Epochs of development of human civilization. The main stages of the development of mankind and the era of world history. Neoanthropes and Homo sapiens

The main stages of the development of mankind and the era of world history

Yu.I.Semenov

The main divisions of the history of mankind.

Now that a whole system of new concepts has been introduced, we can try to draw a complete picture using them. world history, of course, extremely short.

The history of mankind is primarily divided into two main periods: (I) the era of the formation of man and society, the time of pre-society and pre-history (1.6-0.04 million years ago) and (II) the era of development of a formed, ready-made human society (from 40-35 thousand years ago to the present). Within the last era, two main eras are clearly distinguished: (1) pre-class (primitive, primitive, egalitarian, etc.) society and (2) class (civilized) society (from 5 thousand years ago to the present day). In turn, in the history of mankind, since the emergence of the first civilizations, the era of the Ancient East (III-II millennium BC), the Ancient era (VIII century BC - V century AD), the Middle Ages ( VI-XV centuries), New (XVI century -1917) and Newest (since 1917) eras.

The period of prabschestvo and prehistory (1.6-0.04 million years). Man has separated himself from the animal kingdom. As it is now firmly established, between the animal predecessors of man, on the one hand, and people as they are now (Homo sapiens), on the other, lies an unusually long period of the formation of man and society (anthroposociogenesis). The people who lived at that time were people who were still being formed (pra-people). Their society was just emerging. It can only be characterized as a pra-society.

Some scientists take for the first people (primal people) the habilis, who replaced the australopithecines, about 2.5 million years ago, others consider the archanthropes (pithecanthropes, synanthropes, atlanthropes, etc.) to be the first people, who replaced the habilis, approximately 1 .6 million ago. The second point of view is closer to the truth, because only with the archanthropes did language, thinking and social relations begin to form. As for the Habilis, they, like Australopithecus, were not proto-humans, but pre-humans, but only not early, but late.

At the heart of the formation of man and human society was the process of emergence and development of production activity, material production. The emergence and development of production necessarily required not only a change in the organism of producing beings, but also the emergence between them of completely new relations, qualitatively different from those that existed in animals, relations not biological, but social, that is, the emergence of human society. There are no social relations and society in the animal world. They are unique to humans. The emergence of qualitatively new relations, and thus completely new stimuli of behavior inherent only to man, was absolutely impossible without limitation and suppression, without introducing into the social framework the old, undividedly dominant driving forces of behavior in the animal world - biological instincts. An urgent objective necessity was the curbing and introduction into the social framework of two egoistic animal instincts - food and sexual.

The curbing of the food instinct began with the emergence of the earliest proto-humans - the archanthropes and ended at the next phase of anthroposociogenesis, when they were replaced 0.3-0.2 million years ago by the proto-humans of a more perfect species - the paleoanthropes, more precisely, with the advent of 75-70 thousand years ago. years ago by late paleoanthropes. It was then that the formation of the first form of socio-economic relations - collapsible communal relations - was completed. With curbing, setting under social control sexual instinct, which was expressed in the appearance of the genus and the first form of marital relations - a dual-clan organization, which happened 35-40 thousand years ago, the emerging people and the emerging society were replaced by ready-made people and a ready-formed society, the first form of which was primitive society.

The era of primitive (pre-class) society (40-6 thousand years ago). In the development of pre-class society, the stages of early primitive (primitive-communist) and late primitive (primitive-prestigious) societies were successively replaced. Then came the era of transitional society from primitive to class, or pre-class.

At the stage of pre-class society, there were emerging peasant-communal (pra-peasant-communal), emerging politary (proto-political), nobilary, dominant and magnar modes of production, the latter two often forming one single hybrid mode of production dominomagnary. (See Lecture VI "Basic and Non-Basic Modes of Production".) Individually or in various combinations, they determined the socio-economic type of pre-class sociohistorical organisms.

There were societies in which the pra-peasant-communal way of life dominated - pra-peasant (1). In a significant number of pre-class societies, the proto-political structure was dominant. These are proto-political societies (2). Societies with dominance of nobilary relations were observed - proton-bilary societies (3). There were sociohistorical organisms in which the domino-magnarian mode of production dominated - proto-domino-magnarian societies (4). In some societies, nobilary and dominomagnar forms of exploitation coexisted and played approximately the same role. These are protonobilo-magnar societies (5). Another type is societies in which domino-magnarian relations were combined with the exploitation of its rank-and-file members by a special military corporation, which in Russia was called a squad. The scientific term for such a corporation could be the word "militia" (lat. militia - army), and its leader - the word "military". Accordingly, such sociohistorical organisms can be called protomilite-magnar societies (6).

None of these six basic types of pre-class society can be characterized as a socio-economic formation, for it was not a stage of world- historical development. Such a stage was a pre-class society, but it also cannot be called a socio-economic formation, because it did not represent a single socio-economic type.

The concept of paraformation is hardly applicable to different socio-economic types of pre-class society. They did not supplement any socio-economic formation that existed as a stage in world history, but all taken together replaced the socio-economic formation. Therefore, it would be best to call them socio-economic proformations (from the Greek pro - instead).

Of all the types of pre-class society named, only the proto-political pro-formation was able, without the influence of societies of a higher type, to turn into a class society, and, of course, in an ancient political way. The remaining proformations constituted a kind of historical reserve.

The era of the Ancient East (III-II millennium BC). The first class society in the history of mankind was political. It appeared for the first time at the end of the 4th millennium BC. in the form of two historical nests: a large political socio-historical organism in the Nile Valley (Egypt) and a system of small political socio-ditch in southern Mesopotamia (Sumer). Thus, human society split into two historical worlds: the pre-class world, which turned into inferior, and the political world, which became superior. Further development followed the path, on the one hand, of the emergence of new isolated historical nests (the Harappa civilization in the Indus basin and the Shan (Yin) civilization in the Huang He valley), on the other hand, the emergence of more and more new historical nests in the neighborhood of Mesopotamia and Egypt and the formation of a huge system of political sociohistorical organisms that covered the entire Middle East. Such a collection of sociohistorical organisms can be called a historical arena. The Middle East Historical Arena was the only one at the time. It was the center of world historical development and, in this sense, a world system. The world was divided into a political center and a periphery, which was partly primitive (including pre-class), partly class, political.

Ancient Eastern societies were characterized by a cyclical nature of development. They arose, flourished, and then fell into decline. In a number of cases, there was a death of civilization and a return to the stage of pre-class society (Indian and Mycenaean civilizations). This, first of all, was connected with the method inherent in a political society to increase the level of development of productive forces - an increase in the productivity of social production by increasing the length of working time. But this temporal (from Latin tempus - time) method of increasing the productivity of social production, in contrast to the technical method, is a dead end. Sooner or later, a further increase in working hours became impossible. It led to physical degradation and even death of the main productive force - workers, resulting in the decline and even death of society.

Ancient era (VIII century BC - V century AD). Due to the dead end of the temporal mode of development of the productive forces, a political society was unable to turn into a society of a higher type. A new, more progressive socio-economic formation - ancient, slave-owning, ser-war - arose as a result of a process that was above called ultra-superiorization. The emergence of ancient society was a consequence of the comprehensive influence of the Middle Eastern world system on the previously pre-class Greek sociohistorical organisms. This influence has long been noted by historians who have called this process Orientalization. As a result, the pre-class Greek Sociores, who belonged to a pro-formation different from the proto-political one, namely the proton-bilo-magnar, first (in the 8th century BC) became domino-magnar societies (Archaic Greece), and then turned into proper ancient, server ones. So, along with the two former historical worlds (primitive and political), a new one arose - the ancient one, which became superior.

Following the Greek historical nest, new historical nests arose in which the formation of the servar (ancient) mode of production took place: Etruscan, Carthaginian, Latin. Antique sociohistorical organisms taken together formed a new historical arena - the Mediterranean, to which the role of the center of world historical development passed. With the advent of the new world system, humanity as a whole has risen to a new stage of historical development. There was a change of world eras: the era of the Ancient East was replaced by the Antique.

