The term "Middle Ages" is used to refer to the period in the history of the countries of the East of the first seventeen centuries of a new era. The natural upper boundary of the period is considered to be the 16th - early 17th centuries, when the East becomes the object of European trade and colonial expansion, which interrupted the course of development characteristic of Asian and North African countries. Geographically, the Medieval East covers the territory of North Africa, the Near and Middle East, Central and Central Asia, India, Sri Lanka, Southeast Asia and the Far East.
The transition to the Middle Ages in the East in some cases was carried out on the basis of already existing political formations (for example, Byzantium, Sasanian Iran, Kushano-Gupta India), in others it was accompanied by social upheavals, as was the case in China, and almost everywhere the processes were accelerated due to participation in them "barbarian" nomadic tribes. In the historical arena during this period, such hitherto unknown peoples as the Arabs, the Seljuk Turks, and the Mongols appeared and rose. New religions were born and civilizations arose on their basis.
The countries of the East in the Middle Ages were connected with Europe. Byzantium remained the bearer of the traditions of Greco-Roman culture. The Arab conquest of Spain and the campaigns of the Crusaders to the East contributed to the interaction of cultures. However, for the countries of South Asia and the Far East, acquaintance with Europeans took place only in the 15th-16th centuries.
The formation of medieval societies of the East was characterized by the growth of productive forces - iron tools spread, artificial irrigation expanded and irrigation technology improved, the leading trend of the historical process both in the East and in Europe was the establishment of feudal relations. Various outcomes of development in the East and West by the end of the 20th century. were due to a lesser degree of its dynamism.
Among the factors causing the "delay" of Eastern societies, the following stand out: the preservation, along with the feudal way of life, of extremely slowly disintegrating primitive communal and slave-owning relations; the stability of communal forms of community life, which held back the differentiation of the peasantry; the predominance of state property and power over private land ownership and the private power of feudal lords; the undivided power of the feudal lords over the city, weakening the anti-feudal aspirations of the townspeople.
Pereodization of the history of the medieval East.FROM Taking into account these features and based on the idea of the degree of maturity of feudal relations in the history of the East, the following stages are distinguished:
1st-6th centuries AD - the transitional period of the birth of feudalism;
7th-10th centuries - the period of early feudal relations with its inherent process of naturalization of the economy and the decline of ancient cities;
XI-XII centuries - the pre-Mongolian period, the beginning of the heyday of feudalism, the formation of a class-corporate system of life, a cultural take-off;
13th century - the time of the Mongol conquest, which interrupted the development of feudal society and reversed some of them;
XIV-XVI centuries - the post-Mongolian period, which is characterized by a slowdown in social development, the conservation of the despotic form of power.
Eastern civilizations. A colorful picture was presented by the Medieval East in terms of civilization, which also distinguished it from Europe. Some civilizations in the East arose in antiquity; Buddhist and Hindu - on the Hindustan Peninsula, Taoist-Confucian - in China. Others were born in the Middle Ages: Muslim civilization in the Near and Middle East, Indo-Muslim civilization in India, Hindu and Muslim civilization in the countries of Southeast Asia, Buddhist civilization in Japan and Southeast Asia, Confucian civilization in Japan and Korea.
7.2. India (7th–18th centuries)
Rajput period (7th-12th centuries). As shown in Chapter 2, in the IV-VI centuries. AD The powerful Gupta empire developed on the territory of modern India. The Gupta era, perceived as the golden age of India, was replaced in the 7th-12th centuries. period of feudal fragmentation. At this stage, however, the isolation of the regions of the country and the decline of culture did not occur due to the development of port trade. The conquering tribes of the Huns-Ephthalites who came from Central Asia settled in the north-west of the country, and the Gujarats who appeared with them settled in Punjab, Sindh, Rajputana and Malwa. As a result of the merging of alien peoples with the local population, a compact ethnic community of Rajputs arose, which in the 8th century. began expansion from Rajputana into the rich regions of the Ganges valley and Central India. The Gurjara-Pratihara clan, which formed a state in Malwa, was the most famous. It was here that the most striking type of feudal relations with a developed hierarchy and vassal psychology developed.
In the VI-VII centuries. in India, a system of stable political centers is emerging, fighting with each other under the banner of different dynasties - Northern India, Bengal, Deccan and the Far South. Canvas of political events of the VIII-X centuries. began the struggle for Doab (between the Jumna and the Ganges). In the tenth century the leading powers of the country fell into decay, divided into independent principalities. The political fragmentation of the country turned out to be especially tragic for Northern India, which suffered in the 11th century. regular military raids Mahmud Ghaznevid(998-1030), the ruler of a vast empire that included the territories of the modern states of Central Asia, Iran, Afghanistan, as well as Punjab and Sindh.
The socio-economic development of India during the Rajput era was characterized by the growth of feudal estates. The richest among the feudal lords, along with the rulers, were the Hindu temples and monasteries. If initially only uncultivated lands complained to them and with the indispensable consent of the community that owned them, then from the 8th century. more and more often, not only lands are transferred, but also villages, the inhabitants of which were obliged to bear a natural service in favor of the recipient. However, at this time the Indian community was still relatively independent, large in size and self-governing. A full-fledged community member hereditarily owned his field, although trade operations with land were certainly controlled by the community administration.
City life, frozen after the 6th century, began to revive only towards the end of the Rajput period. The old port centers developed faster. New cities arose near the castles of the feudal lords, where artisans settled, serving the needs of the court and the landowner's troops. The development of urban life was facilitated by the increased exchange between cities and the emergence of groupings of artisans according to castes. As well as in Western Europe, in the Indian city, the development of crafts and trade was accompanied by the struggle of citizens against the feudal lords, who imposed new taxes on artisans and merchants. Moreover, the value of the tax was the higher, the lower was the class position of the castes to which the artisans and merchants belonged.
At the stage of feudal fragmentation, Hinduism finally took over Buddhism, defeating it with the power of its amorphousness, which perfectly corresponded to the political system of the era.
The era of the Muslim conquest of India. Delhi Sultanate (XIII - early XVI centuries) In the XIII century. in the north of India, a large Muslim state, the Delhi Sultanate, is established, and the dominance of Muslim commanders from the Central Asian Turks is finally taking shape. Sunni Islam becomes the state religion, and Persian becomes the official language. Accompanied by bloody strife, the dynasties of Gulyams, Khiljis, and Tughlakids were successively replaced in Delhi. The troops of the sultans made aggressive campaigns in Central and South India, and the conquered rulers were forced to recognize themselves as vassals of Delhi and pay an annual tribute to the sultan.
The turning point in the history of the Delhi Sultanate was the invasion of Northern India in 1398 by the troops of the Central Asian ruler Timur(another name is Tamerlane, 1336-1405). The Sultan fled to Gujarat. An epidemic and famine began in the country. Abandoned by the conqueror as governor of the Punjab, Khizr Khan Sayyid captured Delhi in 1441 and founded a new Sayyid dynasty. Representatives of this and the Lodi dynasty that followed it already ruled as governors of the Timurids. One of the last Lodi, Ibrahim, in an effort to exalt his power, entered into an uncompromising struggle with the feudal nobility and Afghan military leaders. Ibrahim's opponents appealed to the ruler of Kabul, the Timurid Babur, with a request to save them from the tyranny of the Sultan. In 1526, Babur defeated Ibrahim at the Battle of Panipat, thus initiating Mughal Empire, existed for nearly 200 years.
The system of economic relations undergoes some, although not radical, changes in the Muslim era. The state land fund is growing significantly due to the possessions of the conquered Indian feudal families. Its main part was distributed in a conditional service award - iqta (small plots) and mukta (large "feedings"). Iqtadars and muktadars collected taxes from the granted villages in favor of the treasury, part of which went to the support of the family of the holder, who supplied the warrior to the state army. Mosques, owners of property for charitable purposes, keepers of the tombs of sheikhs, poets, officials and merchants were private landowners who managed the estate without state intervention. The rural community survived as a convenient fiscal unit, however, the payment of the poll tax (jizia) fell on the peasants, who mostly professed Hinduism, as a heavy burden.
By the XIV century. historians attribute a new wave of urbanization to India. Cities became centers of crafts and trade. Domestic trade was mainly focused on the needs of the capital's court. The leading import item was the importation of horses (the basis of the Delhi army is cavalry), which were not bred in India due to the lack of pastures. Archaeologists find treasures of Delhi coins in Persia, Central Asia and on the Volga.
During the reign of the Delhi Sultanate, Europeans began to penetrate India. In 1498, under Vasco da Gama, the Portuguese first reached Calikat on the Malabar coast of western India. As a result of subsequent military expeditions - Cabral (1500), Vasco de Gama (1502), d "Albuquerque (1510-1511) - the Portuguese captured the Bijapur island of Goa, which became the backbone of their possessions in the East. The Portuguese monopoly on maritime trade undermined India's trade relations with countries of the East, isolated the interior regions of the country and retarded their development.In addition, wars and the destruction of the population of Malabar led.Gujarat was also weakened.Only the Vijayanagar empire remained in the XIV-XVI centuries powerful and even more centralized than the former states of the south.Its head was considered a maharaja, but all the fullness of real power belonged to the state council, the chief minister, to whom the governors of the provinces were directly subordinate. State lands were distributed in conditional military awards - amars. A significant part of the villages were in the possession of Brahmin collectives - sabkhs. lands of one village, and community members increasingly began to turn into into disadvantaged sharecroppers. In the cities, the authorities began to pay the collection of duties at the mercy of the feudal lords, which strengthened their undivided rule here.
With the establishment of the power of the Delhi Sultanate, in which Islam was a forcefully implanted religion, India was drawn into the cultural orbit of the Muslim world. However, despite the fierce struggle of the Hindus and Muslims, long cohabitation led to the mutual penetration of ideas and customs.
India in the era of the Mughal Empire (XVI-XVIII centuries)1 final stage medieval history India became an eminence in its north at the beginning of the 16th century. new powerful Muslim Mughal Empire, which in the XVII century. managed to subjugate a significant part of South India. Timurid was the founder of the state Babur(1483-1530). The power of the Mughals in India was strengthened during the years of rule Akbar(1452-1605), who moved the capital to the city of Agra on the Jamne River, conquered Gujarat and Bengal, and with them access to the sea. True, the Mughals had to come to terms with the rule of the Portuguese here.
In the Mughal era, India enters a stage of developed feudal relations, the flowering of which went hand in hand with the strengthening of the central power of the state. The importance of the main financial department of the empire (sofa), which is obliged to monitor the use of all suitable lands, has increased. The share of the state was declared a third of the harvest. In the central regions of the country, under Akbar, the peasants were transferred to a cash tax, which forced them to be included in market relations in advance. The state land fund (khalisa) received all the conquered territories. Jagirs were distributed from it - conditional military awards, which continued to be considered state property. Jagirdars usually owned several tens of thousands of hectares of land and were obliged to support military detachments on these incomes - the backbone of the imperial army. Akbar's attempt to liquidate the jagir system in 1574 ended in failure. Also in the state there was a private land property of feudal zamindars from among the conquered princes who paid tribute, and small private estates of Sufi sheikhs and Muslim theologians, inherited, and free from taxes - suyurgal or mulk.
Crafts flourished during this period, especially the production of fabrics, which were valued throughout the East, and in the region of the southern seas, Indian textiles acted as a kind of universal equivalent of trade. The process of merging the upper merchant stratum with the ruling class begins. Money people could become jagirdars, and the latter could become owners of caravanserais and merchant ships. Merchant castes are formed, playing the role of companies. Surat, the main port of the country in the 16th century, becomes the place where a layer of comprador merchants (that is, those associated with foreigners) is born.
In the 17th century the importance of the economic center passes to Bengal. Here, in Dhaka and Patna, the production of fine fabrics, saltpeter and tobacco is developing. Shipbuilding continues to flourish in Gujarat. In the south, a new large textile center Madras is emerging. Thus, in India XVI-XVII centuries. the emergence of capitalist relations is already observed, but the socio-economic structure of the Mughal Empire, based on state ownership of land, did not contribute to their rapid growth.
In the Mughal era, religious disputes are activated, on the basis of which broad popular movements are born, the religious policy of the state undergoes major turns. So, in the XV century. in Gujarat, among the Muslim cities of trade and handicraft circles, the Mahdist movement was born. In the XVI century. the fanatical adherence of the ruler to orthodox Sunni Islam turned into disenfranchisement for the Hindus and the persecution of Shia Muslims. In the 17th century oppression of the Shiites, the destruction of all Hindu temples and the use of their stones for the construction of mosques Aurangzeb(1618-1707) caused a popular uprising, an anti-Mughal movement.
