On the Decline of Feudalism and the Emergence of National States

On the Decline of Feudalism and the Emergence of National States is the unfinished manuscript written by Engels for the revised edition of The Peasant War in Germany. In his letter to F.A. Sorge of December 31, 1884, Engels talked about his intention to completely revise the book, The Peasant War in Germany, and make the Peasant War of 1525 “the pivot for my whole history of Germany”, and therefore to flesh out the beginning and the end of the book in terms of historical facts. In the article, Engels argued for the historical inevitability of the victory of the bourgeoisie over the feudal landlord class and the replacement of the feudal system by the capitalist system, and that the emergence of unified modern nation-states was the best interpretation and proof of the argument. First, Engels pointed out in the article that in the Middle Ages monarchy was the progressive element. It represented order in chaos, the developing nation as against fragmentation. All the revolutionary elements which were coming into being under the cloak of feudalism were as inclined to dependence on the monarchy. The alliance between monarchy and bourgeoisie dates back to the tenth century—the alliance was always renewed, became stronger and more potent, until it enabled the monarchy to attain final victory, thus giving rise to nation-states and the advancement of world history. Second, Engels revealed the historical process of the gradual formation and development of capitalist relations of production and social relations in the disintegration of the feudal system in Western Europe in the 15–16 centuries and expounded on the formation of European nation-states and their characteristics.

On the Decline of the Feudalism and the Emergence of the National States is an important document in the history of development of Marxism, as it provided a sharp theoretical weapon for the proletarian parties to gain an in-depth understanding of the history, the present situation and the prospects of development of the nation-state, and to criticize the historical idealist view spread by the bourgeoisie on the question of the nation-state.