In the subsequent development, in the IV century. BC. the Middle Eastern and Mediterranean historical arenas taken together formed a sociological supersystem - the central historical space (central space), and as a result, became its two historical zones. The Mediterranean zone was the historical center, the Middle East - the inner periphery.

Outside the central historical space was the outer periphery, which was divided into primitive (including pre-class) and political. But in contrast to the era of the Ancient East, the political periphery existed in ancient times in the form of not isolated historical nests, but a significant number of historical arenas, between which various kinds of connections arose. In the Old World, East Asian, Indonesian, Indian, Central Asian arenas were formed, and, finally, the great steppe, in the expanses of which nomadic empires arose and disappeared. In the New World in the 1st millennium BC. formed the Andean and Mesoamerican historical arenas.

The transition to the ancient society was marked by a significant progress in the productive forces. But almost the entire increase in the productivity of social production was achieved not so much by improving technology, but by increasing the proportion of workers in the population of society. This is a demographic way of raising the level of productive forces. In the pre-industrial era, the increase in the number of producers of material goods within a sociohistorical organism, without an increase in the same proportion of its entire population, could occur in only one way - through an influx of ready-made workers from outside, who, moreover, did not have the right to have families and acquire offspring.

The constant influx of workers from outside into the composition of this or that sociohistorical organism necessarily presupposed equally systematic exclusion of them from the composition of other sociologists. All this was impossible without the use of direct violence. Workers brought in from outside could only be slaves. The considered method of increasing the productivity of social production consisted in the approval of exogenous (from the Greek. exo - outside, outside) slavery. Only a constant influx of slaves from outside could make possible the emergence of an independent mode of production based on the labor of such dependent workers. For the first time, this method of production was established only in the heyday of ancient society, in connection with which it is customary to call it ancient. In chapter VI "Basic and non-basic methods of production" it was called servar.

In this way, necessary condition The existence of ancient society was the continuous pumping out of human resources from other sociohistorical organisms. And these other sociors had to belong to types different from the given one, and more preferably to a pre-class society. The existence of a system of societies of the ancient type was impossible without the existence of a vast periphery, consisting mainly of barbarian sociohistorical organisms.

The continuous expansion that was a necessary condition for the existence of server societies could not continue indefinitely. Sooner or later it became impossible. The demographic method of increasing the productivity of social production, as well as the temporal one, was a dead end. Ancient society, as well as political society, was incapable of transforming itself into a society of a higher type. But if the political historical world continued to exist almost to the present day, even after leaving the historical highway as an inferior one, then the ancient historical world has disappeared forever. But, dying, the ancient society passed the baton to other societies. The transition of mankind to a higher stage of social development again took place in a way that was above called formational superelevation, or ultrasuperiorization.

The era of the Middle Ages (VI-XV centuries). Undermined by internal contradictions, the Western Roman Empire collapsed under the onslaught of the Germans. There was a superposition of the Germanic pre-class demo-social organisms, which belonged to a pro-formation different from the proto-political one, namely the proto-militomagnar one, on the fragments of the Western Roman geo-social organism. As a result, on the same territory, some people lived as part of demo-social pre-class organisms, while the other part lived as part of a half-destroyed class geo-social organism. This coexistence of two qualitatively different socio-economic and other public structures couldn't go on for too long. Either the destruction of the demosocial structures and the victory of the geosocial, or the disintegration of the geosocial and the triumph of the demosocial, or, finally, the synthesis of both had to take place. On the territory of the lost Western Roman Empire, what historians call the Romano-Germanic synthesis took place. As a result, a new, more progressive mode of production was born - the feudal and, accordingly, a new socio-economic formation.

The Western European feudal system arose, which became the center of world-historical development. The ancient era was replaced by a new one - the era of the Middle Ages. The Western European world system existed as one of the zones of the preserved, but at the same time rebuilt central historical space. This space included the Byzantine and Middle Eastern zones as an inner periphery. The latter as a result of the Arab conquests of the 7th-8th centuries. increased significantly, including part of the Byzantine zone, and turned into an Islamic zone. Then the expansion of the central historical space began at the expense of the territory of Northern, Central and Eastern Europe, filled with pre-class socio-historical organisms, which also belonged to the same pro-formation as the German pre-class societies - protomilitomagnar.

These societies, some under the influence of Byzantium, others under the influence of Western Europe, began to transform and turned into class sociohistorical organisms. But if ultra-superiorization took place on the territory of Western Europe and a new formation appeared - feudal, then a process took place here, which was above called literalization. As a result, two close socio-economic paraformations arose, which, without going into details, can be conditionally characterized as parafeudal (from the Greek para - near, about): one included the Sociors of Northern Europe, the other - Central and Eastern. Two new peripheral zones of the central historical space arose: the North European and the Central-East European, which also included Russia. Primitive societies and the same political historical arenas continued to exist in the outer periphery as in antiquity.

As a result of the Mongol conquest (XIII century), North-Western Russia and North-Eastern Russia, taken together, were torn out of the central historical space. The Central-East European zone has narrowed to the Central European. After getting rid of the Tatar-Mongol yoke (XV century), Northern Russia, which later received the name of Russia, returned to the central historical space, but already as its special peripheral zone - Russian, which later turned into Eurasian.

New time (1600-1917). On the verge of the 15th and 16th centuries capitalism began to take shape in Western Europe. The Western European feudal world system was replaced by the Western European capitalist system, which became the center of world historical development. The Middle Ages were followed by the New Age. Capitalism developed in this era both inward and outward.

The first was expressed in the maturation and establishment of the capitalist structure, in the victory of the bourgeois socio-political revolutions (the Dutch 16th century, the English 17th century, the Great French 18th century). Already with the emergence of cities (X-XII centuries), Western European society embarked on the only path that was capable of ensuring, in principle, the unlimited development of productive forces - the growth of labor productivity by improving production technology. The technical method of ensuring the growth of the productivity of social production finally prevailed after the industrial revolution, which began in the last third of the 18th century.

Capitalism arose as a result of the natural development of the society that preceded it in only one place on the globe - in Western Europe. As a result, mankind was divided into two main historical worlds: the capitalist world and the non-capitalist world, which included primitive (including pre-class), political and parafeudal societies.

Along with the development of capitalism in depth, it developed in breadth. The capitalist world system gradually drew all peoples and countries into the orbit of its influence. The central historical space has turned into a global historical space (worldspace). Along with the formation of the world historical space, capitalism spread throughout the world, the formation of the world capitalist market. The whole world began to turn into a capitalist one. For all socio-historical organisms lagging behind in their development, no matter at what stage of evolution they lingered: primitive, political or parafeudal, only one path of development became possible - to capitalism.

These sociologists not only got the opportunity to pass, as we liked to say, all the stages that lay between those they were in and the capitalist one. For them, and this is the whole point of the matter, it became impossible not to bypass all these steps. Thus, when humanity, represented by a group of advanced sociohistorical organisms, reached capitalism, then all other main stages became passed not only for these, but in principle for all other societies, not excluding primitive ones.

It has long been fashionable to criticize Eurocentrism. There is a certain amount of truth in this criticism. But on the whole, the Eurocentric approach to the world history of the last three millennia of human existence is completely justified. If in III-II millennia BC. the center of world historical development was located in the Middle East, where the first world system in the history of mankind was formed - a political one, then, starting from the VIII century. BC, the main line of human development goes through Europe. It was there that all this time the center of world historical development was located and moved, the other three world systems successively changed there - ancient, feudal and capitalist.

The fact that the change of the ancient system from feudal to feudal to capitalist took place only in Europe formed the basis for the view of this line of development as one of the many regional ones, as purely Western, purely European. In fact, this is the main line of human development.