So, medieval India personifies the synthesis of a wide variety of socio-political foundations, religious traditions. ethnic cultures. Having melted all this many beginnings within itself, by the end of the era, it appeared before the astonished Europeans as a country of fabulous splendor, attracting wealth, exoticism, and secrets. Inside it, however, began processes similar to European ones, inherent in the New Age. The internal market was formed, international relations developed, social contradictions deepened. But for India, a typical Asian power, the despotic state was a strong deterrent to capitalization. With its weakening, the country becomes an easy prey for European colonialists, whose activities interrupted the natural course for many years. historical development countries.
7.3. China (III - XVII centuries)
The era of fragmentation (III-VI centuries). With the fall of the Han Empire at the turn of II-III centuries. In China, there is a change of eras: the ancient period of the country's history ends and the Middle Ages begins. The first stage of early feudalism went down in history as the time three kingdoms(220-280). Three states formed on the territory of the country (Wei in the north, Shu in the central part and Wu in the south), the power in which was close to a military dictatorship by type.
But already at the end of the III century. political stability in China is again being lost, and it becomes an easy prey for the nomadic tribes that poured in here, mainly settling in the northwestern regions of the country. From that moment on, for two and a half centuries, China was divided into northern and southern parts, which affected its subsequent development. The strengthening of centralized power occurs in the 20s of the 5th century. in the south after the founding of the Southern Song empire here and in the 30s of the 5th century. - in the north, where it intensifies Northern Wei Empire which the desire to restore a unified Chinese statehood was expressed more strongly. In 581, a coup d'etat took place in the north: the commander Yang Jian removed the emperor from power and changed the name of the Sui state. In 589, he brought the southern state under his control and, for the first time after a 400-year period of fragmentation, restored the political unity of the country.
Political changes in China III-VI centuries. are closely connected with cardinal shifts in ethnic development. Although foreigners penetrated before, but it was in the 4th century. becomes a time of mass invasions, comparable with the Great Migration of Peoples in Europe. The Xiongnu, Sanpi, Qiang, Jie, Di tribes that came from the central regions of Asia settled not only on the northern and western outskirts, but also on the Central Plain, mixing with the indigenous Chinese population. In the south, the processes of assimilation of the non-Chinese population (Yue, Miao, Li, Yi, Man and Yao) were faster and less dramatic, leaving significant areas uncolonized. This was reflected in the mutual isolation of the parties, and two main dialects of the Chinese language developed in the language. The northerners called the inhabitants of the middle state, that is, the Chinese, only themselves, and the southerners called people Wu.
The period of political fragmentation was accompanied by a noticeable naturalization of economic life, the decline of cities and a reduction in monetary circulation. Grain and silk began to act as a measure of value. An allotment system of land use (zhan tian) was introduced, which affected the type of organization of society and the way it was managed. Its essence consisted in assigning to each worker, assigned to the estate of personally free commoners, the rights to receive a plot of land of a certain size and establish fixed taxes from it.
The allotment system was opposed by the process of growth of private land plots of the so-called "strong houses" ("da jia"), which was accompanied by the ruin and enslavement of the peasantry. The introduction of the state allotment system, the struggle of power against the expansion of large private land ownership lasted throughout the medieval history of China and affected the design of the unique agrarian and social system of the country.
The process of official differentiation proceeded on the basis of the decomposition and degeneration of the community. This found expression in the formal unification of peasant farms into five-yard and twenty-five-yard houses, which were encouraged by the authorities for the purpose of tax benefits. All the inferior strata in the state were collectively referred to as the "vile people" (jianzhen) and were opposed to the "good people" (liangmin). A striking manifestation of social shifts was the increasing role of the aristocracy. Nobility was determined by belonging to the old clans. Generosity was fixed in the lists of noble families, the first general register of which was compiled in the 3rd century. Another distinguishing feature public life 3rd-6th centuries there was an increase personal relationships. The principle of the personal duty of the younger to the elder has taken a leading place among moral values.
Imperialperiod (end VI-XIII centuries ) During this period, the imperial order was revived in China, the political unification of the country took place, the nature of the supreme power changed, the centralization of management intensified, and the role of the bureaucratic apparatus increased. During the years of the Tang Dynasty (618-907), the classical Chinese type of imperial administration took shape. There were revolts of military governors in the country, a peasant war of 874-883, a long struggle with the Tibetans, Uighurs and Tanguts in the north of the country, a military confrontation with the southern Chinese state of Nanzhao. All this led to the agony of the Tang regime.
In the middle of the X century. out of chaos, the state of the Later Zhou was born, which became the new core of the political unification of the country. The reunification of the lands was completed in 960 by the founder of the Song Dynasty Zhao Kuanyin with the capital Kaifeng. In the same century, political map northeast China, a state appears Liao. In 1038, the Western Xia Tangut Empire was proclaimed on the northwestern borders of the Song Empire. From the middle of the XI century. between Song, Liao and Xia, an approximate balance of power is maintained, which at the beginning of the 12th century. was violated with the advent of a new rapidly growing state of the Jurchens (one of the branches of the Tungus tribes), formed in Manchuria and proclaimed itself in 1115 the Jin Empire. It soon conquered the state of Liao, captured the capital of the Song along with the emperor. However, the brother of the captured emperor managed to create the Southern Song Empire with its capital in Lin'an (Hanzhou), which extended its influence to the southern regions of the country.
Thus, on the eve of the Mongol invasion, China was again split into two parts, the northern one, which included the Jin empire, and the southern territory of the Southern Song empire.
The process of ethnic consolidation of the Chinese, which began in the 7th century, already at the beginning of the 13th century. leads to the formation of the Chinese people. Ethnic self-consciousness manifests itself in the singling out of the Chinese state, which opposes foreign countries, in the spread of the universal self-name "Han Ren" (Han people). The population of the country in the X-XIII centuries. was 80-100 million people.
In the Tang and Song empires, administrative systems perfect for their time were being formed, which were copied by other states. Since 963, all military formations of the country began to report directly to the emperor, and local military officials were appointed from among the civil servants of the capital. This strengthened the power of the emperor. The bureaucracy grew to 25,000. The highest government institution was the Department of Departments, which headed the six leading executive bodies of the country: Chinov, Taxes, Rituals, Military, Judicial and Public Works. Along with them, the Imperial Secretariat and the Imperial Chancellery were established. The power of the head of state, officially called the Son of Heaven and the emperor, was hereditary and legally unlimited.
The economy of China in the 7th-12th centuries. based on agricultural production. The allotment system, which reached its apogee in the 6th-8th centuries, by the end of the 10th century. disappeared. In Sung China, the land use system already included a state land fund with imperial estates, large and medium-sized private landholdings, small-peasant land ownership, and estates of state land holders. The order of taxation can be called total. The main one was a two-time land tax in kind, amounting to 20% of the harvest, supplemented by a trade tax and working off. Household registers were compiled every three years to account for taxpayers.
The unification of the country led to a gradual increase in the role of cities. If in the eighth century there were 25 of them with a population of about 500 thousand people, then in the X-XII centuries, during the period of urbanization, the urban population began to account for 10% of the total population of the country.
Urbanization was closely linked to the growth of handicraft production. Such areas of state-owned craft as silk weaving, ceramic production, woodworking, papermaking and dyeing received special development in the cities. A form of private craft, the rise of which was held back by the powerful competition of state-owned production and the imperial power's comprehensive control over the urban economy, was the family workshop. Trade and craft organizations, as well as shops, were the main part of the urban craft. The technique of the craft was gradually improved, its organization changed, large workshops appeared, equipped with machine tools and using hired labor.
The development of trade was facilitated by the introduction at the end of the 6th century. standards of measures and weights and the issuance of a copper coin of a fixed weight. Tax revenues from trade have become a tangible item of government revenue. The increase in metal mining allowed the Song government to issue the largest amount of specie in the history of the Chinese Middle Ages. The intensification of foreign trade fell on the 7th-8th centuries. The center of maritime trade was the port of Guangzhou, linking China with Korea, Japan, and coastal India. Overland trade went along the Great Silk Road through the territory of Central Asia, along which caravanserais were built.
In the Chinese medieval society of the pre-Mongol era, the demarcation went along the line of aristocrats and non-aristocrats, the service class and commoners, free and dependent. The peak of the influence of aristocratic clans falls on the 7th-8th centuries. The first genealogical list of 637 recorded 293 surnames and 1654 families. But by the beginning of the XI century. the power of the aristocracy is weakening and the process of merging it with the bureaucratic bureaucracy begins.
The "golden age" of officialdom was the time of the Song. The service pyramid consisted of 9 ranks and 30 degrees, and belonging to it opened the way to enrichment. The main channel for penetration into the environment of officials was state examinations, which contributed to the expansion of the social base of service people.
About 60% of the population were peasants who legally retained their rights to land, but in fact did not have the opportunity to freely dispose of it, leave it uncultivated or abandon it. From the 9th century there was a process of disappearance of personally deprived estates (jianzhen): state serfs (guanhu), state artisans (gun) and musicians (yue), private and dependent landless workers (butsui). A special stratum of society was made up of members of Buddhist and Taoist monasteries, numbering in the 20s of the 11th century. 400 thousand people.
Cities in which the lumpen layer appears become centers of anti-government uprisings. The largest movement against the arbitrariness of the authorities was the uprising led by Fang La in the southeastern region of China in 1120-1122. On the territory of the Jin Empire until its fall in the XIII century. the national liberation detachments of the "red jackets" and the "black banner" operated.
There were three religious doctrines in medieval China: Buddhism, Taoism, and Confucianism. In the Tang era, the government encouraged Taoism: in 666, the sanctity of the author of an ancient Chinese treatise, the canonical work of Taoism, was officially recognized Lao Tzu(IV-III centuries BC), in the first half of the VIII century. Taoist academy established. At the same time, the persecution of Buddhism intensified and neo-Confucianism was established, which claimed to be the only ideology that substantiated the social hierarchy and correlated it with the concept of personal duty.
So, by the beginning of the XIII century. in Chinese society, many features and institutions are becoming complete and fixed, which subsequently will undergo only partial changes. Political, economic and social systems are approaching classical patterns, changes in ideology lead to the promotion of neo-Confucianism.
China in the era of Mongol rule. Yuan Empire (1271-1367) The Mongol conquest of China lasted almost 70 years. In 1215 he was taken. Beijing, and in 1280 China was completely dominated by the Mongols. With the accession to the throne of the Khan Khubilai(1215-1294) the headquarters of the Great Khan was transferred to Beijing. Along with it, Karakorum and Shandong were considered equal capitals. In 1271, all the possessions of the great khan were declared the Yuan empire according to the Chinese model. Mongol domination in the main part of China lasted a little over a century and is noted by Chinese sources as the most difficult time for the country.
Despite the military power, the Yuan empire was not distinguished by internal strength, it was shaken by civil strife, as well as the resistance of the local Chinese population, the uprising of the secret Buddhist society "White Lotus".
characteristic feature social structure was the division of the country into four categories unequal in rights. The Chinese of the north and the inhabitants of the south of the country were considered, respectively, the people of the third and fourth grade after the Mongols themselves and immigrants from the Islamic countries of western and central Asia. Thus, the ethnic situation of the era was characterized not only by national oppression by the Mongols, but also by the legalized opposition of northern and southern Chinese.
The dominance of the Yuan Empire rested on the power of the army. Each city contained a garrison of at least 1000 people, and in Beijing there was a khan's guard of 12 thousand people. Tibet and Koryo (Korea) were in vassal dependence on the Yuan palace. Attempts to invade Japan, Burma, Vietnam and Java, undertaken in the 70-80s of the XIII century, did not bring success to the Mongols. For the first time, Yuan China was visited by merchants and missionaries from Europe, who left notes about their travels: Marco Polo (circa 1254-1324), Arnold from Cologne and others.
Mongolian rulers, interested in receiving income from the conquered lands, from the second half of the XII century. more and more began to adopt traditional Chinese methods of exploiting the population. Initially, the system of taxation was streamlined and centralized. Tax collection was removed from the hands of local authorities, a general census of the population was carried out, tax registers were compiled, poll and land grain taxes and a household tax levied on silk and silver were introduced.
The current laws determined the system of land relations, within the framework of which private lands, state lands, public lands and specific allotments were allocated. A steady trend in agriculture since the beginning of the XIV century. there is an increase in private land holdings and the expansion of rental relations. The surplus of the enslaved population and prisoners of war made it possible to widely use their labor on state lands and on the lands of soldiers in military settlements. Along with slaves, state lands were cultivated by state tenants. As never before, temple land ownership spread widely, replenished both by state donations and by purchases and direct seizure of fields. Such lands were considered eternal possession and were cultivated by the brethren and tenants.
Urban life began to revive only towards the end of the 13th century. In the register lists of 1279, there were about 420 thousand craftsmen. Following the example of the Chinese, the Mongols established the monopoly right of the treasury to dispose of salt, iron, metal, tea, wine and vinegar, and established a trade tax in the amount of one-thirtieth of the value of the goods. In connection with the inflation of paper money at the end of the XIII century. natural exchange began to dominate in trade, the role of precious metals increased, and usury flourished.
