Works Published g

1838 Wilhelm Weitling: Die Menschheit wie sie ist und

wie sie sein sollte.*

• 
  Louis Blanc: Organisation du travail.*
  

.— J. F. Bray: Labours Wrongs and Labours Remedies.*

August Cieszkowski: Prolegomena zur Historio- sophie. t

1840. 
      Pierre Leroux: De VHumanite, de son principe et de son avenir.*
      

• 
  Etienne Cabet: Voyage en Icarie.f
  
• 
  Eugene Buret: De la Misere des classes laborieuses en
  

Angleterre et en France.*

• 
  P.-J. Proudhon: Qu’est-ce que la propriete?*
  

1840. 
      Friedrich List: Das nationale System der politischen
      

Okonomie.*

• 
  Moses Hess: Die europdische Triarchie.*
  
• 
  Ludwig Feuerbach: Das Wesen des Christentums.*
  
• 
  Theodore Dezamy: M. Lamennais refute par lui- meme.*
  

1841. 
      44 Louis Blanc: Revolution franpaise. Histoire de dix ans.*
      

1840. 
      W. Weitling: Garantien der Harmonie und der F reiheit.*
      

• 
  Lorenz Stein: Sozialismus und Communismus des heutigen Frankreichs.*
  
• 
  Theodore Dezamy: Code de la communaute.f
  
• 
  Constantin Pecqueur: Theorie nouvelle d’economie sociale et politique.*
  

1840. 
      Flora Tristan: L’Union ouvriere.*
      

• 
  Wilhelm Schulz: Die Bewegung der Produktion.*
  
• 
  Bruno Bauer: Das entdeckte Christentum.*
  
• 
  B. Bauer: Die Judenfrage.*
  
• 
  Marquis de Custine: La Russie en 1839.*
  

S0ren Kierkegaard: Enter-EHer (Either/Or).

• 
  George Sand: Jean Ziska. Episode de la guerra des Hussites.*
  
• 
  George Sand: Jean Ziska. Episode de la guerre des
  

'— Victor Considerant: Principes du socialisme. Mani-

feste de la democratie au XIXe siecle. (2nd ed. 1847) +

KARLMARX I8I8-I843

1818-1834 Born in Trier in the Prussian Rhineland on May 5, 1818, Karl Marx was the third of nine children. Two of his brothers and three sisters died at early ages of tuberculosis. Their parents were the lawyer Heinrich Marx (1782-1838) and his wife Henriette, nee Pressburg (1787-1863), both descended from long lines of rabbinical families. Heinrich Marx, a patriotic Prussian citizen, moderate liberal and deist in the tradition of Voltaire, Newton and Locke, converted to the Protestant faith in 1816-17, thus sparing himself and his family the disadvantages to which Jews were exposed in the Rhineland after Napoleon’s fall and the annexation of this region to Prussia. The Marx children were baptised in 1824, the mother in 1825. In 1830 Karl entered the Trier secondary school, the Friedrich-Wilhelm Gymnasium, and he was confirmed in the Evangelical Church of his town four years later. It evidently left a certain impression on Karl that his father had broken with the faith of their ancestors and converted the whole family to Protestantism, religion of a minority in the Catholic Rhineland. The day was to come when the young man would turn his attention to religious matters as well—and pronounce against all forms of religious alienation.

1835-1804 In August and September of 1835 Marx passed his school leaving examinations, for which he wrote a series of seven compositions. His German essay, ‘Reflections of a Young Man on the Choice of a Profession’, reflects the influence of the moral training he had enjoyed and to which he was perhaps particularly inclined:

... dignity can be gained only in a profession which does not reduce




1835-1840 11

us to servile tools, one which permits us to create independently within our own realm ... it is not always possible for us to assume the station in life for which we believe we have the calling; our social relations have, to a certain extent, already begun forming before we are able to determine them ... However, the decisive motive guiding us in our choice of profession must be the welfare of mankind, our own perfection ... man’s nature is such that he can only attain his own perfection when working towards the perfection, for the general welfare of his world (MEGA 1,2: i66f.).

In his composition on religion he remarked that:

The striving for knowledge supplants an inferior striving for earthly goods ... when we reflect upon human nature, we always see indeed a Divine spark in man’s breast, an enthusiasm for the Good, a striving for knowledge, a longing for truth ... (MEGA 1,2: l ji£).

Marx matriculated in the autumn at the University of Bonn as a student of law. The first year he attended lectures on classical mythology and poetry, art history and the courses in the history of Greek and Roman law and legal institutions as required of law students. Apart from his studies, Marx was active in student affairs and joined a circle of youths interested in poetry.

An intimate correspondence sprung up between Marx and his father; all but one of the younger man's letters have been lost. From an early letter written by Heinrich Marx we glean a notion of the father-son relationship and especially of the father’s respect for Karl’s intellectual talents:

I wish to see in you what I might have become, had I first seen the light of day under more favourable auspices ... it may be unjust and ill-advised as well to put one’s greatest hopes in a single person and thus perhaps undermine one’s own equanimity (Nov. 18-29, 1835).

In Bonn Marx rapidly accumulated a number of large debts which his father was forced to liquidate for him. The expenses of student life, books and amusements as well, kept the young man continually writing for money. Finally, in June, his excesses led to arrest on charges of drunken rowdiness. He served a one-night sentence for this on June 16, 1836.

During the summer of 1836 he withdrew from Bonn with the intention of changing universities and became secretly engaged to his childhood sweetheart Jenny von Westphalen