The world significance of the bourgeois system formed in Western Europe is indisputable, which by the beginning of the 20th century. drew the whole world into its sphere of influence. The situation is more complicated with the Middle Eastern political, Mediterranean ancient and Western European feudal systems. None of them covered the whole world with its influence. And the degree of their impact on sociohistorical organisms lagging behind in their development was much less. However, without the Middle Eastern political system, sociohistorical organisms would not have been antique, without ancient there would have been no feudal system, without feudal capitalism would not have arisen. Only the consistent development and change of these systems could prepare the appearance in Western Europe bourgeois society and thereby make not only possible but inevitable the movement of all backward sociohistorical organisms towards capitalism. Thus, in the end, the existence and development of these three systems affected the fate of all mankind.

Thus, the history of mankind should by no means be regarded as a simple sum of the histories of sociohistorical organisms, and socioeconomic formations as identical stages in the evolution of sociohistorical organisms, obligatory for each of them. The history of mankind is a single whole, and socio-economic formations, first of all, are stages in the development of this single whole, and not separate socio-historical organisms. Formations may or may not be stages in the development of individual sociohistorical organisms. But the latter does not in the least prevent them from being stages in the evolution of mankind.

Starting with the transition to a class society, socio-economic formations as stages of world development existed as world systems of sociohistorical organisms of one type or another, systems that were centers of world historical development. Accordingly, the change of socio-economic formations as stages of world development took place in the form of a change in world systems, which may or may not be accompanied by a territorial displacement of the center of world historical development. The change of world systems entailed the change of epochs of world history.

As a result of the impact of the Western European world capitalist system on all other societies, the world as a whole by the beginning of the 20th century. turned into a supersystem consisting of capitalist, emerging capitalist and just embarked on the path of capitalist development of sociohistorical organisms, which (supersystem) can be called the international capitalist system. The general trend of evolution was the transformation of all sociohistorical into capitalist.

But it would be erroneous to believe that this development led to the cessation of the division of human society as a whole into a historical center and a historical periphery. The center has been preserved, although it has expanded somewhat. As a result of the "transplantation" of capitalism, the United States, Canada, Australia, New Zealand entered it, as a result of the formational rise (superiorization) of the countries of Northern Europe and Japan. As a consequence, the world capitalist system has ceased to be only Western European. Therefore, they now prefer to call it simply Western.

All other sociohistorical organisms formed the historical periphery. This new periphery was essentially different from the periphery of all previous epochs in the development of class society. Firstly, it was all internal, for it was part of the world historical space. Secondly, it was all dependent on the center. Some peripheral sociors became colonies of the central powers, others found themselves in other forms of dependence on the center.

As a result of the influence of the Western world center, bourgeois relations began to penetrate into the countries lying outside it, as a result of the dependence of these countries on the center, capitalism in them acquired a special form, different from the capitalism that existed in the countries of the center. This capitalism was dependent, peripheral, incapable of progressive development, dead-end. The division of capitalism into two qualitatively different forms was discovered by R. Prebisch, T. Dos Santos and other supporters of the theories of dependent development. R. Prebisch created the first concept of peripheral capitalism.

There is every reason to believe that capitalism of the center and capitalism of the periphery are two related, but nevertheless different modes of production, the first of which can be called orthocapitalism (from the Greek. orthos - direct, genuine), and the second paracapitalism (from the Greek. para - near, about). Accordingly, the countries of the center and the countries of the periphery belong to two different socio-economic types of society: the first to the ortho-capitalist socio-economic formation, the second to the para-capitalist socio-economic para-formation. Thus they belong to two different historical worlds. Thus, the impact of the system of superior capitalist organisms on inferior organisms, with rare exceptions, resulted not in superiorization, but in lateralization.

The essence of the relationship between the two components of the international capitalist system: the ortho-capitalist center and the para-capitalist periphery lies in the exploitation by the states that are part of the center of the countries that form the periphery. The creators of the theories of imperialism drew attention to this: J. Hobson (1858-1940), R. Hilferding (1877-1941), N.I. Bukharin (1888-1938), V.I. Lenin (1870-1924), R. Luxemburg (1871-1919). Subsequently, all the main forms of exploitation of the periphery by the center were considered in detail in the concepts of dependent development.

By the beginning of the XX century. Russia finally became part of the countries dependent on the center, and thereby the countries exploited by it. Since by the beginning of the XX century. capitalism in Western Europe finally established itself, the era of bourgeois revolutions for most of its countries is a thing of the past. But for the rest of the world and, in particular, for Russia, the era of revolutions has begun, but different than in the West. These were revolutions that had as their objective goal the destruction of dependence on the ortho-capitalist center, directed simultaneously against both para-capitalism and ortho-capitalism, and in this sense anti-capitalist. Their first wave occurred in the first two decades of the 20th century: the revolutions of 1905-1907. in Russia, 1905-1911 in Iran, 1908-1909 in Turkey, 1911-1912 in China, 1911-1917 in Mexico, 1917 in Russia.

Modern times (1917-1991). In October 1917, the anti-capitalist workers' and peasants' revolution won in Russia. As a result, this country's dependence on the West was destroyed and it broke away from the periphery. Peripheral capitalism was eliminated in the country, and thus capitalism in general. But contrary to the aspirations and hopes of both the leaders and participants in the revolution, socialism did not arise in Russia: the level of development of the productive forces was too low. A class society was formed in the country in a number of ways, similar to the ancient political society, but different from it in its technical base. The old political society was agrarian, the new - industrial. Ancient politarism was a socio-economic formation, the new one was a socio-economic paraformation.

At first, industrialopolitarianism, or neopolitarism, ensured the rapid development of productive forces in Russia, which had thrown off its fetters of dependence on the West. The latter turned from a backward agrarian state into one of the most powerful industrial countries in the world, which subsequently ensured the position of the USSR as one of the two superpowers.

As a result of the second wave of anti-capitalist revolutions that took place in the countries of the periphery in the 40s of the 20th century, neopolitarism spread beyond the borders of the USSR. The periphery of the international capitalist system has sharply narrowed. A huge system of neo-political socio-historical organisms took shape, which acquired the status of a world one. But the world and Western capitalist system has not ceased to be. As a result, two world systems began to exist on the globe: neo-political and ortho-capitalist. The second was the center for the para-capitalist, peripheral countries, which together with it formed the international capitalist system. This structure found expression in the 1940s and 1950s. v. so familiar division of mankind into three worlds: the first (ortho-capitalist), the second ("socialist", neo-political) and the third (peripheral, para-capitalist).

Modernity (since 1991). As a result of the counter-revolution of the late 80s - early 90s. Russia, and with it most of the neo-political countries, embarked on the path of restoration of capitalism. The neo-political world system has disappeared. Thus, the coexistence of two world centers, characteristic of the previous era, also disappeared. There was again only one center on the globe - the ortho-capitalist one, and now it is not split, as it was before 1917 and even before 1945, into warring camps. The ortho-capitalist countries are now united under the leadership of one hegemon - the United States, which dramatically increases the importance of the center and the possibility of its influence on the whole world. All the neo-political countries that embarked on the path of capitalist development again found themselves dependent on the ortho-capitalist center and again became part of its periphery. As a result, the capitalism that began to take shape in them inevitably acquired a peripheral character. As a result, they thus found themselves in a historical impasse. A relatively small part of the neo-political countries chose a different path of development and retained independence from the center. Along with the dependent periphery, there is an independent periphery in the world (China, Vietnam, North Korea, Cuba, Belarus). It also includes Iran and Iraq.

In addition to the unification of the center around the United States, which meant the emergence of ultra-imperialism, other changes took place. Now the world has unfolded a process called globalization. It means the emergence on Earth of a global class society, in which the position of the ruling exploiting class is occupied by the countries of the ortho-capitalist center, and the position of the exploited class is occupied by the countries of the periphery. The formation of a global class society inevitably implies the creation of a global apparatus of coercion and violence by the global ruling class. The famous "seven" emerged as a world government, the International Monetary Fund, the World Bank as instruments of economic enslavement, and NATO became a special detachment of armed people, with the goal of keeping the periphery in obedience, suppressing any resistance to the center. One of the main tasks facing the center is to eliminate the independent periphery. The first blow, which was inflicted on Iraq, did not lead to the achievement of the set goal, the second, inflicted on Yugoslavia, did not immediately, but was crowned with success.