From the middle of the XIII century. becomes the official religion of the Mongolian court lamaism - Tibetan variety of Buddhism. A characteristic feature of the period was the emergence of secret religious sects. The former leading position of Confucianism was not restored, although the opening in 1287 of the Academy of the Sons of the Fatherland, the forge of the highest Confucian cadres, testified to the acceptance by Khan Khubilai of the imperial Confucian doctrine.
Ming China (1368-1644). Ming China was born and died in the crucible of the great peasant wars, the events of which were orchestrated invisibly by secret religious societies like the White Lotus. In this era, the Mongol domination was finally abolished and the foundations of the economic and political systems, corresponding to traditional Chinese ideas about the ideal statehood. The peak of the power of the Ming Empire fell on the first third of the 15th century, but by the end of the century, negative phenomena began to grow. The entire second half of the dynastic cycle (XVI - first half of the XVII centuries) was characterized by a protracted crisis, which by the end of the era acquired a general and comprehensive character. The crisis, which began with changes in the economy and social structure, manifested itself most visibly in the field of domestic policy.
First Emperor of the Ming Dynasty Zhu Yuanzhang(1328-1398) began to pursue a far-sighted agrarian and financial policy. He increased the share of peasant households in the land wedge, strengthened control over the distribution of state lands, stimulated military settlements patronized by the treasury, resettled peasants on empty lands, introduced a fixed taxation, and provided benefits to poor households. His son Zhu Di toughened the police functions of power: a special department was established, subordinate only to the emperor - Brocade robes, denunciation was encouraged. In the XV century. there were two more punitive-detective institutions.
The central foreign policy task of the Minsk state in the XIV-XV centuries. was to prevent the possibility of a new Mongol attack. There were no military clashes. And although peace was concluded with Mongolia in 1488, the raids continued even in the 16th century. From the invasion of the country by the troops of Tamerlane, which began in 1405, China was saved by the death of the conqueror.
In the XV century. the southern direction of foreign policy is activated. China interferes in Vietnamese affairs, seizes a number of areas in Burma. From 1405 to 1433 seven grandiose expeditions of the Chinese fleet under the leadership of Zheng He(1371 - about 1434). In different campaigns, he led from 48 to 62 only large ships. These voyages were aimed at establishing trade and diplomatic relations with overseas countries, although all foreign trade was reduced to the exchange of tribute and gifts with foreign embassies, while a strict ban was imposed on private foreign trade activities. Caravan trade also acquired the character of embassy missions.
Government policy regarding internal trade was not consistent. Private trading activity was recognized as legal and profitable for the treasury, but public opinion considered it unworthy of respect and required systematic control by the authorities. The state itself led an active domestic trade policy. The treasury forcibly purchased goods at low prices and distributed the products of state crafts, sold licenses for trading activities, maintained a system of monopoly goods, maintained imperial shops and planted state "commercial settlements".
During this period, bank notes and small copper coins remained the basis of the country's monetary system. The ban on the use of gold and silver in trade, although weakened, but, however, rather slowly. More clearly than in the previous era, the economic specialization of the regions and the trend towards the expansion of state crafts and trades are indicated. Craft associations during this period gradually begin to acquire the character of guild organizations. Written charters appear inside them, a prosperous stratum arises.
From the 16th century the penetration of Europeans into the country begins. As in India, the championship belonged to the Portuguese. Their first possession on one of the South Chinese islands was Macau (Maomen). From the second half of XVII in. the country is flooded by the Dutch and the British, who assisted the Manchus in conquering China. At the end of the XVII century. in the suburbs of Guangzhou, the British founded one of the first continental trading posts, which became the center for the distribution of British goods.
In the Ming era, neo-Confucianism occupies a dominant position in religion. From the end of the XIV century. the desire of the authorities to put restrictions on Buddhism and Taoism is traced, which led to the expansion of religious sectarianism. Other striking features of the religious life of the country were the Sinification of local Muslims and the spread of local cults among the people.
The growth of crisis phenomena at the end of the 15th century. begins gradually, with a gradual weakening of imperial power, the concentration of land in the hands of large private owners, and the aggravation of the financial situation in the country. The emperors after Zhu Di were weak rulers, and temporary workers ran all the affairs at the courts. The center of the political opposition was the Chamber of Censors-Procurators, whose members demanded reforms and accused the arbitrariness of the temporary workers. Activities of this kind met with a severe rebuff from the emperors. A typical picture was when another influential official, submitting an incriminating document, was simultaneously preparing for death, waiting for a silk lace from the emperor with an order to hang himself.
The turning point in the history of Ming China is associated with a powerful peasant uprising of 1628-1644. headed by Li Zichen. In 1644, Li's troops occupied Beijing, and he himself declared himself emperor.
The history of medieval China is a motley kaleidoscope of events: a frequent change of ruling dynasties, long periods of domination by conquerors who, as a rule, came from the north and very soon dissolved among the local population, having adopted not only the language and way of life, but also the classical Chinese model of governing the country, which took shape during the Tang and Sung eras. Not a single state of the medieval East could achieve such a level of control over the country and society, which was in China. Not the last role in this was played by the political isolation of the country, as well as the ideological conviction that prevailed among the administrative elite about the chosenness of the Middle Empire, whose natural vassals are all other powers of the world.
However, such a society was not free from contradictions. And if religious and mystical convictions or national liberation ideals often turned out to be the motives for peasant uprisings, they did not in the least cancel, but, on the contrary, intertwined with the demands of social justice. It is significant that Chinese society was not as closed and rigidly organized as, for example, Indian. The leader of a peasant uprising in China could become an emperor, and a commoner who passed the state exams for a bureaucratic position could start a dizzying career.
7.4. Japan (III - XIX centuries)
Epochkings of Yamato. The birth of the state (III-ser.VII). the core of the Japanese people was formed on the basis of the Yamato tribal federation (as Japan was called in ancient times) in the 3rd-5th centuries. Representatives of this federation belonged to the Kurgan culture of the early Iron Age.
At the stage of formation of the state, society consisted of consanguineous clans (uji) that existed independently on their own land. A typical clan was represented by its head, priest, lower administration and ordinary freemen. Adjacent to it, without entering it, were groups of semi-free (bemins) and slaves (yatsuko). The first in importance in the hierarchy was the royal clan (tenno). Its selection in the III century. marked a turning point in the political history of the country. The tenno clan ruled with the help of advisers, lords of the districts (agata-nushi) and governors of the regions (kunino miyatsuko), the same leaders of the local clans, but already authorized by the king. Appointment to the post of ruler depended on the will of the most powerful clan in the royal environment, which also supplied the royal family with wives and concubines from among its members. From 563 to 645 such a role was played by the Soga clan. This period of history was called the Asuka period after the name of the residence of the kings in the province of Yamato.
The domestic policy of the Yamato kings was aimed at uniting the country and at formalizing the ideological basis of autocracy. An important role in this was played by the “Statutes of 17 Articles” created in 604 by Prince Setoku-taishi. They formulated the main political principle of the supreme sovereignty of the ruler and the strict subordination of the younger to the elder. Foreign policy priorities were relations with the countries of the Korean Peninsula, sometimes reaching armed clashes, and with China, which took the form of ambassadorial missions and the goal of borrowing any suitable innovations.
Socio-economic system III-VII centuries. enters the stage of decomposition of patriarchal relations. Communal arable land, which was at the disposal of rural households, began to gradually fall under the control of powerful clans, opposing each other for initial resources; land and people. Thus, the distinctive feature of Japan consisted in the significant role of the tribal feudalizing nobility and, more clearly than anywhere else in the Far East, the tendency to privatize land holdings with the relative weakness of the power of the center.
In 552, Buddhism came to Japan, which influenced the unification of religious and moral and aesthetic ideas.
Fujiwara era (645-1192). The historical period following the era of the Yamato kings covers the time that began with the “Taika coup” in 645 and ended with 1192, when military rulers with the title of shogun1 took over the country.
The entire second half of the 7th century passed under the motto of the Taika reforms. State reforms were called upon to reorganize all spheres of relations in the country according to the Chinese Tang model, to seize the initiative of private appropriation of the country's initial resources, land and people, replacing it with the state. The central government apparatus consisted of the State Council (Dajokan), eight government departments, and a system of main ministries. The country was divided into provinces and counties, headed by governors and county chiefs. An eight-degree system of title families with the emperor at the head and a 48-rank ladder of court ranks were established. Since 690, censuses of the population and redistribution of land began to be carried out every six years. A centralized system of manning the army was introduced, and weapons were confiscated from private individuals. In 694, the first capital city of Fujiwarakyo was built, the permanent place of the imperial headquarters (before that, the place of the headquarters was easily transferred).
Completion of the formation of the medieval Japanese centralized state in the VIII century. associated with the growth of large cities. In one century, the capital was transferred three times: in 710 in Haijokyo (Nara), in 784 in Nagaoka and in 794 in Heiankyo (Kyoto). Since the capitals were administrative, and not trade and craft centers, after the next transfer they fell into disrepair. The population of provincial and county towns, as a rule, did not exceed 1000 people.
Foreign policy problems in the VIII century. recede into the background. The consciousness of the danger of an invasion from the mainland is fading. In 792, conscription was abolished and the coast guard was abolished. Embassies to China become rare, and trade begins to play an increasingly important role in relations with the Korean states. By the middle of the IX century. Japan finally switches to a policy of isolation, it is forbidden to leave the country, and the reception of embassies and courts is stopped.
The formation of a developed feudal society in the IX-XII centuries. was accompanied by an increasingly radical departure from the Chinese classical model of government. The bureaucratic machine was thoroughly permeated with family aristocratic ties. There is a trend towards decentralization of power. The divine tenno already reigned more than actually ruled the country. The bureaucratic elite did not develop around him, because the system of reproduction of administrators on the basis of competitive examinations was not created. From the second half of the ninth century The vacuum of power was filled by representatives of the Fujiwara clan, who actually begin to rule the country from 858 as regents for minor emperors, and from 888 as chancellors for adults. The period of the middle of the 9th - the first half of the 11th century. is called "the time of the reign of regents and chancellors." Its heyday falls on the second half of the 10th century. with representatives of the Fujiwara house, Mitinaga and Yorimichi.
At the end of the ninth century the so-called "state-legal system" (ritsuryo) is being formed. The new supreme state bodies were the personal office of the emperor and the police department, directly subordinate to the emperor. The broad rights of the governors allowed them to strengthen their power in the provinces so much that they could oppose it to the imperial one. With the decline in the importance of county government, the province becomes the main link in public life and entails the decentralization of the state.
The population of the country, mainly engaged in agriculture, numbered in the 7th century. about 6 million people, in the XII century. – 10 million. It was divided into tax-paying full (ryomin) and non-full (semmin). In the VI-VIII centuries. dominated by the allotment system of land use. The peculiarities of irrigated rice growing, which was extremely laborious and required the personal interest of the worker, determined the predominance of small free labor farming in the structure of production. Therefore, the labor of slaves was not widely used. Full-fledged peasants cultivated state farms subject to redistribution every six years. land for which they paid a tax in grain (in the amount of 3% of the officially established yield), fabrics and performed labor duties.
Dominal lands in this period did not represent a large master's economy, but were given to dependent peasants for processing in separate fields.
Officials received allotments for the term of office. Only a few influential administrators could use the allotment for life, sometimes with the right to transfer it by inheritance for one to three generations.
Due to the natural nature of the economy, access to the few urban markets was predominantly government departments. The functioning of a small number of markets outside the capitals ran into the absence of professional market traders and the lack of peasant trade products, most of which were withdrawn in the form of taxes.
A feature of the socio-economic development of the country in the IX-XII centuries. was the destruction and complete disappearance of the allotment system of management. They are replaced by patrimonial possessions, which had the status of "granted" to private individuals (shoen) from the state. Representatives of the highest aristocracy, monasteries, noble houses that dominated the counties, hereditary possessions of peasant families applied to state bodies for the recognition of newly acquired possessions as shoen.
As a result of socio-economic changes, all power in the country from the 10th century. began to belong to noble houses, owners of shoen different sizes. The privatization of land, income, positions was completed. To settle the interests of the opposing feudal groups in the country, a single estate order is being created, to designate which a new term "imperial state" (otyo kokka) is introduced, replacing the former regime - "the rule of law" (ritsuryo kokka).
