The Chronological Notes

Manuscripts formed by Marx’s reading of the works of historians on the state of world history from the first century B.C. to the mid-17th century. The manuscripts were written from the end of 1881 to the end of 1882, with four notebooks in total. When they were published later, the notebooks were compiled into four booklets, which were included in the Arkhiv K. Marksa i F. Engelsa, Volumes V, VI, VII and VIII, published in the Soviet Union in 1938, 1939, 1940 and 1946.The Chinese translation are the Chronological Notes of Karl Marx published by Red Flag Publishing House in 1992 and the Chronological Notes of Karl Marx published by China Renmin University Press in 2004.

The process of world history has been an important content of Marx’s theoretical research all along, both as a content of the study of the history of human society and as an analytical structure for criticizing capitalism and inquiring into the historical development of society. In his later years, Marx increasingly realized that only a concrete study of the history of the various countries and nations of the world could grasp the course of world history as a whole. From the late 1870s to the early 1880s, Marx read a large number of historical works, including Botta’s History of the Peoples of Italy, Hume’s The History of England, Machiavelli’s Florentine Histories, Karamzin’s History of the Russian State, Cobbett’s A History of the Protestant Reformation in England and Ireland, Green’s History of the English People, Ségur’s History of Russia and of Peter the Great, German historian Schlosser’s World History, etc. The contents involve major historical events that took place from the 1st century BC to the mid-17th century AD, especially the development and evolution of the pre-capitalist society and major events that occurred in the major nation-states. In his reading, Marx made summaries and critical excerpts, and supplemented them with many more targeted additions, resulting in a large number of notes. Its main contents are:

The notes in Book I are excerpts on the history from the early Roman Empire to the formation of the feudal system in Italy from the 1st century BC to the beginning of the 14th century, the history of the nations of Western Europe, the history of the Arabs, the Turks, the Mongols and the Khwarazmians (Harzem) from the 5th to the 12th century, and the history of the Northern and Eastern European countries before the mid-14th century, and the history of the Crusades from the 11th to the 13th century. The notes in Book II are mainly excerpts on the conditions of class struggle in Europe throughout the 14th century up to the 1470s. It covers the growth of the power of the cities in feudal society, the large-scale peasant uprisings that shook the pillars of feudal society. Marx also reviewed the occurrence, process, and significance of class struggles such as the Jacquerie Movement, the the Wat Tyler Uprising, and the Hussite Wars in Czechoslovakia. Book III are excerpts on the state of European and world history from the mid-15th century to the 1570s. It mainly includes the Reformation and the numerous wars associated with it in Europe, and the civil wars in Germany, Italy and France in the 16th century. During this period, the feudal system, which had experienced its heyday, began to decline, and with the rush for gold, navigators began to search for all kinds of resources around the world, creating the conditions for the development of capitalist production within European countries; the crown united with the urban bourgeoisie, and with the complete collapse of serfdom in Europe, the capitalist monarchies began to take shape. The notes in Book IV are excerpts of events from the 1570s to the mid-17th century. Taking the Thirty Years’ War as a typical example, Marx studied the history of the countries participating in the war and their mutual relations, clarified their foreign policies, the development of European countries at that time and the development process of international relations in Europe. Taking an overview of the notes as a whole, supported by major events in world history such as dynastic changes, institutional changes, trade activities, wars and conflicts, religious reforms, etc., Marx recorded the process of change of social formations in world history from slavery to feudalism to the rise of capitalism and the process of generation of world history from the transition from ancient relations to the modern system of international relations, thus provided a comprehensive and coherent study of the economic roots and social conditions that led to the decline of slavery, the emergence of the feudal system to its disintegration, and the germination and rise of capitalism.

The Chronological Notebooks is an important document in the history of the development of Marxism, as it embodied in a concentrated manner Marx’s theoretical reflection on ancient, medieval and modern history in his later years. They are both a deepening the Marxist historiography and a panoramic presentation of the generation of world history, providing informative textual materials for historical research, as well as presenting a methodology for studying the full picture of history in a broader spatial and temporal scope and from a deeper perspective.