Neither Russia nor other dependent peripheral countries will ever be able to achieve genuine progress, will not be able to end the poverty in which the vast majority of their population now finds themselves, without liberation from dependence, without the destruction of paracapitalism, which is impossible without a struggle against the center, against ortho-capitalism. In a global class society, a global class struggle has inevitably begun and will intensify, on the outcome of which the future of mankind depends.

This struggle takes on the most varied forms and is conducted far from being carried out under identical ideological banners. What unites all the fighters against the center is the rejection of globalism and, accordingly, capitalism. Anti-globalization movements are also anti-capitalist. But anti-globalism manifests itself in different types. One of the currents, which is usually called simply anti-globalization, goes under secular banners. Anti-globalists protest against the exploitation by the center of the countries of the periphery and, in one form or another, raise the question of the transition from capitalism to a higher stage of social development, which would preserve and assimilate all the achievements that were achieved under the bourgeois form of organization of society. Their ideal lies in the future.

Other currents are aware of the struggle against globalization and capitalism as a struggle against Western civilization, as a struggle to preserve the traditional forms of life of the peoples of the periphery. The most powerful of these is the movement under the banner of Islamic fundamentalism. For its supporters, the struggle against globalization, against dependence on the West, also becomes a struggle against all its achievements, including economic, political and cultural: democracy, freedom of conscience, equality of men and women, universal literacy, etc. Their ideal is a return to the Middle Ages, if not to barbarism.

The evolutionary theory of human development, proposed by the English scientist Charles Darwin, has become a real sensation in the scientific world. Until then, the whole world was in full confidence that man is God's creation. The Darwinian theory, unlike other versions of the origin of man, was able to clearly explain how his evolution took place.

Ch. Darwin's theory of evolution

Mankind has long been trying to unravel the mystery of its appearance on the planet, but the only answer was only in religion, according to which man is a manifestation of God's plan.

This explanation suited people until they began to actively develop and expand scientific knowledge. Scientists have long struggled to unravel the origin of man, but only the British naturalist Charles Darwin succeeded.

Rice. 1. Charles Darwin.

His revolutionary theory for those times, according to which man descended from primates, caused real dissonance in society. Not all scientists, not to mention ordinary people, wanted to see monkeys among their ancient ancestors.

However, Darwin's theory presented a lot of weighty evidence. Too much connected man with the animal world: the structure of the skeleton, nervous system, digestive, circulatory and respiratory organs. The greatest similarity in humans was with primates.

The main stages of human evolution

The process of evolutionary development of mankind, from primates to modern man, took several million years. In total, there are five main stages of human evolution, each of which has its own distinctive characteristics.

At the heart of all evolutionary processes is the most important law of nature - natural selection, thanks to which the species gets the opportunity to adapt as best as possible to environmental conditions.

Rice. 3. Primitive society.

Table "Stages of human evolution"

*Stages of human evolution*	*Structural features*	*Lifestyle*	*Tools*
Great apes - Australopithecus	Height 120-140 cm. Skull volume - 500-600 cubic meters. cm, upright posture	They did not build permanent dwellings, did not use fire, the way of life is herd	Sticks and stones
Ancient people - smart man	The volume of the brain is 680 cubic meters. cm,	Didn't know how to use fire	Tools in the form of stones with pointed edges
The oldest people - Homo erectus (Pithecanthropus, Sinanthropus, Heidelberg man)	Height 170 cm. Brain volume - 900-110 cubic meters. see The foot has an arch, right hand better developed, constant upright posture, changes in the jaw apparatus, the appearance of spinal curves	They supported the fire, built dwellings, hunted together. There were rudiments of articulate speech	Various tools made of stone, among which the most important is a stone ax
Ancient people - Neanderthals	Height 156 cm. Brain volume - 1400 cubic meters. see There is a rudiment of the chin protrusion, a developed hand, an arched foot, a high arch of the skull, a not so massive lower jaw	They could build dwellings, produce and maintain fire. Accommodation in groups of 50-100 people.	Tools of labor are very different: side-scrapers, points made of stone, bone and wood
First modern people– Cro-Magnons	Height 180 cm, brain volume - 1600 cubic meters. see Appearance inherent in modern man	Developed speech, the beginnings of religion and art, the ability to make clothes appeared. Living in settlements as part of a tribal community. Development of agriculture and animal husbandry	For the manufacture of tools used a wide variety of materials: wood, bones, stones, horns. Spears, darts, knives, scrapers were made from them.

What have we learned?

When studying the topic “Table“ Stages of Human Evolution ”in the 11th grade program, we learned which theory indicates the origin of man from primates, and what stages of evolution a person had to go through in order to reach the top of his development.

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The evolutionary theory of Charles Darwin tells us about when man appeared on Earth. This point of view is generally accepted. among scientific researchers. Previously, people could not say exactly who created man. For thousands of years it was believed that humanity is the work of the gods, but the question of who created man is answered by evolution.

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Man appeared in ancient times not at all in the likeness in which we can observe him now. The very first representative of our species looked more like an ape than a modern representative of human society. Some researchers believe that Australopithecus was the first man. Many criticize such assumptions, as it really is more similar to the lower class of primates. The next milestone in development after Australopithecus was homo habilis, or "handy man."

He walked on two legs, had a relatively straight posture. These people created the first tools to use them for getting food and building shelter. Modern archaeological discoveries have made it possible to establish the maximum the exact date when a skilled man appeared on Earth. This happened approximately 2.6 million years ago.

Attention! The first representatives of our species on Earth were relatively short in stature. If now the average height of an average person is about 1.7 meters, then a skilled person was no higher than 1.2 meters.

Place of residence

Researchers are trying to establish where was the first settlement people. For many years it was believed that the human race originated in Western Europe.

The main reason for this is the theory of Eurocentrism, which said that it was on the territory of Europe that powerful civilizations were created, and it was from here that progress began.

In the second half of the 20th century, archaeologists found the remains of that very skilled man on the territory of modern Tanzania, the so-called Afar Triangle.

It was there that key discoveries were made that shed light on the origin of mankind. Archaeologists have found tools made of stone next to human bones, which could well serve as a good tool for obtaining food.

In 1960, few people were in doubt. Archaeological finds also made it clear how a person developed, how, over time, the volume of his brain increased and intellectual activity improved.

As for the classification by period, the origin of mankind should be dated to the Cenozoic era, which began 65 million years ago. This period is referred to as the "era of new life", because it started immediately after the fall of a huge meteorite that destroyed the dinosaurs and most of the life on the planet.

evolution process

We learned where man came from and what the very first man on earth was called, but the evolution of our species did not stop there - even more amazing changes were coming.

Homo ergaster

Approximately 1.8 million years ago, homo habilis evolved into a working man, that is, homo ergaster. The size of the brain of this species is much larger than homo habilis. Scientists believe that it was homo ergaster who gained the opportunity to use colloquial speech.

Near the skeletons of homo ergaster, archaeologists have found traces of the first fires. Therefore, exactly this species first started making fire. In addition, a man working invented a hand axe.

Homo ergaster began to hunt animals more often, and up to this point, the first people on Earth were more likely to be gatherers and scavengers. Enough high level intelligence allowed them to gather in groups that began to go hunting - this significantly increased the chances of survival and a successful ending.

Homo erectus

Even the previous species of man began to colonize the planet. From the territory of Africa, the first people on Earth went to the territories of Western Europe and Asia. It was in the Far East that the remains of the next stage in the development of the human race were found - homo erectus or Homo erectus.

At this stage in the development of mankind, a typical representative of it had an average height of 1.4 m. Homo erectus no longer stooped, the campaign was straight. still in use stone tools. People collected roots and plants, hunted medium and small game.