Another characteristic social phenomenon of the era of the developed Middle Ages was the emergence of the military class. Having grown out of detachments of vigilantes used by the owners of shoen in internecine struggle, professional warriors began to turn into a closed class of samurai warriors (bushi). At the end of the Fujiwara era, the status of the armed forces rose due to social instability in the state. In the samurai environment, a code of military ethics arose, based on the main idea of \u200b\u200bpersonal loyalty to the master, up to the unconditional readiness to give his life for him, and in case of dishonor, commit suicide according to a certain ritual. So samurai turn into a formidable weapon of large farmers in their struggle with each other.
In the 8th century Buddhism becomes the state religion, quickly spreading at the top of society, not yet finding popularity among the common people, but supported by the state.
Japan during the era of the first Minamoto shogunate (1192-1335) In 1192, a sharp turn took place in the historical fate of the country, Minamoto Yerimoto, the head of an influential aristocratic house in the northeast of the country, became the supreme ruler of Japan with the title of shogun. The headquarters of his government (bakufu) was the city of Kamakura. The Minamoto Shogunate lasted until 1335. This was the heyday of cities, crafts and trade in Japan. As a rule, cities grew around monasteries and headquarters of large aristocrats. At first, Japanese pirates contributed to the flourishing of port cities. Later, regular trade with China, Korea and the countries of Southeast Asia began to play a role in their prosperity. In the XI century. there were 40 cities, in the XV century. - 85, in the XVI century. - 269, in which corporate associations of artisans and merchants (dza) arose.
With the coming to power of the shogun, the agrarian system of the country changed qualitatively. Small-scale samurai ownership becomes the leading form of land ownership, although large feudal possessions of influential houses, the emperor and the all-powerful Minamoto vassals continued to exist. In 1274 and 1281 the Japanese successfully resisted the invading Mongol army.
From the successors of the first shogun, power was seized by the house of Hojo relatives, called Shikkens (rulers), under whom a semblance of an advisory body of higher vassals appeared. Being the mainstay of the regime, the vassals carried hereditary security and military service, were appointed to the position of administrators (dzito) in the estates and state lands, military governors in the province. The power of the Bakufu military government was limited only to military-police functions and did not cover the entire territory of the country.
Under the shoguns and rulers, the imperial court and the Kyoto government were not liquidated, because the military power could not govern the country without the authority of the emperor. The military power of the rulers was significantly strengthened after 1232, when an attempt was made by the imperial palace to eliminate the power of the sikken. It turned out to be unsuccessful - the detachments loyal to the court were defeated. This was followed by the confiscation of 3,000 shoen belonging to supporters of the court.
Second Ashikaga Shogunate (1335-1573) The second shogunate in Japan arose during the long strife of the princes of noble houses. For two and a half centuries, periods of civil strife and the strengthening of centralized power in the country alternated. In the first third of the XV century. the position of the central government was the strongest. The shoguns prevented the growth of control of military governors (shugo) over the provinces. To this end, bypassing the shugo, they established direct vassal ties with local feudal lords, obliged the shugo-western and central provinces to live in Kyoto, and from the south-eastern part of the country - in Kamakura. However, the period of centralized power of the shoguns was short-lived. After the murder of Shogun Ashikaga Yoshinori in 1441 by one of the feudal lords, an internecine struggle unfolded in the country, which grew into a feudal war of 1467-1477, the consequences of which were felt for a whole century. A period of complete feudal fragmentation begins in the country.
During the years of the Muromachi shogunate, there was a transition from small and medium feudal landownership to large. The system of estates (shoen) and state lands (koryo) is falling into decay due to the development of trade and economic ties that destroyed the closed boundaries of feudal possessions. The formation of compact territorial possessions of large feudal lords - principalities begins. This process at the provincial level also proceeded along the line of growth in the possessions of military governors (shugo ryokoku).
In the Ashikaga era, the process of separating crafts from agriculture deepened. Craft workshops now arose not only in the metropolitan area, but also on the periphery, concentrating in the headquarters of military governors and the estates of feudal lords. Production focused exclusively on the needs of the patron was replaced by production for the market, and the patronage of the strong houses began to provide a guarantee of monopoly rights to engage in certain types of industrial activity in exchange for the payment of sums of money. Rural artisans are moving from a wandering to a settled way of life, there is a specialization of rural areas.
The development of handicraft contributed to the growth of trade. There are specialized trading guilds, separated from the craft workshops. On the transportation of products of tax revenues, a layer of toimaru merchants grew up, which gradually turned into a class of intermediary merchants who transported a wide variety of goods and engaged in usury. Local markets were concentrated in the areas of harbors, crossings, post stations, shoen borders and could serve the territory with a radius of 2-3 to 4-6 km.
The capitals of Kyoto, Nara and Kamakura remained the centers of the country. According to the conditions of the emergence of the city, they were divided into three groups. Some grew out of post stations, ports, markets, customs gates. The second type of cities arose at temples, especially intensively in the XIV century, and, like the first, had a certain level of self-government. The third type was market settlements at the castles of the military and the headquarters of provincial governors. Such cities, often created at the will of the feudal lord, were under his complete control and had the least mature urban features. The peak of their growth was in the 15th century.
After the Mongol invasions, the country's authorities set a course to eliminate the diplomatic and trade isolation of the country. Taking measures against the Japanese pirates who attacked China and Korea, the Bakufu restored diplomatic and trade relations with China in 1401. Until the middle of the 15th century. the monopoly of trade with China was in the hands of the Ashikaga shoguns, and then began to go under the auspices of large merchants and feudal lords. Silk, brocade, perfumes, sandalwood, porcelain and copper coins were usually brought from China, and gold, sulfur, fans, screens, lacquerware, swords and wood were sent. Trade was also carried out with Korea and countries South Seas, as well as with the Ryukyu, where in 1429 a united state was created.
The social structure in the Ashikaga era remained traditional: the ruling class consisted of the court aristocracy, the military nobility and the top clergy, the common people consisted of peasants, artisans and merchants. Until the 16th century the classes-estates of feudal lords and peasants were clearly established.
Until the 15th century, when a strong military power existed in the country, the main forms of peasant struggle were peaceful: escapes, petitions. With the growth of the principalities in the XVI century. armed peasant struggle also rises. The most massive form of resistance is the anti-tax struggle. 80% of peasant uprisings in the 16th century. were held in the economically developed central regions of the country. The rise of this struggle was also facilitated by the onset of feudal fragmentation. Massive peasant uprisings took place in this century under religious slogans and were organized by the neo-Buddhist Jodo sect.
Unification of the country; Shogunate Tokugaev. Political fragmentation put the task of uniting the country on the agenda. This mission was carried out by three prominent politicians of the country: Oda Nobunaga(1534-1582), Toyotomi Hijoshi(1536-1598) and Tokugawa Ieyasu(1542-1616). In 1573, having defeated the most influential daimyo and neutralized the fierce resistance of the Buddhist monasteries, Oda overthrew the last shogun from the Ashikaga house. Towards the end of his short political career (he was assassinated in 1582), he took possession of half the provinces, including the capital Kyoto, and carried out reforms that contributed to the elimination of fragmentation and the development of cities. The patronage of Christians who appeared in Japan in the 40s of the 16th century was determined by the implacable resistance of the Buddhist monasteries to the political course of Oda. In 1580 there were about 150 thousand Christians in the country, 200 churches and 5 seminaries. By the end of the XVII century. their number increased to 700 thousand people. Last but not least, the growth in the number of Christians was facilitated by the policy of the southern daimyo, who were interested in owning firearms, the production of which was established in Japan by the Catholic Portuguese.
The internal reforms of Oda's successor, a native of peasants Toyotomi Hijoshi, who managed to complete the unification of the country, had the main goal of creating an estate of serviceable taxpayers. The land was assigned to peasants who were able to pay state taxes, state control over cities and trade was strengthened. Unlike Oda, he did not patronize Christians, campaigned to expel missionaries from the country, persecuted Christian Japanese - destroyed churches and printing houses. Such a policy was not successful, because the persecuted took refuge under the protection of the rebellious southern daimyo who had converted to Christianity.
After the death of Toyotomi Hijoshi in 1598, power passed to one of his associates, Tokugawa Izyasu, who in 1603 proclaimed himself shogun. Thus began the last, third, longest in time (1603-1807) Tokugawa shogunate.
One of the first reforms of the Tokugawa house was aimed at limiting the omnipotence of the daimyo, of which there were about 200. To this end, hostile ruling house daimyo were territorially dispersed. Craft and trade in the cities under the jurisdiction of such tozama were transferred to the center along with the cities.
The agrarian reform of the Tokugawa once again secured the peasants to their lands. Under him, classes were strictly demarcated: samurai, peasants, artisans and merchants. Tokugawa began to pursue a policy of controlled contacts with the Europeans, singling out the Dutch among them and closing the ports to everyone else, and above all, the missionaries of the Catholic Church. European science and culture, which came through Dutch merchants, received in Japan the name of Dutch science (rangakusha) and had a great influence on the process of improving the economic system of Japan.
The 17th century brought political stability and economic prosperity to Japan, but an economic crisis began in the next century. The samurai found themselves in a difficult situation, having lost the necessary material content; peasants, some of whom were forced to go to the cities; daimyo, whose wealth was noticeably reduced. True, the power of the shoguns still continued to remain unshakable. A significant role was played in this by the revival of Confucianism, which became the official ideology and influenced the way of life and thoughts of the Japanese (the cult of ethical norms, devotion to elders, the strength of the family).
The crisis of the third shogunate became clear from the 30s. 19th century The weakening of the power of the shoguns was primarily used by the tozama of the southern regions of the country, Choshu and Satsuma, who grew rich through the smuggling of weapons and the development of their own, including the military industry. Another blow to the authority of the central government was dealt by the forcible "opening of Japan" by the United States and European countries in the middle of the 19th century. The emperor became the national-patriotic symbol of the anti-foreign and anti-shogun movement, and the imperial palace in Kyoto became the center of attraction for all the rebellious forces of the country. After a short resistance in the fall of 1866, the shogunate fell, and power in the country was transferred to the 16-year-old emperor. Mitsuhito (Meiji)(1852-1912). Japan has entered a new historical era.
So, the historical path of Japan in the Middle Ages was no less intense and dramatic than that of neighboring China, with which the island state periodically maintained ethnic, cultural, and economic contacts, borrowing models of political and socio-economic structure from a more experienced neighbor. However, the search for their own national path of development led to the formation of an original culture, a regime of power, and a social system. hallmark Japanese development path have become greater dynamism of all processes, high social mobility in less profound forms of social antagonism, the ability of a nation to perceive and creatively process the achievements of other cultures.
7.5. Arab Caliphate (V-XI centuries AD)
On the territory of the Arabian Peninsula already in the II millennium BC. lived Arab tribes that were part of the Semitic group of peoples. In the V-VI centuries. AD Arab tribes dominated the Arabian Peninsula. Part of the population of this peninsula lived in cities, oases, engaged in crafts and trade. The other part wandered in the deserts and steppes, engaged in cattle breeding. Trade caravan routes between Mesopotamia, Syria, Egypt, Ethiopia, and Judea passed through the Arabian Peninsula. The intersection of these paths was the Meccan oasis near the Red Sea. This oasis was inhabited by the Arab tribe Qureish, whose tribal nobility, using geographical position Mecca, received income from the transit of goods through their territory.
Besides Mecca became the religious center of Western Arabia. An ancient pre-Islamic temple was located here Kaaba. According to legend, this temple was erected by the biblical patriarch Abraham (Ibrahim) with his son Ismail. This temple is associated with a sacred stone that fell to the ground, which has been worshiped since ancient times, and with the cult of the god of the Kureysh tribe. Allah(from Arabic ilah - master).
In the VI century. n, e. in Arabia, in connection with the movement of trade routes to Iran, the importance of trade falls. The population, which lost income from the caravan trade, was forced to look for sources of livelihood in agriculture. But there was little land suitable for agriculture. They had to be conquered. For this, forces were needed and, consequently, the unification of fragmented tribes, moreover, worshiping different gods. The need to introduce monotheism and unite the Arab tribes on this basis was more and more clearly defined.
This idea was preached by adherents of the Hanif sect, one of whom was Muhammad(c. 570-632 or 633), who became the founder of a new religion for the Arabs - Islam. This religion is based on the tenets of Judaism and Christianity: belief in one God and his prophet, the Last Judgment, retribution after death, unconditional obedience to the will of God (Arabic Islam-obedience). The names of the prophets and other biblical characters common to these religions testify to the Judaic and Christian roots of Islam: the biblical Abraham (Islamic Ibrahim), Aaron (Harun), David (Daud), Isaac (Ishak), Solomon (Suleiman), Ilya (Ilyas), Jacob (Yakub), Christian Jesus (Isa), Mary (Maryam) and others. Islam has common customs and prohibitions with Judaism. Both religions prescribe the circumcision of boys, forbid portraying God and living beings, eating pork, drinking wine, etc.
At the first stage of development, new religious outlook Islam was not supported by most of the tribesmen of Muhammad, and first of all by the nobility, as they feared that the new religion would lead to the cessation of the cult of the Kaaba as a religious center, and thereby deprive them of their income. In 622, Muhammad and his followers had to flee persecution from Mecca to the city of Yathrib (Medina). This year is considered the beginning of the Muslim chronology. The agricultural population of Yathrib (Medina), competing with merchants from Mecca, supported Muhammad. However, only in 630, having recruited the necessary number of supporters, did he get the opportunity to form military forces and capture Mecca, the local nobility of which was forced to submit to the new religion, all the more it suited them that Muhammad proclaimed the Kaaba the shrine of all Muslims.
Much later (c. 650), after the death of Muhammad, his sermons and sayings were collected into a single book. Koran(translated from Arabic means reading), which has become sacred to Muslims. The book includes 114 suras (chapters), which set out the main tenets of Islam, prescriptions and prohibitions. Later Islamic religious literature is called sunnah. It contains legends about Muhammad. Muslims who recognized the Koran and the Sunnah began to be called Sunnis but those who recognize only one Quran, Shiites. Shiites recognize as legal caliphs(governors, deputies) of Muhammad, spiritual and secular heads of Muslims only of his relatives.
The economic crisis in Western Arabia in the 7th century, caused by the displacement of trade routes, the lack of land suitable for agriculture, and high population growth, pushed the leaders of the Arab tribes to seek a way out of the crisis by seizing foreign lands. This is also reflected in the Koran, which says that Islam should be the religion of all peoples, but for this it is necessary to fight against the infidels, exterminate them and take away their property (Koran, 2:186-189; 4:76-78, 86).
Guided by this specific task and the ideology of Islam, Muhammad's successors, the caliphs, launched a series of conquest campaigns. They conquered Palestine, Syria, Mesopotamia, Persia. Already in 638 they captured Jerusalem. Until the end of the 7th century under the rule of the Arabs were the countries of the Middle East, Persia, the Caucasus, Egypt and Tunisia. In the 8th century Central Asia, Afghanistan, Western India, North-West Africa were captured. In 711, Arab troops led by Tariq sailed from Africa to the Iberian Peninsula (from the name of Tariq came the name
LECTURE #12 § 11. East in the Middle Ages.
Political Development of India in the Middle Ages . In the V - VII centuries. In India, there were about fifty states at war with each other. Later, a relatively unified state developed here.
From the end of the VIII - the beginning of the IX century. the troops of the Arab Caliphate, and then individual Muslim rulers began to make campaigns against India. Small Muslim states were formed in the north of India.
In 1206, the commander of one of the Muslim rulers declared himself a sultan, making the city of Delhi his capital. Gradually powerDelhi Sultanate spread throughout North and Central India, and at times also covered South India. A significant part of Indian lands was distributed between Muslim warriors and mosques. Indian rulers had to obey the Muslims. The entire state apparatus, like the army, consisted of Muslims. However, despite the fact that Islam spread in India, the bulk of the population still remained faithful to Hinduism. The confrontation between Hinduism and Islam, the incompatibility of life customs, the norms of behavior determined by these religions, led to the weakening of the Delhi Sultanate.
Culture of India . The most famous architectural monuments of the early Middle Ages are located inAjanta andEllora . Ajanta became famous mainly for the wall paintings of Buddhist monasteries. The temple complexes of Ellora are known for their sculptures, among which life-size sculptures of elephants stand out.
The conquest of Northern India in the X - XII centuries. Muslims brought new to India cultural traditions of Central Asia, the Middle East, Iran. In India, structures with arches, domes and vaults began to be built. There were also new types of structures - mosques, minarets, mausoleums.
India's contribution to science is also great. Thus, the creation ofdecimal number system . Indian scientists have created a table to calculate the location of the planets. Scientist and astronomerAryabhata suggested that the Earth is a sphere and rotates around its axis. Many astronomical works of Indian scientists were translated into Arabic. Thanks to this, the ideas embodied in them penetrated into other countries.
China in the III - XIII centuries. After the collapse in the III century. The Han empire in China was followed by a long period of unrest and internecine wars, accompanied by attacks by nomads. The unity of the country was restored only by 589 by the dynastySui . However, as a result of the peasant uprisings of 611-618. The Sui dynasty was overthrown. In 618 the dynasty came to powerTan reinvigorated the central government.
The unification of China in the Tang era made it possible to expand its influence among its neighbors and pacify many nomads. A number of transformations contributed to the strengthening of centralization. At the end of VI - beginning of VII century. construction was carried outGrand Canal between the Huang He and Yangtze rivers, the Great Wall of China was fortified. From the second half of the 8th c. the decline of the Tang empire begins. The growth of the administrative apparatus increased costs, the self-will of the nobility grew. In the ninth century peasant uprisings begin. In 874 they escalated into a grandiose peasant war. In 881, the peasant army captured the capital.
China was reunified in 960 under a dynastysoong . But in the XII century. the northern territories of the country were captured by nomadic peoples who created their own states there (the Jin empire, the Tangun kingdom).
Mongol conquests. The collapse of China facilitated the conquest of the country by the Mongols. CreatorMongolian state becameGenghis Khan . He managed to unite the Mongol tribes and create a powerful army, united by iron discipline and equipped with the best weapons for that time. With this army, Genghis Khan began his campaigns of conquest. In 1211 - 1213. he succeeded in conquering the Jin empire and the Tangun kingdom. In 1219, the army of Genghis Khan attacked the powerful state of Khorezm, which occupied the territory of Central Asia and Iran. A year later, after fierce battles, all these lands were annexed to the Mongol Empire. The Mongols also conquered the tribes of Southern Siberia. A vast power was formed, stretching from the Pacific Ocean to the Caspian Sea. After the death of the founder of the empire, the conquests were continued by his sons and grandsons.
According to the will of Genghis Khan, the conquered lands were divided into four parts, in which the descendants of his four sons began to rule (Golden Horde, the Hulaguid state, the Chagatai ulus, the Yuan empire). Soon they turned into independent states.
Under the descendants of Genghis Khan, the Sung state was also conquered (1279). The dynasty of the Mongol emperors of China was namedYuan . Under the rule of the Mongol dynasty, China was more than a century. The cruel oppression and robbery of the population by the conquerors more than once caused uprisings. In 1368, as a result of a powerful popular movement, the power of the Mongols was overthrown. The leader of the uprising was a peasantZhu Yuanzhang . He was proclaimed the Son of Heaven, the emperor. Dynasty beginsMin (1368 - 1644).
Ming dynasty . Having ascended the throne, Zhu Yuanzhang did a lot to strengthen the central government and the country's economy. The distribution of land to landless and land-poor peasants had a beneficial effect on the life of China. Taxes were reduced. Crafts have made great strides. The main goods in China's trade with other countries were textiles and porcelain. The Chinese carefully kept many craft secrets. So, only two families owned the secret manufacture of one of the varieties of silk, and for three hundred years they were bound to each other by marriage, so that the secret would not go beyond the families.
China successfully fought against Vietnam. The Chinese fleet sailed to the countries of Southeast Asia, to India and even to the east coast of Africa. The gifts of foreign rulers were perceived as the arrival of barbarians with tribute. In response, they gave gifts to those who arrived. The value of these awards was to be as many times higher than the tribute, in which the prestige of the emperor was valued higher than the prestige of the ruler who sent the gifts.
Features of the development of Japan . In the IV century. a significant part of Japan was united under the rule of one of the tribal unions. In 645, the prince came to powerNakanooe who made big changes. Instead of a tribal union, a state was created in the image of the Chinese. The supreme body wasadvice to the ruler , who was conditionally called the emperor. The country was divided into provinces. The peasants received from the state for temporary use an allotment of land corresponding to the number of family members. In addition to paying the state with grain and handicrafts, it was necessary to carry out various works. There were cities that were built under the influence of China and Korea.
Samurai . Over time, the central government in Japan weakened. The rulers of the provinces strove for complete independence. In this they relied on Japanese knights - samurai.
Samurai - warriors who received land from the ruler of the region or other noble person for their service.
The bulk of the samurai came from wealthy peasants. Another way was to allocate land to household servants. The tops of the samurai class were also replenished at the expense of the rulers of the provinces.
At the heart of the life of a samurai layLaws of Bushido (translated from Japanese - "Way of the Warrior"). Loyalty to the master, modesty, courage, readiness for self-sacrifice were glorified as norms of behavior. Samurai, going on a campaign, took three oaths: forget your home, forget about your wife and children, forget about your own life. A persistent custom was the suicide of a samurai after the death of his master.
There were continuous wars between the samurai groups, which undermined the economy and the integrity of the country. In 1192, the leader of one of the groups awarded himself the titleshogun (commander-in-chief) and became the de facto ruler of Japan, pushing the emperor out of power. The institution of the shogunate existed in Japan until the second half of the 19th century.
In the XIII century. The Japanese managed to repel the Mongols' attempt to take over their country. However, then strife broke out, ending in the overthrow of the shogun from the Minamoto dynasty. After many years of struggle, the country has established itselfAshikaga Shogunate.
QUESTIONS AND TASKS
1. How did the Delhi Sultanate arise? What were the main contradictions that undermined the power of this state?
2. Tell us about the main achievements of Indian culture during the Middle Ages.
3. Why is the period of the Tang Dynasty in China considered the heyday of the country?
4. How did the Mongol Empire come about? What parts did it fall into? How did China free itself from the rule of the Mongol dynasty?
5. Tell us about the features of China's development during the Ming Dynasty.
6. Who are the samurai? What role did they play in Japanese history? What are Bushido Laws? What qualities should a samurai have? Why do some people today strive to observe the norms of behavior characteristic of the samurai?
7. Compare the development of India, China, Japan in the Middle Ages. Name the similarities and differences.
The evolution of medieval Eastern society was especially
in a way that distinguishes it from the development of the feudal West
Yes. The dominance of socio-economic and socio-
lytic traditional structures determined the extremely
slow nature of the ϶ᴛᴏth evolution, which makes a significant
to a certain extent conditional, widely used in educational
literature, the concept of feudalism to these societies, along with
the concept of slavery to the previous period of their
ancient history. Slavery in the East, never played
neck significant role in social production, pro-
must have existed in the Middle Ages, and some
the social institutions of European feudalism were not alien
dy to both the ancient and medieval East, as a rule in
periods of state decentralization, for example, early
non-Zhou China with its specific system.
Ideas about the Middle Ages were formed in the Bur-
joise historiography, together with the concept of modern history in
the result of the Enlightenment and revolutionary changes
XVII-XVIII centuries New history of Western Europe under ϶ᴛᴏm
opposed to its past, which, in ϲʙᴏ
red, was perceived as a change of two previous
Riods: ancient antiquity and the Middle Ages. By the way, this trshe-
the tap scheme received finished forms when the antique
antiquity began to be associated with slavery, and feudalism
ism - with the Middle Ages, considered in the bourgeois
historiography mainly as a special socio-political
chesky system. political organization of the medieval
societies with characteristic decentralization and a system of
sebaceous relations.
Rigid socio-economic determinism
the concept of feudalism has also acquired Marxist literature,
in the doctrine of formation as a special mode of production.
With formative approaches, as the main highlights
relations of production, and each specific
society is seen as a system in which everything
other (except for production) public relations are considered
are derivatives "superstructure" over them. This and the
divided the monistic-materialist view of history
Ryu, which underlies the formational periodization of the historical
logical process, in which, with a supposedly regular after-
feudalism comes to replace slavery
dalism, then capitalism and communism as the "ultimate
bright future for all mankind.
It is worth saying - the complete impossibility of putting history into this scheme
many societies led K. Marx himself in his early
works to the doctrine of a special "Asiatic way
production", disputes about which were conducted in our scientific
literature until recently, until unconditionally
recognition of the socio-economic and socio-political
specificity of both ancient and medieval oriental
societies with their slow development, persistent
diversity, profound influence on the social
development of traditions, religious ideology, etc. Phenomenon
these societies testifies to the multivariance of the
social evolution, which depends not only on the basic
changes.
Since in Europe the Middle Ages is synonymous with feudalism,
Middle Ages to Eastern societies due to extreme
difficulties in determining its lower and upper chronological
ic boundaries. Meanwhile, in purely methodological terms, there is no
the need for a certain periodization of such a long
period in human history is obvious.
In the educational literature on the history of the East, these boundaries
(usually referred to as V-VII as the lower limit
centuries) are associated with a complex of historical factors:
qualitative changes in the political structure, with
the creation of centralized empires, with the completion of the
formation of the largest civilized centers, world
religions and their powerful influence on peripheral zones, etc.