Since a person in ancient times could not protect himself alone, the erectus began to stray into fairly large fore-communities, which numbered several dozen people. Erectus also first began to cook meat on a fire. At this stage of development, during the period of famine, a person resorted to cannibalism.

Between the erectus, for the first time, the beginnings of a relationship appeared, reminiscent of a permanent married couple, but promiscuous sexual relations took advantage. Archaeological finds have also confirmed that erectus looked after the wounded tribesmen and understood medicinal properties herbs.

Important! Perhaps even then there were people who were called shamans or healers.

Development of thinking

For a long time it was believed that Homo sapiens was the ancestor of the Neanderthal.

However, studies of the twentieth century proved that the Neanderthal was a dead end in Western Europe, and homo sapiens came from Africa. Moreover, it was he who exterminated and assimilated the Neanderthals.

Archaeologists have found that the first people with the rudiments of the mind appeared approximately 350-250 thousand years ago.

Initially, homo sapiens were nomads and gatherers, and only 15 thousand years ago they began:

learn agriculture,
make tools from bone
build permanent dwellings
establish small permanent settlements,
to sew clothes,
draw on cave walls.

10 thousand years ago, people communicated through speech, and gestures and facial expressions faded into the background.

At this stage of development, people first became create families and marry. Development Agriculture allowed to keep a part of the production, thanks to which it became possible to create classes, power and the ability to survive in adverse times.

Homo sapiens domesticated animals, which gave impetus to the development of animal husbandry. It also facilitated the process of obtaining food - it was not necessary to spend a huge amount of time and effort on hunting. At the same time, trade between the tribes also arose: some offered skins, while others offered beautiful shells or fish.

10 thousand years ago homo sapiens began to build cities, invented the first languages and built civilizations in the Middle East, North Africa, India, Latin America.

We traced how man developed throughout the entire period of evolution, where the first people appeared 2.5 million years ago, how the evolutionary process proceeded, which continues to this day.

Modern scientific achievements have refuted the theory of the divine origin of man and consolidated the positions of Darwinism. People, before becoming the way they are now, have come a long way of evolution - from an ape-like creature to a modern man of the information age.

During what period did the first humans appear?

Stages of development of Homo sapiens on Earth

Conclusion

The first man appeared on the African continent, his homeland was the territory of modern Tanzania . Archaeologists call this region Afar triangle or "cradle of mankind". From Africa, small tribes of people began to spread throughout the planet, conquering Europe, Asia, and then Australia and America.

Geological history of the Earth

The name of our planet - Earth - comes from the Slavic "zem" - floor, bottom. The biggest difference between Earth and other planets solar system is the existence of life on it, which has reached high forms development.

The geological history of the Earth is usually divided into two stages of unequal size: cryptozoic(a large interval of time devoid of obvious remains of skeletal living beings), or Precambrian, and Phanerozoic(literally - clear life). Together they make up about 3570 million years. An earlier time is attributed to the pregeological history of the Earth (Table 2.1).

Table 2.1. Geological zones, eras and periods

In the Archean era the most ancient endogenous deposits of chromium, copper, nickel and gold ores were formed, as well as the oldest metamorphogenic deposits of ferruginous quartzites and metamorphogenic mica and rare metal pegmatites. In the Late Archean, due to the accumulation of multicellular algae, deposits of oil shale began to form.

During the Proterozoic era(2600 - 570 million years) in connection with basaltic magmatism, igneous deposits of ores of chromium, iron, titanium, copper, nickel and platinum arose, and in connection with granitic magmatism - deposits of ores of non-ferrous, rare and precious metals. In the same era, metamorphogenic deposits were formed, represented by the largest deposits of ferruginous quartzites such as Krivoy Rog and KMA, as well as gold-uranium conglomerates.

During the Phanerozoic era(570 million years - the modern era), exogenous deposits of oil shale, coal, oil and gas, salts, phosphorites, and sulfur appeared and developed in increasing quantities. Numerous endogenous deposits of ores of ferrous, non-ferrous, rare, precious and radioactive metals arose in the mobile zones.

The most important event of the Cenozoic era was the appearance of man. It is believed that the oldest man appeared on earth 1 - 2 million years ago, in the early Paleolithic era, and man modern look(Homo sapiens, reasonable man) - no less than 40 thousand years ago, and maybe more.

Recent studies have shown that the ancestors of fossil humans - australopithecines- appeared 5 million years ago in East Africa and about 2.6 million years ago they began to primitively process stone (mainly upholstering pebbles). primitive people - archanthropes- also appeared in Africa 1.4 - 1.2 million years ago and gradually spread to Europe and Asia. Stone axes and scrapers were found near their remains. The time of existence of archanthropes - the early Paleolithic - ended 350-400 thousand years ago.

Figure 2.2. Human evolution.

They were replaced paleoanthropes or neanderthals, they lived in the Middle Paleolithic (up to 35 thousand years ago). Behind them were neoanthropes, people of the modern type, who have achieved success in stone processing. About 10 thousand years ago, the Mesolithic began, and about 6 thousand years ago, the Neolithic. At this time, man already knew the first metals - copper and gold. About 5 thousand years ago, the first bronze items appeared (Bronze Age), then 3 - 2.5 thousand years ago, the era of iron began, which continues to this day. Chronology human civilization presented in table 2.2.

Table 2.2. Timeline of human civilization

Read also

— History of human development

Geological history of the Earth The name of our planet - Earth - comes from the Slavic "zem" - floor, bottom. The biggest difference between the Earth and other planets of the solar system is the existence of life on it, which has reached high forms of development. Geological… [read more]

The main stages of human development.

Most scientists adhere to the evolutionary theory, which is confirmed by the latest biochemical and genetic studies. The supposed common ancestor of humans and great apes lived between 5 million and 10 million years ago.

During excavations on Lake Chad in 2002, a skull of an anthropoid creature with signs of apes and humans was discovered, whose age is estimated at 7 million years. The creature was named "Sahelantropus from Chad" (Sahelantropus tchadeensis).

It is assumed that Sahelontrop, like man, was upright. But some anthropologists believe that this is an ape-like creature, not a human-like one. Australopithecus (from lat.

australis - southern and Greek. pithekos - monkey), who lived in Africa 4.2-1 million years ago, is considered the closest to the ancestral form of man. The body of Australopithecus was covered with hair, and appearance he looks more like an ape than a man. However, he walked on two legs and used various objects as tools, which was facilitated by the outstretched thumb.

The volume of the brain (in relation to the volume of the body) was less than that of humans, but larger than that of modern great apes.

skillful man(homo habilis), so named because of the ability to make the simplest stone tools, is considered the very first representative of the genus Homo. His brain is a third larger than the brain of an Australopithecus, and the biological features of the brain speak, and the possible rudiments of speech. Otherwise, the skilled man was more like an Australopithecus than a modern man.

Homo erectus made more complex tools and knew how to use fire.

His brain is close in size to the brain of a modern person, he was able to organize collective activities (for example, hunting for large animals) and began to use speech.

In the period from 500 thousand to 200 thousand years ago, there was a transition from Homo erectus to Homo sapiens. It is rather difficult to detect the border when one species replaces another, therefore representatives of this transitional period are sometimes called the most ancient rational man.

A century and a half ago, the remains of a primitive man named Neanderthal (named after a locality in Germany).

The volume of the Neanderthal brain corresponded to the modern one (and even slightly exceeded it), the excavations also testified to a fairly developed culture, including rituals, the beginnings of art and morality (care for fellow tribesmen). Previously, it was believed that the Neanderthal man is the direct ancestor of modern man, but now scientists are inclined to believe that he is a dead end, blind branch of evolution.

The new Homo sapiens, that is, the modern man, appeared in Africa about 130,000 years ago.

(impossible, and more) years ago, for a short time this one settled in Asia and Europe: the fossil "new people" at the place of the first find (Cro-Magnon in France) were called Cro-Magnons.