If we talk about medieval China, then the lowest chro-
technological frontier (V-VII centuries) here we can distinguish
clear enough. It is at ϶ᴛᴏ that time is finally here
a specific "Asian" socio-economic
mic and socio-political structure with traditional
other forms of land ownership and exploitation
peasants, the centralized state is being strengthened in
form of empire1, the normative basis of the traditional
tional law2. China as the center of Confucian-Buddhist
which civilization draws into the spheres of its cultural
the impact of early class society and the state of Japan
It is more difficult to distinguish the lower chronological boundaries
medieval India. If conditionally take the same V-VII
centuries, then they can, firstly, be associated with a certain
restructuring of the traditional varno-caste system,
coming along with the redistribution of land, deepening
the processes of division of labor, and secondly, with the formation
an extensive Indo-Buddhist civilization
"The Formation of the Chinese Confucian Han Empire
belongs to the 3rd century, but the heyday of the empire after
its temporary crisis and split occurs in the VI century,
2 This refers primarily to the creation of a dynastic
code of the empire 1an (VII c), which had a significant
influence on the development of the law of the entire Far Eastern region
zone. due to the extended influence of Indian culture
to many regions, especially South-East Asia and
The lower limit of the Japanese Middle Ages is determined
7th century due to increased social stratification
and state formation, and for most countries
the Middle East region of the same VII century. became a milestone
assertion of the world religion of Islam, the formation of a new
way of life for many peoples. In ϶ᴛᴏ time goes to
past ancient Middle Eastern states and emerges
"militant religious community", Arabic state
caliphate, which gave rise to the future large Arab-Iranian-tu-
riverine Islamic states-empires.
Certain qualitative socio-economic
changes associated with the development of capitalist
wearing, do not occur in the countries of the East at the same time,
which makes it difficult to determine the upper chronological
turn of the Eastern Middle Ages. For China such a milestone
(revolution of 1911-1913), for Japan - the middle of the XIX century.
(Meiji Isin Revolution), for colonial oriental
countries, and above all India, ϶ᴛᴏt limit can be associated
with the establishment of colonial rule, the gradual
breaking traditional structures, pulling in the economy
these countries into the world capitalist market.
Highlighting the most common similarities of socio-economic
nomic evolution of the medieval countries of the East (such
like India, China, Arab Caliphate, Japan), follows
note that none of these countries has reached in the era
Middle Ages European level of late feudalism,
when capitalist culture begins to develop in its depths
some relationship. Here, compared with the main average
other European countries lagged behind the development
industry, commodity-money, market relations. AT
more similar to European societies of the medieval
Japanese society (compared to India and China) exclusively in
XVIII - first half of the XIX century. elements are born
capitalism in the form of manufacturing. Zamed-
the nature of development has determined a stable multi-
the harmony of medieval oriental societies, a long
coexistence of patriarchal tribal, clan, slave-
ownership, semi-feudal and other structures.
It is important to know that a great influence on the entire course of historical development
countries of the East had a widespread state
constitutional ownership of land, which was combined with
another form of ownership - communal and with ϲᴏᴏᴛʙᴇᴛϲᴛʙу-
the private landownership of the community-peasants giving it. Go-
state property in its narrow sense, including
the exceptionally extensive landholding of the monarch and the state
tvennoy treasury. In a broader sense, she did not go to
property of the monarch, but also covered land
benefits arising from the state fund, to persons
involved in power, having the right to collect and
rent-tax from a certain territory. Owners
state complaints
they could also become actual private owners,
having achieved the expansion of ϲʙᴏ their ownership rights, turning
converting them into permanent, inherited.
But in the medieval societies of the East, the state
in every possible way protected state property on land
lyu with its inherent traditional system of operation
dated peasants, hindered the development of private property
ness, which prevented the creation of a Western European
Pei system of the lordly economy.
Combination of various forms of land ownership,
the special control and regulatory role of the state in the eco-
nomics found expression primarily in a special structure
tour of the ruling class, in all non-European
medieval societies. If in the Western medieval
Europe, the established class of private landowners
kov, exploiting the labor of dependent peasants, relied
on the feudal state, objectively expressing it
will, then the ruling class in the countries of the East - ϶ᴛᴏ
the state itself, represented by the dignitary-bureaucratic social
stratum involved in power, who lived at the expense of
rent-tax mainly from formally ϲʙᴏ land
peasant lollipops.
It is necessary with ϶ᴛᴏm to take into account that specific medieval
Societies in the countries of the East are characterized by different
degree of coincidence of the ruling class with the bureaucracy
her in ϲᴏᴏᴛʙᴇᴛϲᴛʙii with varying degrees of government intervention
gifts to the economy, with varying degrees of development of private
th large landholding. The greatest degree of such
coincidence shows medieval China.
For medieval societies of the East, it is characteristic (according to
compared with European countries) and a lower degree
dependence of direct producers-peasants,
a relatively larger scope of their rights related to the
dressing ϲʙᴏ them with a land plot. Lack of lordly
economy and corvee led to the fact that here the peasants
were not attached to the land of individual feudal lords. Depend-
my position as peasants in these countries was determined by their
bound by the tax burden supported with
the power of the state apparatus, bureaucracy. By the way, this
dependence, expressed in class inferiority
"commoner", was sealed by law, religion, communal
orders.
A specific place was occupied by the eastern medieval
out city. The low level of social division of labor
Yes, in the countries of the East found expression in the fact that the city
here did not become the organizing and guiding force of society
military progress. He lived off redistribution
rent-tax, for the surplus product, concentrating-
in the hands of individual social groups, did not become
capital, was not included in production. Handicraft
products went not to the market, but to meet the needs
of the ruling dignitaries and bureaucrats, incl. and
military circles. Merchant's capital performed at
϶ᴛᴏm functions of a ϲʙᴏlike agent between them and craft
flax-producers.
Eastern rural community, representing
a closed economic world with hereditary,
independent of the market
ka divided crafts and agriculture, hampered the development
bilateral trade between town and country, and
at the same time, the formation of the estate of townspeople, merchants
va urban type.
This, in turn, determined the orders, the essence
who lived in the eastern city. The craftsman was here
under the strict control of the bureaucratic state
apparatus, was shackled by legal, religious prescriptions
niyami, class, caste restrictions. in the eastern
medieval city did not have a special urban
rights. The legal status of a city dweller did not differ
from the village. In India, for example, administrative
the boundaries of the city were often barely marked. Here you can
was to meet craft villages and cities with significant
a solid agricultural population. urban family in
China was considered the same courtyard (hu) as the rural,
which was entered into the national tax re-
Unlike the European, the eastern city did not become
arena of political struggle that directly affects
changing forms of the state. He did not become a strong support
central government in its fight against fragmentation, as
϶ᴛᴏ took place in Europe.
Specific features of socio-political development
Eastern countries were determined by the fact that
did not work out here state forms, ϲʙᴏ natural
feudal Western Europe. There was no senior
monarchy as a kind of union of feudal lords, ob-
having sovereign rights within the territories of ϲʙᴏ-
their domains. By the way, this form could take shape in a society where
the process of class formation was completed.
Could not develop and estate-representative monarchy
in a society in which the city was deprived of any
there was independence, where the estate was not formed
townspeople, acting with ϲʙᴏ them estate goals and in-
teres.
A common form of Eastern medieval
state became a hereditary monarchy, in which
there were no institutional forms of limiting power
ruler. However, these state forms are not
were identical. There were different levels of centralization in
these states, the degree of application of military despotism
ical means and methods for the implementation of the state
authorities. Moreover, they changed at separate stages.
development of specific eastern medieval states.
The omnipotence of the bureaucracy led by the Chinese
emperor. centralization, total police contact
role over personality, the breadth of the economic functions of the state
gifts and other give grounds, for example, for the application
definition of the term "oriental despotism" in defining the form
states of medieval China. Here despotism you-
melted away from those socio-economic and political-legal
higher orders, which were formed in antiquity.
The indisputable specifics of the socio-political structure
the re of Eastern society was given by the dominant in that
or any other society, a religious ideology, the attitude itself
members of society to religion and power. So, speaking of con-
Futianism as I define-
element of the Chinese medieval state and
law, it should be noted that Confucianism is exclusively conditional
can be called a religion. It is rather dataco-political
doctrine, philosophical tradition, which is not explained by the
the nature of Confucianism, but those established in ancient times
traditional Chinese notions of power with
its unconditional sacralization in the face of the ruler - "the son
heaven". Under ϶ᴛᴏm, they belonged to religions (along with
Confucianism, other "or-
"ganized" religions: Buddhism, Taoism and other religions
religious cults) as to teachings that could be used
called solely for the benefit of ϶ᴛᴏ power. Utilitarian attitude
to religion as a doctrine ("jiao"), an auxiliary
a means of government designed to transform the people
violent methods of education in the name of achieving
harmony (which was considered the highest goal and the highest
holding primarily the Chinese state itself),
determined the subordinate place of church institutions in
medieval China.
Confucianism, with its rational morality, succeeded in
take a special place among other religions, despite all
the complexity of the fight against legalism, due to the special practical
values of the ϶ᴛᴏth teaching, called, according to the
a well-known Confucian of the 6th century. Wei Zhen "straighten the
between the state and subjects", "to open the eyes
for the ears of the common people."
Religious pluralism, treating religion as
simple doctrine, the lack of a direct connection between the state
gift-giving power and the orthodox religious system
mine was also determined by other specific features of the medieval
of the Chinese society and state. Here, for example, from
there was such an institution as religion, which, in
ϲʙᴏ in turn, made it impossible for the existence of courts
inquisitions. There was no established class of clergy and
dominance, as in the West, of the clergy in the state
apparatus as the only literate stratum of persons.
It is worth saying - the complete, unlimited domination of the state with its
political, administrative, legal, ideological
which relations was finally fixed in China in
Tang empire (VII century), in which none of the religious
institutions did not have at least nominal autonomy.
The peculiarity of the state of the Arab Caliphate and others
states of the Muslim world was also directly
closely related to their rigid, universal religion -
Islam, proceeding from the indivisibility of spiritual and secular
power, which was organically connected with the theocratic
the idea of omnipotence, omnipotence and indivisibility of the
Allah, which found expression in the Qur'an: "There is no God but
Allah, and Muhammad is his prophet." Islam defined in mu-
the Muslim world and the nature of the social structure, and go-
government agencies, and legal institutions, and
rali - the entire spiritual sphere of Muslims. Yes, religious
but the legal foundations of Muslim society correspond to
created a special social
structure characterized by a certain impersonal
the dominance of the ruling class, the absence of a system of us-
icy transferable titles and privileges, elected
ness, etc. Here everyone was equal, but rather in equal
degrees are powerless before the theocratic state,
its head - the caliph, the sultan.
In the Muslim world, the clergy could not claim
on secular power, could not arise here, as in
medieval Europe, and the conflict between the spiritual and
secular power. Islam ruled out unbelief, against it
it was impossible to speak either directly or indirectly, even arguing
according to its individual provisions, not because heretics,
as in Europe, they were burned at the stake, but because ϶ᴛᴏ
chilo to oppose, to exclude oneself from the Muslim
society.
The universalism of Islam, the fundamental idea of the Muslim
Mansian ideology and political theory about the fusion of the
the sacred and the secular have also determined the special place of the state
twa in Islamic society, its unconditional absolute
domination over society, its theocratic-authoritarian
new form.
Neither India nor Japan has ever been distinguished by that
the song of the omnipotence of the state, which was ϲʙᴏe
medieval China and the Arab Caliphate. India character-
was teri- zed , for example, by the considerable strength of the community
noah, caste organization, relative weakness
control of the central bureaucratic apparatus over the
rocky peasant masses, over self-developing
rural community system. Not a government official
learned brahmana, performing the function of educating ϲʙᴏih
disciples in the spirit of strict adherence to the dharma,
caste norms and ritual, had here a special social
value.
On the transformation of the forms of the medieval state In-
China and Japan were also influenced by other factors
Conquest of India in the thirteenth century. foreign Muslims and
usurpation of power by the Emperor of Japan in the 12th century. "great
commander" - shogun.
The shogunate in Japan acquired a number of features characteristic of
absolute monarchy. The sum of those signs that were
ϲʙᴏ are typical of the shogunate, allows us to talk about ϲʙᴏ
autocratic form relative to centralized
state in which there was a military dictatorship
feudal elite.
At the same time, in the state apparatus of all Eastern
Societies can identify a number of common features: its cumbersome
bone, duplication of functions, etc. Administrative, on-
logistic, judicial functions were not sufficiently clear-
bone distributed between the individual links of the state
tv apparatus. They did not differ in clarity and the principles themselves
principles of the creation of the armed forces.
A significant part of the ruling class was represented by
here, informal links in the management structure
tours. Even in China, the activities of the official links of the
low level acted
informal local governments, in which
the roman role belonged to the representatives of the "educated"
layer - shenshi, who does not have official positions and
ranks. They did not fit into the official structure in India either.
ru authorities rural self-government bodies, communal and
caste panchayats headed by ϲʙᴏ them elders.