Cro-Magnons outwardly differed little from modern man. They left numerous artifacts that allow us to judge the high development of their culture, cave paintings, miniature sculpture, engravings, jewelry, etc.

Homo sapiens populated the entire Earth 15-10 thousand years ago.

years ago. Tools were gradually improved and his life historical experience was accumulated, a person moved to a productive economy (agriculture and animal husbandry). The first large settlements arose, and in many areas mankind entered the era of civilizations.

The main factors of anthropogenesis

Biological factors:

upright posture;
hand development;
big brain;
ability for articulate speech.

Social factors(forms of activity) :

work;
collective activity;
thinking;
language and communication;
moral.

It is believed that of these factors, the leading role in the process of human development was played by labor, on the example of which the interconnection of other biological and social factors is clearly shown.

So, bipedalism freed the hands for the use and manufacture of tools, the structure of the hand (thumb, flexibility) made it possible to use them effectively. In the process of joint work, close relations developed between members of the team, which led to the curbing of individualism, care for members of the tribe (a system of prohibitions and norms), and the need for communication (the appearance of speech). Language contributed to the development of thinking, allowing to express more and more abstract concepts; the development of thinking, in turn, enriched the language with new words.

The language also made it possible to transfer experience from generation to generation, preserving and increasing the knowledge of mankind.

Thus, biological factors and forms of social activity are closely interrelated and depend on each other. In general, a person cannot be reduced solely to biological characteristics, since only society can make a person a person (confirmation of this is children raised by animals).

But it cannot be reduced only to social qualities, since biological prerequisites (a developed brain, upright posture, etc.) are necessary for human development. A person lives simultaneously in two worlds - natural and social, being a biosocial being.

Human definitions.

human nature - it is a set of features and characteristics that distinguish a person from other living beings.Special qualities of a person : mind, ability to work, collective activity, language, morality, creativity, spirituality, faith, imagination, fantasy, laughter, awareness of one's mortality and many, many other specific qualities and properties.

human evolution

When Plato gave the following definition to man: “Man is an animal with two legs, devoid of feathers,” Diogenes plucked a rooster and brought it to school, announcing: “Here is the Platonic man!” After that, the definition was added: "And with wide nails."

The essence of man – this is the main quality that determines the inner content of a person.

Various scientists gave a variety of definitions of the essence of man, who saw it in social activity, reason, creativity, play or faith.

There are many definitions of the term "person".

Aristotle called a person a political animal (zoonpolitikon), emphasizing that a person realizes his essence only in social life, entering into economic, political, cultural relations with other members of society (the state).

Karl Marx also emphasized social essence man: “The essence of man is not an abstract inherent in a separate individual.

In its activity it is the totality of all public relations».

Homo sapiens (reasonable person). This definition, which sees the essence of man only in the mind, also goes back to Aristotle. In modern times, it became generally accepted, Rene Descartes called a person a “thinking thing”, and after the advent of biological classification, it became the standard species designation for a modern person.

In the vast world, he is distinguished from the animal kingdom by his ability to think logically and be aware of himself and the world around him.

Homo faber (creative person). This concept was introduced by the Dutch philosopher J. Huizinge (1872-1945). A person, unlike an animal, actively produces, creates, creates, and his activity is purposeful, has a value meaning and is creatively organized.

Creation is the basis of all the diverse activities performed by man: production, upbringing, education, politics, etc. Man became a man in this sense when he first made a primitive tool. The improvement of tools - from stone scrapers to computers - has created a special artificial environment for a person, which largely determines his life.

It can be said that modern man lives in the world of technology and culture, of which he is the creator.

Homo ludens (playing person). This concept was also introduced by J. Huizinge, who believes that not a single type of human cultural activity can do without game components - justice, war, philosophy, art, etc. Culture arises from the game, it creates a special symbolic sphere of human existence. It was not so much work that made a man a man, but free play time, where he could realize his fantasies, develop his imagination, create artistic values, communicate with others, and voluntarily accept common rules for all.

Homo religiosus (religious person).

Here man is understood primarily as "the image and likeness of God." According to Christian ideas, a person is a free being, endowed with the ability to choose between good and evil. The goal and realization of man is the movement towards goodness, which is God. The essence of man, therefore, is manifested in faith; disbelief and evil are the path leading a person away from his generic essence.

And, for example, Ernest Casirer, called a person a “symbolic animal”, Ernest Bloch “a dreaming person”, Norbert Wiener “a person communicating”, Martin Heidegger “a bored person”, who see the essence of a person in the creation of symbols, the ability to dream, communicate, etc. .

Friedrich Nietzsche called a person a "sick animal", emphasizing his lack of initiative. Herdness, the need for submission. He considers the history of society as a gradual degeneration of man. Some modern philosophers talk about the aggressiveness of man, which manifests itself in endless wars of crimes, his unreasonableness, which leads to the destruction of the habitat, the accumulation of weapons of mass destruction, overpopulation, man-made disasters, and, as a result, to the death of all mankind.

“Man is a crazy monkey who was given a razor in his hands” - S. Lem.

Definitions of the concept of "man", taken from philosophical dictionaries.

Person - this is the highest level of living organisms on Earth, the subject of socio-historical activity and culture.

Person – it is a biosocial creature with articulate speech, consciousness, higher mental functions (abstract-logical thinking, logical memory, etc.), capable of creating tools of labor and using them in the process of social labor.

Thus, the nature and essence of man are so deep and multifaceted that it is necessary to talk about the fundamental uncertainty and indefinability of the essence of man.

F.M. Dostoevsky said: “Man is a mystery…”.

Stages of human development table

Answers:

Stages of human development. 1) Period: Primitiveness, Chronology: 40 thousand years ago

years ago, Summary: The formation of man, the improvement of tools, the transition to agriculture and cattle breeding from hunting and gathering. 2) Period: Ancient World, Chronology: 4th century BC

- 5th century AD, Summary: The split of society into rulers and ruled, the spread of slavery, cultural upsurge. 3) Period: Middle Ages, Chronology: 5th century AD - 15th century AD, Summary: The establishment of the estate system in Europe, great importance acquires religion, urbanization, the formation of large feudal states.

4) Period: New time, Chronology: 15th century - early 20th century, Summary: The formation of an industrial capitalist civilization, the emergence of colonial empires, the bourgeois revolution, the industrial revolution, the development of the world market and its fall, production crises, social. contradictions, the redivision of the world. 5) Period: Recent history, Chronology: end of the 20th century - our days, Summary: sovereign rivalry, invention nuclear weapons, the spread of computers, the change in the nature of labor activity, the restoration of the integrity of the world market, the formation of a global system of infocommunications.

Following the Greek historical nest, new historical nests arose in which the formation of the servar (ancient) mode of production took place: Etruscan, Carthaginian, Latin.

Antique sociohistorical organisms taken together formed a new historical arena - the Mediterranean, to which the role of the center of world historical development passed.

With the advent of the new world system, humanity as a whole has risen to a new stage of historical development. There was a change of world eras: the era of the Ancient East was replaced by the Antique.

The Mediterranean zone was the historical center, the Middle East - the inner periphery.

Outside the central historical space was the outer periphery, which was divided into primitive (including pre-class) and political. But unlike the era of the Ancient East, the political periphery existed in antique time in the form of not isolated historical nests, but a significant number of historical arenas, between which various kinds of connections arose.

In the Old World, East Asian, Indonesian, Indian, Central Asian arenas were formed, and, finally, the great steppe, in the expanses of which nomadic empires arose and disappeared. In the New World in the 1st millennium BC. formed the Andean and Mesoamerican historical arenas.

The transition to the ancient society was marked by a significant progress in the productive forces.

But almost the entire increase in the productivity of social production was achieved not so much by improving technology, but by increasing the proportion of workers in the population of society. This is a demographic way of raising the level of productive forces.

In the pre-industrial era, the increase in the number of producers of material goods within a sociohistorical organism, without an increase in the same proportion of its entire population, could occur in only one way - through the influx of ready-made workers from outside, who, moreover, did not have the right to have families and acquire offspring.

The World History

All this was impossible without the use of direct violence. Workers brought in from outside could only be slaves. The considered method of increasing the productivity of social production consisted in the approval of exogenous (from the Greek. exo - outside, outside) slavery. Only a constant influx of slaves from outside could make possible the emergence of an independent mode of production based on the labor of such dependent workers.

For the first time, this method of production was established only in the heyday of ancient society, in connection with which it is customary to call it ancient. In chapter VI "Basic and non-basic methods of production" it was called servar.

Thus, a necessary condition for the existence of ancient society was the continuous pumping of human resources from other sociohistorical organisms. And these other sociors had to belong to types different from the given one, and more preferably to a pre-class society.

The existence of a system of societies of the ancient type was impossible without the existence of a vast periphery, consisting mainly of barbarian sociohistorical organisms.

Ancient society, as well as political society, was incapable of transforming itself into a society of a higher type. But if the political historical world continued to exist almost to the present day, even after leaving the historical highway as an inferior one, then the ancient historical world has disappeared forever. But, dying, the ancient society passed the baton to other societies.

The transition of mankind to a higher stage of social development again took place in a way that was above called formational superelevation, or ultrasuperiorization.

The era of the Middle Ages (VI-XV centuries).

Undermined by internal contradictions, the Western Roman Empire collapsed under the onslaught of the Germans. There was a superposition of the Germanic pre-class demo-social organisms, which belonged to a pro-formation different from the proto-political one, namely the proto-militomagnar one, on the fragments of the Western Roman geo-social organism. As a result, on the same territory, some people lived as part of demo-social pre-class organisms, while the other part lived as part of a half-destroyed class geo-social organism.

On the territory of the lost Western Roman Empire, what historians call the Romano-Germanic synthesis took place. As a result, a new, more progressive mode of production was born - the feudal and, accordingly, a new socio-economic formation.

The Western European feudal system arose, which became the center of world-historical development.

The ancient era was replaced by a new one - the era of the Middle Ages. The Western European world system existed as one of the zones of the preserved, but at the same time rebuilt central historical space. This space included the Byzantine and Middle Eastern zones as an inner periphery.

The latter as a result of the Arab conquests of the 7th-8th centuries. increased significantly, including part of the Byzantine zone, and turned into an Islamic zone. Then began the expansion of the central historical space at the expense of the territory of Northern, Central and Eastern Europe, filled with pre-class socio-historical organisms, which also belonged to the same pro-formation as the German pre-class societies - protomilitomagnar.

These societies, some under the influence of Byzantium, others under the influence of Western Europe, began to transform and turned into class sociohistorical organisms.

But if ultra-superiorization took place on the territory of Western Europe and a new formation appeared - the feudal one, then a process took place here, which was above called literalization.

As a result, two close socio-economic paraformations arose, which, without going into details, can be conditionally characterized as parafeudal (from the Greek.

a pair - near, about): one included the Sociors of Northern Europe, the other - Central and Eastern. Two new peripheral zones of the central historical space arose: the North European and the Central-East European, which also included Russia. Primitive societies and the same political historical arenas continued to exist in the outer periphery as in antiquity.

As a result of the Mongol conquest (XIII century), North-Western Russia and North-Eastern Russia, taken together, were torn out of the central historical space.

The Central-East European zone has narrowed to the Central European. After getting rid of the Tatar-Mongol yoke (XV century), Northern Russia, which later received the name of Russia, returned to the central historical space, but already as its special peripheral zone - Russian, which later turned into Eurasian.

New time (1600-1917).

On the verge of the 15th and 16th centuries capitalism began to take shape in Western Europe. The Western European feudal world system was replaced by the Western European capitalist system, which became the center of world historical development. The Middle Ages were followed by the New Age. Capitalism developed in this era both inward and outward.

Already with the emergence of cities (10th-12th centuries), Western European society embarked on the only path that was capable of ensuring, in principle, the unlimited development of the productive forces - the growth of labor productivity through the improvement of production technology.

The technical method of ensuring the growth of the productivity of social production finally prevailed after the industrial revolution, which began in the last third of the 18th century.

Along with the development of capitalism in depth, it developed in breadth.

The capitalist world system gradually drew all peoples and countries into the orbit of its influence. The central historical space has turned into a global historical space (worldspace). Along with the formation of the world historical space, capitalism spread throughout the world, the formation of the world capitalist market.

The whole world began to turn into a capitalist one. For all socio-historical organisms lagging behind in their development, no matter at what stage of evolution they lingered: primitive, political or parafeudal, only one path of development became possible - to capitalism.

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Vitaly Asher

The history of mankind as a result of the development of desires

Reflecting on the solution to the purpose of human existence, scientists and philosophers put forward various contradictory hypotheses, and yet the problem remains insoluble - whether humanity develops according to a certain program or its path is elemental and does not have an ultimate goal.

There are several approaches to interpreting the historical process.

History is considered like a sequence of events, dynasties, wars and legislations. In this form, history is usually taught in schools.

Widely known marxist economic approach, according to which the course of history is determined by the mode of production of goods.

The mode of production entails a change in the social institutions of the country - its ideology, ethics, morality.

Sigmund Freud founded a method that explains history as the result of suppression of subconscious impulses. The approach links forms of culture as derivatives of the success of impulse control.

O. Spengler and A. Toynbee consider the scheme of development of civilization.

The duration of the life of a civilization, in their opinion, depends on the ideas and ideals on which it is based. Such a comprehension of history seeks to reveal the internal sources of the development of societies, trying to discover their inherent features.

The progress of science and technological advances have not led humanity to confidence in its future. On the contrary, our life is filled with a premonition of a catastrophe, we are aware of the environmental danger that threatens the planet. In this inconsistency of existence, something mysterious is hidden, a certain mystery of the destiny of a person, when the growth of egoistic desire gets in the way of his boundless desire for the improvement of being and creative growth.

He, mastering the laws of nature, expanding the boundaries of knowledge of the universe, is trying in vain to understand the meaning of his existence.

V modern world the contradictory properties of a person's nature, the versatility of his nature, are more noticeably manifested.

Logical processing, generalization of the factual material of observations and empirical research allows one to penetrate into the depth of the content, to reveal the pattern of development. In our description of the historical process, we tried to use a macro-anthropological approach based on the science of Kabbalah. This approach to the study of the interaction of the "man-nature" system is currently gaining great importance as an interdisciplinary means of studying the integral phenomena of nature, society, group and personality.

We can say that the subject of our research is the study and description of the most effective forms of interaction between people in society, which would most optimally contribute to the process of natural development of man, nature and society, lead to the creation of conditions for the formation and development of the optimal form of coexistence of external and internal forces of development. nature.

New trends in understanding the historical process

Mankind develops gradually, and the force of its development is the growing egoism in it.

If egoism had not developed in people, the past generation would not have differed in any way from the present, just as we observe it in animals. Egoistic desire is the essential nature of creation at all its levels - it is the only thing that was created in the act of creation of the universe. We have called it "the desire to receive pleasure" or "selfishness".

Egoistic desire evolves only in man, while in all other parts of creation (inanimate, vegetative, animal) it is unchanged.

It is the growing desire for new pleasures and finding ways to satisfy them that determine the level of development of civilization and all that we call the word "progress". Due to the fact that desires are constantly growing in us, humanity moves forward. selfishness develops along the time axis gradually and unceasingly: it increases quantitatively, and as it grows, it turns into qualitatively different desires.

Macro-anthropology divides the whole complex of human desires into five levels, each of which develops its own kind of pleasure:

primary desires are bodily (food, shelter, procreation);

2. desire for wealth;

3. desire for honor, power and glory;

4. thirst for knowledge;

5. spiritual level - the desire to comprehend the meaning of life, the idea of creation.