These features of the state apparatus of the Eastern
societies can be largely explained by the power
among extremely diverse groups of the exploiting class,
their desire to receive ϲʙᴏyu share of the surplus product
the one produced by the peasants. On ϶ᴛᴏt surplus
dukt claimed both the tribal nobility and the top
rural communities, and medium and large hereditary
landowners, and representatives of various levels of the administration
nistrative apparatus, and the clergy. Corresponding
surplus product was confiscated in the form of rent-tax
in favor of the state, in the form of tribute to the leader of the clan, in the form
requisitions of the local administration for the execution of judicial and
other functions, in the form of fines for violation of caste,
religious prescriptions, etc.
Many common features were inherent in all their diversity.
zia and regulatory systems, the law of medieval countries
First of all, it should be noted conservatism, stability
ness, traditionality of the norms of law and morality. Incidentally, this tradition
onness, which is a reflection of the slow evolution of eco-
nomic structure, created in people the belief in
eternity, higher wisdom, completeness of the rules of
natural behavior.
In the very attitude of the members of Eastern society towards the
traditional norms of law and morality, one of the
important reasons for their inhibitory feedback on
economic sphere.
A manifestation of conservatism social norms rights and
morality was also their close connection with religion: Hinduism,
Islam, Confucianism, as well as the internal undivided
ness of religious, moral and legal prescriptions.
Dharma in India, sanctioned and enforced
the driving force of the state, was at the same time the norm
gee. Indian dharma was mainly ϲᴏᴏᴛʙᴇᴛϲᴛʙ Japanese
some weights prescribing to individuals the norms of behavior on
all occasions.
In the Arab Caliphate, the Delhi Sultanate and Mogul-
Indian India, as in all Muslim states,
The Quran was the main source of law. Note that theoretically Islam
ruled out the legislative powers of the rulers, who
could only interpret the instructions of the Qur'an, considering
϶ᴛᴏm with the opinion of Muslim theologians. "immutable"
the right of dhar-
mashastr among the Hindus.
In China, important sources of law were law, impe-
the clerical decree, but the basis of the decree itself was a confusing
cyan tradition selected by confucian ideologues
and elevated into an imperative, into a dogma patterns of behavior,
Confucian morality (li)
All medieval legal systems countries of the East ut-
asserted inequality: class, caste, in the family, according to
gender signs. finely regulating people's behavior
in all spheres of public life.
The evolution of medieval Eastern society followed a special path, distinguishing it from the development of the feudal West. The dominance of socio-economic and socio-political traditional structures determined the extremely slow nature of this evolution, which makes the concept of feudalism widely used in the educational literature for these societies, along with the concept of slave ownership to the previous period of their ancient history. Slavery in the East, which never played a significant role in social production, continued to exist in the Middle Ages, and some social institutions of European feudalism were not alien to both the ancient and medieval East, as a rule, during periods of state decentralization, for example, early Zhou China with its appanage system .
Ideas about the Middle Ages were formed in bourgeois historiography along with the concept of New History as a result of the Enlightenment and the revolutionary changes of the 17th-18th centuries. At the same time, the new history of Western Europe was opposed to its past, which, in turn, was perceived as a change of two previous periods: ancient antiquity and the Middle Ages. This three-stage scheme was completed when ancient antiquity began to be associated with slavery, and feudalism - with the Middle Ages, considered in bourgeois historiography mainly as a special socio-political system, a political organization of medieval society with characteristic decentralization and a system of vassal-feudal relations.
The concept of feudalism acquired a rigid socio-economic determinism in Marxist literature, in the doctrine of formation as a special mode of production.
With formational approaches, production relations are singled out as the main ones, and each specific society is considered as a system in which all other (except for production) social relations are considered derivative "superstructural" over them. This determined the monistic-materialist view of history, which underlies the formational periodization of the historical process, in which, with supposedly regular sequence, slavery is replaced by feudalism, then capitalism and communism as "the ultimate bright future of all mankind."
The complete impossibility of fitting the history of many societies into this scheme led K. Marx himself to his early works to the doctrine of a special "Asian mode of production", disputes about which were conducted in our scientific literature until recently, to the unconditional recognition of the socio-economic and socio-political specifics of both ancient and medieval Eastern societies with their slow development, persistent multi-structure, deep influence on social development of traditions, religious ideology, etc. The phenomenon of these societies testifies to the multivariance of social evolution itself, which depends not only on basic changes.
Since in Europe the Middle Ages is a synonym for feudalism, the application of the concept of the Middle Ages to Eastern societies should be considered equally conditional due to the extreme difficulty in determining its lower and upper chronological boundaries. Meanwhile, from a purely methodological point of view, the need for a certain periodization of such a long period in the history of mankind is obvious.
In the educational literature on the history of the East, these boundaries (usually referred to as the 5th-7th centuries as the lower limit) are associated with a complex of historical factors: with qualitative changes in the political structure, with the creation of centralized empires, with the completion of the formation of the largest civilized centers, world religions and their powerful influence on peripheral zones, etc.
If we talk about medieval China, then the lowest chronological boundary (V-VII centuries) can be distinguished here quite clearly. It was at this time that a specific "Asian" socio-economic and socio-political structure with traditional forms of land ownership and exploitation of peasants was finally affirmed, the centralized state in the form of an empire * was strengthened, and the normative basis of traditional law was being formed **. China, as the center of the Confucian-Buddhist civilization, draws the early class society and the state of Japan into the spheres of its cultural influence.
* The formation of the Chinese Confucian Empire of Han dates back to the 3rd century, but the heyday of the empire after its temporary crisis and split begins in the 6th century.
** This refers primarily to the creation of the dynastic code of the Tang Empire (VII century), which had a significant impact on the development of the law of the entire Far Eastern region.
It is more difficult to distinguish the lower chronological boundaries of medieval India. If we conditionally take the same V-VII centuries, then they can, firstly, be associated with a certain restructuring of the traditional varno-caste system, which took place along with the redistribution of land, the deepening of the processes of division of labor, and secondly, with the formation of an extensive Indo-Buddhist civilizational zone, due to the expanded influence of Indian culture on many regions, primarily Southeast Asia, etc.
The lower limit of the Japanese Middle Ages is determined by the VI-VII centuries. due to increased social stratification and the formation of the state, and for most countries in the Middle East region, the same VII century. became a milestone in the establishment of the world religion of Islam, the formation of a new way of life for many peoples. At this time, the ancient Middle Eastern states are fading into the past and a "militant religious community" arises, the state of the Arab Caliphate, which gave rise to the future large Arab-Iranian-Turkish Islamic empire-states.
Certain qualitative socio-economic changes associated with the development of capitalist relations do not occur simultaneously in the countries of the East, which makes it difficult to determine the upper chronological boundary of the Eastern Middle Ages. For China, such a milestone can be considered the time of revolutionary changes at the beginning of the 20th century. (revolution of 1911-1913), for Japan - the middle of the XIX century. (Meiji Isin revolution), for the colonial eastern countries, and above all India, this limit can be associated with the establishment of colonial domination, the gradual breaking of traditional structures, and the drawing of the economies of these countries into the world capitalist market.
Highlighting the most common similarities in the socio-economic evolution of the medieval countries of the East (such as India, China, the Arab Caliphate, Japan), it should be noted that none of these countries reached the European level of late feudalism in the Middle Ages, when develop capitalist relations. Here, in comparison with the main medieval European countries, the development of industry, commodity-money, and market relations lagged behind. In the medieval society of Japan, which is more similar to European societies (compared to India and China), only in the 18th - first half of the 19th centuries. elements of capitalism are born in the form of manufacturing production. The slow nature of development determined the stable multiformity of medieval Eastern societies, the long-term coexistence of patriarchal-clan, clan, slave-owning, semi-feudal and other structures.
A great influence on the entire course of the historical development of the countries of the East was exerted by the widespread state ownership of land, which was combined with another form of ownership - communal ownership and with the corresponding private landownership of communal peasants. State property in its narrow sense included only the vast land holdings of the monarch and the state treasury. In a broad sense, it was not limited to the property of the monarch, but also covered land grants arising from the state fund to persons involved in power, having the right to collect and appropriate rent-tax from a certain territory. The owners of state awards could also become actual private owners, having achieved the expansion of their property rights, turning them into permanent, inherited ones.
But in the medieval societies of the East, the state in every possible way protected state ownership of land with its inherent traditional system of exploitation of tax-paying peasants, restrained the development of private property, which prevented the creation of a Western European system of aristocratic economy here.
The combination of various forms of land ownership, the special controlling and regulating role of the state in the economy, found expression primarily in the special structure of the ruling class, in all non-European medieval societies. If in Western medieval Europe the established class of private landowners exploiting the labor of dependent peasants relied on the feudal state, which objectively expressed its will, then the ruling class in the countries of the East is the state itself, represented by the dignitary-bureaucratic social stratum involved in power, which lived due to rent-tax, mainly from formally free peasant farmers.
At the same time, it must be taken into account that specific medieval societies in the countries of the East are characterized by varying degrees of coincidence of the ruling class with the bureaucracy in accordance with varying degrees of state intervention in the economy, with varying degrees of development of large private landownership. Medieval China demonstrates the greatest degree of such coincidence.
The medieval societies of the East are also characterized (in comparison with European countries) by a lower degree of dependence of the direct producers-peasants, a relatively greater scope of their rights related to the disposal of their land. The absence of a lordly economy and corvee led to the fact that here the peasants were not attached to the land of individual feudal lords. The dependent position of the peasants in these countries was determined by their bondage to the tax burden, supported by the state apparatus and bureaucracy. This dependence, expressed in the class inferiority of the "commoner", was sealed by law, religion, community orders.
The eastern medieval city also occupied a specific place. The low level of social division of labor in the countries of the East found expression in the fact that the city here did not become the organizing and guiding force of social progress. He lived on the redistribution of rent-tax, because the surplus product, concentrated in the hands of individual social groups, did not become capital, was not included in production. Handicraft products were not going to the market, but to meet the needs of the ruling dignitaries and bureaucrats, including the military, circles. Merchant's capital, on the other hand, performed the functions of a kind of agent between them and the craftsmen-producers.
The eastern rural community, which was a closed economic world with a hereditary, market-independent division of craft and agriculture, hampered the development of bilateral trade between town and country, and at the same time the formation of an estate of townspeople, an urban-type merchant class.
This, in turn, determined the order that existed in the eastern city. The craftsman here was under the strict control of the bureaucratic state apparatus, was shackled by legal, religious regulations, class, caste restrictions. There was no special city law in the eastern medieval city. The legal status of a city dweller did not differ from that of a village dweller. In India, for example, the administrative boundaries of a city were often barely marked. Here it was possible to meet handicraft villages and cities with a significant agricultural population. An urban family in China was considered the same court (hu) as a rural one, which was entered in the national tax register.
Unlike the European city, the eastern city did not become an arena of political struggle that directly affects the change in the forms of the state. He did not become a strong support for the central government in its struggle against fragmentation, as was the case in Europe.
The specific features of the socio-political development of the countries of the East were determined by the fact that state forms characteristic of feudal Western Europe did not take shape here. Here there was no seigneurial monarchy as a kind of union of feudal lords who had sovereign rights within the territories of their domains. This form could take shape in a society where the process of class formation was complete. A class-representative monarchy could not have been formed in a society in which the city was deprived of any kind of independence, where the class of townspeople, acting with their own class goals and interests, was not formed.
A common form of the eastern medieval state was a hereditary monarchy, in which there were no institutional forms of limiting the power of the ruler. However, these state forms were not identical. The level of centralization in these states, the degree of use of military despotic means and methods of implementation were different. state power. Moreover, they also changed at certain stages of development of specific eastern medieval states. The omnipotence of the bureaucratic apparatus headed by the Chinese emperor, centralization, total police control over the individual, the breadth of the economic functions of the state, and so on give grounds, for example, for using the term "oriental despotism" in determining the form of the state of medieval China. Here despotism grew out of those socio-economic and political-legal orders that had developed in antiquity.
The indisputable specificity of the socio-political structure of Eastern society was given by the religious ideology dominant in a particular society, the very attitude of members of society to religion and power. Thus, speaking of Confucianism as a defining element of the Chinese medieval state and law, it should be noted that Confucianism can only conditionally be called a religion. Rather, it is an ethical and political doctrine, a philosophical tradition, which is explained not by the very nature of Confucianism, but by the traditional Chinese ideas about power that developed in ancient times, with its unconditional sacralization in the person of the ruler - the "son of heaven." At the same time, they treated religions (along with Confucianism, other "organized" religions were widespread here: Buddhism, Taoism and other religious cults) as teachings that could only be used for the benefit of this power. The utilitarian attitude towards religion as a doctrine ("jiao"), an auxiliary means of control, designed to transform the people by non-violent methods of education in the name of achieving harmony (which was considered the highest goal and the highest content, first of all, of the Chinese state itself), determined the subordinate place of church institutions in medieval China .
Confucianism, with its rational morality, managed to take a special place among other religions, despite all the difficulties in the fight against legalism, due to the special practical value of this teaching, called, according to the famous Confucian of the 6th century. Wei Zhen "straighten the relationship between the state and subjects", "open the eyes and ears of the common people."
Religious pluralism, the attitude to religion as a simple doctrine, the absence of a direct connection between state power and the orthodox religious system determined other specific features of medieval society and the state of China. Here, for example, there was no such institution as religion, which, in turn, made the existence of the courts of the Inquisitions impossible. There was no established class of the clergy and dominance, as in the West, of the clergy in the state apparatus as the only literate layer of persons.
The complete, unlimited dominance of the state with its sacred authority over religious organizations in political, administrative, legal, and ideological terms was finally consolidated in China in the Tang Empire (7th century), in which none of the religious institutions had at least nominal autonomy.
The originality of the state of the Arab Caliphate and other states of the Muslim world was also directly related to their rigid, universal religion - Islam, proceeding from the indivisibility of spiritual and secular power, which was organically connected with the theocratic idea of the omnipotence, omnipotence and indivisibility of Allah himself, which found expression in the Koran : "There is no God but Allah, and Muhammad is his prophet." Islam determined in the Muslim world both the nature of the social structure, and state institutions, and legal institutions, and morality - the entire spiritual sphere of Muslims. Thus, the religious and legal foundations of Muslim society corresponded to a special social structure, characterized by a certain impersonality of the ruling class, the absence of a system of hereditary titles and privileges, being chosen, etc. Here everyone was equal, but rather equally powerless before the theocratic state, its head - the caliph , sultan.
In the Muslim world, the clergy could not lay claim to secular power; there could not arise here, as in medieval Europe, a conflict between spiritual and secular power. Islam ruled out unbelief, it was impossible to speak out against it either directly or indirectly, even arguing over its individual provisions, not because heretics, as in Europe, were burned at the stake, but because it meant opposing, excluding oneself from Muslim society.
The universalism of Islam, the fundamental idea of Muslim ideology and political theory about the fusion of spiritual and secular determined the special place of the state in Islamic society, its unconditional absolute dominance over society, its theocratic-authoritarian form.
Neither India nor Japan has ever been distinguished by the degree of omnipotence of the state, which was characteristic of medieval China and the Arab Caliphate. India was characterized, for example, by the considerable strength of the communal, caste organization, the relative weakness of the control of the central bureaucratic apparatus over the broad peasant masses, over the self-developing system of rural communities. Not a government official, but a learned brahmana, performing the function of educating his students in the spirit of strict adherence to dharma, caste norms and ritual, had a special social value here.
The transformation of the forms of the medieval state of India and Japan was also greatly influenced by other factors - the conquest of India in the 13th century. foreign Muslims and the usurpation of the power of the emperor of Japan in the XII century. "great commander" - shogun.
The shogunate in Japan acquired a number of features characteristic of an absolute monarchy. The sum of those features that were characteristic of the shogunate allows us to speak of a kind of autocratic form of a relatively centralized state in which there was a military dictatorship of the feudal elite.
At the same time, a number of common features can be identified in the state apparatus of all Eastern societies: its cumbersomeness, duplication of functions, etc. Administrative, tax, and judicial functions were not distributed with sufficient clarity among the individual links of the state apparatus. The very principles of creating the armed forces were not distinguished by clarity.
A significant part of the ruling class was represented here by unofficial links in the administrative structure. Even in China, the activities of the official units of the state apparatus did not go beyond the county. At a lower level, unofficial local governments operated, in which a huge role belonged to representatives of the "educated" layer - shenshi, having no official positions and ranks. In India, too, rural self-government bodies, communal and caste panchayats, headed by their elders, did not fit into the official power structure.
These features of the state apparatus of the Eastern societies can be largely explained by the power of the extremely diverse groups of the exploiting class, their desire to receive their share of the surplus product produced by the peasants. This surplus product was claimed by the tribal nobility, and the top of the rural community, and medium and large hereditary landowners, and representatives of various levels of the administrative apparatus, and the clergy. Accordingly, the surplus product was withdrawn in the form of a rent-tax in favor of the state, in the form of tribute to the clan leader, in the form of extortions from the local administration for the performance of judicial and other functions, in the form of fines for violation of caste, religious prescriptions, etc.
Many common features were inherent in all their diversity and regulatory systems, the law of the medieval countries of the East.
It should be noted, first of all, conservatism, stability, the traditional nature of the norms of law and morality. This tradition, which is a reflection of the slow evolution of the economic structure, created in people the conviction of eternity, higher wisdom, and the completeness of the rules of social behavior.
In the very attitude of the members of Eastern society to the traditional norms of law and morality, one of the important reasons for their inhibitory feedback on the economic sphere was laid.
A manifestation of the conservatism of social norms of law and morality was their close connection with religion: Hinduism, Islam, Confucianism, as well as the internal inseparability of religious, moral and legal prescriptions. Dharma in India, sanctioned and enforced by the coercive power of the state, was at the same time a moral standard, the fulfillment of which was sanctified by the authority of religion. The Indian dharma was mostly consistent with the Japanese weights, which prescribe to individuals the norms of behavior for all occasions.
In the Arab Caliphate, the Delhi Sultanate and Mughal India, as in all Muslim states, the Koran was the main source of law. Theoretically, Islam excluded the legislative powers of the rulers, who could only interpret the instructions of the Koran, while taking into account the opinion of Muslim theologians. The Indians' right of dharmashastra based on the "sacred Vedas" was considered "immutable" as well.
In China, the important sources of law were the law, the imperial decree, but the basis of the decree itself was the Confucian tradition, selected by Confucian ideologists and elevated into an imperative, into a dogma, patterns of behavior, norms of Confucian morality (li).
All medieval legal systems of the countries of the East asserted inequality: class, caste, in the family, according to gender, petty regulating the behavior of people in all spheres of public life.
The evolution of medieval Eastern society followed a special path, distinguishing it from the development of the feudal West. The dominance of socio-economic and socio-political traditional structures determined the extremely slow nature of this evolution.
In educational literature, the boundaries of the period under study (usually referred to as the 5th–7th centuries as the lower limit) are associated with a complex of historical factors: with qualitative changes in the political structure, with the creation of centralized empires, with the completion of the formation of the largest civilized centers, world religions and their powerful influence to peripheral areas, etc.
Highlighting the most common similarities in the socio-economic evolution of the medieval countries of the East (such as India, China, the Arab Caliphate, Japan), it should be noted that none of these countries reached the European level of late feudalism in the Middle Ages, when develop capitalist relations. Here, in comparison with the main medieval European countries, the development of industry, commodity-money, and market relations lagged behind. The slow nature of development determined the stable multiformity of medieval Eastern societies, the long-term coexistence of patriarchal-clan, clan, slave-owning, semi-feudal and other structures.
A great influence on the entire course of the historical development of the countries of the East was exerted by the widespread state ownership of land, which was combined with another form of ownership - communal ownership and with the corresponding private landownership of communal peasants.
The specific features of the socio-political development of the countries of the East were determined by the fact that state forms characteristic of feudal Western Europe did not take shape here. Consider this feature in detail.
Topic 12. English revolution in the middle of the 17th century. and the rise of a constitutional monarchy
When studying this topic, first of all, it is necessary to understand the causes and prerequisites, the nature, features and stages of the revolution, during which the English bourgeois state arose.
Considering the history of the emergence and formation of the bourgeois state in England, its essence, forms and mechanism of government, it is necessary to pay attention to the most important state-legal documents of the revolution.
The compromise of the top of the ruling classes had a significant impact on the subsequent development of English state-legal institutions. The state began to exist in the form of a constitutional monarchy. To understand the process of its formation, knowledge of the content, significance and place in the state-legal development of England of such documents as the “Petition for the Right” of 1628, the “Great Remonstrance” of 1641, the “Instrument of Government” of 1653, “Habeas corpus ast" 1679, "Bill of Rights" 1689, "Deed of Dispensation" 1701
Topic 13. US education
The United States arose during the national liberation war of the North American colonies against the British mother country.
The war for independence acquired a revolutionary character, and victory in this war meant not only the conquest of independence, but also the creation of favorable conditions for the development of bourgeois production relations.
It is necessary to consider the prerequisites, nature, driving forces, main stages of the war for independence, to identify program requirements that were reflected in the Declaration of Independence of 1776, the Articles of Confederation of 1781, the Constitution of 1787 and the "Bill of Rights" of 1791.
The subsequent development of the United States took place under the sign of the strengthening of the position of the big bourgeoisie, but at the same time it is necessary to take into account the complex and sometimes contradictory processes caused, in particular, by the rivalry between the northern and southern states, in which slavery remained. It is necessary to note the special character of American slavery and not to identify it with ancient slavery.
The victory of the democratic North in the civil war meant a further strengthening of the power of the financial and industrial bourgeoisie and the completion of the American bourgeois revolution, the first stage of which was the war for independence. Particular attention should be paid to the legal consolidation of the results civil war in the USA and, above all, on the constitutional reforms of the last third of the 19th century.
Topic 14. The Great French Revolution at the end of the 18th century.
The bourgeois state and law arose in France during the bourgeois revolution of 1789-1799. This revolution not only had a decisive influence on the further development of France, but also accelerated the transformations in other states of Europe and America. The state and legal institutions created in the era of the revolution, in their perfection and clarity, became the standard of bourgeois law for a long time.
When studying the history of the French bourgeois state, it is necessary to investigate the background, character, driving forces and main stages of the revolution in which it arose. For this, it is necessary to study the most important documents of this period: the Declaration of the Rights of Man. and the citizen of 1789, the Constitutions of 1791 and 1793, the Le Chapelier law of 1791, agrarian legislation.
It is necessary to understand the causes and nature of the coup d'état of 1794, which established a regime legally sanctioned by the Constitution of 1795, which was a transitional stage to the military dictatorship of Napoleon Bonaparte.
Topic 15. State system of France in the nineteenth century.
Considering the development of the state system of the country in the 19th century, it is necessary to identify the reasons for the change in the forms of government in France, to be able to analyze the constitutional acts of 1814, 1830, 1848 and 1875, identifying the form of government (typology of the monarchy or republics).
The alignment of social and political forces in France on the eve of the revolution. The great French bourgeois revolution, its main stages and historical significance. Activities of the Constituent Assembly. Declaration of the rights of man and citizen of 1789, its historical significance. The first constitution of France in 1791 State system of the period of constitutional monarchy. The overthrow of the monarchy and the establishment of the First Republic in France. Bodies of central power and local government. Girondins and Jacobins. Jacobin dictatorship, its emergency organs. Constitutional acts of the Jacobins and emergency legislation. Agrarian legislation of the revolution. Armed forces of the period of the revolution.
Thermidorian revolution. State system and organs of the period of the Directory. The Constitution of 1795. Napoleon Bonaparte's Coup and the Constitution of 1799. The political system of France during the Consulate period. Supreme power, central and local administration of the First Empire.
The main features of legislation in the period of the Consulate and the First Empire. Restoration of the Bourbons. The state system of the legitimate and July monarchies. Constitutional charters of 1814 and 1830 Electoral system. Establishment of the Second Republic. Constitution of 1848. Changes in the electoral system. The power of the president and supreme bodies. The coup of 1851 and the establishment of the military dictatorship of Louis Napoleon. Constitution of 1852, organization according to it of state power. Approval of the Second Empire, its legal registration and domestic policy.
Revolution of 1870 and the birth of the Third Republic. The Paris Commune of 1871 as an attempt to create a new political system. Governing bodies of power and administration of the Commune. New principles of the structure of the court and legal proceedings. Legislative activity of the Commune. Fall of the Commune. Constitutional laws of the Third Republic of 1875, their subsequent development. State system of the Third Republic. The formation of a multi-party system and the functioning of the political regime of the republic. Local government and self-government.
French colonial empire and colonial administration.
Topic 16. Formation of the German Empire
The example of the formation of a single state in Germany is unique in many respects: for hundreds of years, dozens of small formations existed on its territory: principalities, duchies, counties. It is necessary to find out the reasons for such a long period of fragmentation in the presence in the German lands of many signs of a new, capitalist way of life; further reveal the ways in which the unification proceeded. At the same time, it is important to note what was the main, determining, and what was secondary. Considering the constitutional acts of 1849 and 1850, it is necessary to single out the general legal material and features of the German constitutional tradition in them. When analyzing the Constitution of 1871, it is necessary to take into account the features of the construction of its sections, articles, to find features of continuity with the acts studied earlier.
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