These levels consistently manifest themselves in man over thousands of years and form the stages of human development.

Primal desires are also called "animal desires" because they are also inherent in animals. Even being in complete isolation, a person experiences hunger and sexual desire.

The desires for wealth, power and knowledge are already “human desires”, as they arise under the influence of the social environment, and in order to satisfy them, a person must be in a society of his own kind, which allows the formation of classes and all kinds of hierarchical structures.

In the light of this concept, a review of such spheres of human activity as culture, education, science and technology leads us to the conclusion that it is precisely what develops in a person selfishness gave birth to all our ideas, inventions and innovations.

In essence, they are only "technical tools", "means of service", created by man solely to satisfy the needs that arise under pressure. desire to receive .

Development Framework

The whole development of mankind is like the development of one person, passing through the stages of childhood, adolescence and maturity - when he really uses the potential originally inherent in himself.

Let us analyze the characteristic differences of each of the three stages.

First of all, it should be remembered that the development of mankind is based on the development and updating of internal needs, i.e.

on the growth of the ego. The more ego, the more needs, which is a stimulus for the development of intelligence and the ability to perceive the surrounding reality in a deeper way.

Let us briefly consider the stages of development of history. The dates here are approximate, just to outline the main milestones:

1 .Primary desires ( 4500 - 1200 BC e. )

4500–2400 BC e. Civilization Sumer and Akad

2000–1200 BC e. Babylonian empire.

The Age of the Patriarchs

During the first period, humanity as a whole was immersed exclusively in vital bodily desires. More developed human desires, striving for power, honors and knowledge, were revealed only in individuals. Therefore, the development achieved at this stage is a store of accumulated impressions from the difficulties of existence and no more. Throughout the ages, humanity has evolved unconsciously.

At the end of this period, Abraham was born - the first who comprehended the integral picture of nature.

Its achievement symbolizes the transition to the next stage of development.

2 . The pursuit of wealth(1200 BC - 200 AD)

1200–600 Assyrian Empire. Founding of Israel

500–300 Persian Empire

400–300 Macedonian Empire

100 BC–200 AD

The World History

The Roman Empire. The birth of Christianity

During the second period, the power grows selfishness, as a result of which humanity is gradually acquiring the structure of peoples and states. The peak of this development falls on the time when the great empires - Greece and Rome - flourish and collapse, and the world is overwhelmed by wars.

Striving for honor, power and glory (200-1500)

200–600 decline of civilization

600–1000 Muslim empire

800–1100 dark period of the Middle Ages

1100–1300 Crusades

1300–1500 Renaissance

New ideas don't come out of nowhere. They grow only on well-prepared intellectual soil. The achievements of scientific thought, lost during the decline of Greek civilization, received a revival in the 12th-15th centuries thanks to the works of Abraham Bar Khiya, Ibn Latif, Raymond Lull, Immanuel Bonfils, Pico del Mirandola.

At this time, important scientific works were translated into Latin from Hebrew, Greek and Arabic.

Ibn Litif and Lull tried to present a unified system of sciences.

Between 1320 and 1520, Italy became the center of humanistic renewal. Leonardo da Vinci, Bellini, Petrarch, Boccaccio, Titian, Michelangelo and others were able to embody the new aspirations of society.

The Renaissance freed people from old ideas about the world, made them think differently and change the established order of things.

At the turn of these stages, the rapid growth of science is born.

4. Thirst for knowledge (1500–1995)

1500–1700 Reformation. Science and technology

1700–1800 Growth of industry

1800–1900 Industrial Revolution

1900–2000 World Wars

This period is characterized by the accelerated development of the desire for knowledge. The revolutionary works of Spinoza and Rene Descartes contributed to the birth of modern science.

It was at this time that the religious reformer Martin Luther, a critical thinker, whose ideas excited Europe of that time, appeared.

The new worldview was beneficial for the development classical mechanics and technology.

The discoveries followed one after another, so that practically over the last two centuries the material world around us has changed beyond recognition. However, technological progress has not led to the desired solution to the problems of global society.

5. Spiritual level (1995–)

Approximately since 1995, the need for spiritual fulfillment began to manifest itself in humanity. Spiritual need is not a religious concept.

It is the need to maintain balance with nature. And since nature is altruistic, and man is not, then a discrepancy arises, which a person feels as suffering.

Reaching the top of the pyramid is not the end of development, but the beginning of a new world. This is the transition of the system to the next level, where the vector of forces in a person changes and such opportunities open up that he did not even suspect. Those. humanity, having realized the last need, does not pass into a state in which major needs disappear.

On the contrary, having realized the last egoistic need, it goes into a state of continuous realization of the first altruistic need.

Lecture Search

STAGES OF DEVELOPMENT OF HUMANITY

It has become generally accepted to divide the historical path of mankind into:

1. Primitive era;

2. History of the Ancient World;

3. History of the Middle Ages;

New time (New history);)

5. Newest time recent history).

Length primitive era defined in more than 1.5 million

years. During this era, the formation of a modern type of man takes place (about 40-30 thousand years ago), tools of labor are gradually improved, the transition from hunting, fishing and gathering to agriculture and cattle breeding begins.

History countdown ancient world has been going on since the emergence of states (IV-III millennium BC). This was the time of the split of society into rulers and ruled, haves and have-nots, widespread slavery (although not in all states of antiquity it was of great economic importance).

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The flourishing of the slave system reached during the period of antiquity (I millennium BC - the beginning of AD), the rise of civilizations Ancient Greece and ancient rome .

In recent years, attempts by the mathematician D.T.

Fomenko, to propose his own chronology of the history of the Ancient World and the Middle Ages. They argue that the reconstruction by historians of many events that occurred earlier than the 16th-17th centuries, before the widespread use of printing, is not indisputable, and other variants of it are possible.

The era of the Middle Ages determined by time frame 5th–17th centuries

1st period era (V-XI centuries) marked by the fall of the Western Roman Empire, the emergence of a new type of social relations - the establishment of a class system in Europe (each class has its own rights and obligations).

The predominance of subsistence farming and the special role of religion are characteristic.

II period (mid-XI - end of XV century)- the formation of large feudal states and the growth of the importance of cities - centers of crafts, trade, spiritual life, which is becoming more and more secular.

ІІІ-th period (XV - the middle of the XVII century)- early New time, the beginning of the decomposition of the feudal system.

The creation of colonial empires, the development of TAR, the spread of manufactory production, the complication of the social structure of society, which conflicts with class division, are characteristic. The Reformation and the Counter-Reformation mark a new stage in spiritual life.

In the context of the growth of social and religious contradictions, the central power is strengthened, absolute monarchies arise.

Civilizations of the Ancient World and the Middle Ages within theories of "growth stages" ( E. Toffler) not demarcated , they are treated as "traditional society" the basis of the economy, life, culture, family structure and politics was the land, subsistence and semi-subsistence agrarian-handicraft economy.

In all these countries, life was organized around the village settlement, there was a simple division of labor and well-defined castes and classes: nobility, priests, warriors, slaves or serfs, and the authoritarian nature of power.

Exceptions to the rules described above are considered as special variants of a single phenomenon - an agrarian civilization.

The era of modern times - the era of the formation and establishment of industrial capitalist civilization.

1st period (from the middle of the 17th century)- the time of revolutions that destroyed the foundations of the estate system (the first of them was the revolution in England in 1640-1660s).

Of great importance was the Age of Enlightenment, associated with the spiritual emancipation of man, gaining faith in the power of reason.

II period comes after Great French Revolution(1789-1794). industrial revolution, which began in England, covers the countries of continental Europe, where the formation of capitalist relations is proceeding at a rapid pace.

This time rapid growth colonial empires, the world market, the system of international division of labor. With the completion of the formation of large bourgeois states, the ideology of nationalism and national interest is being established in most of them.

ІІІ-th period (from late XIX- beginning of the 20th century)- the rapid development of industrial civilization "in breadth" slows down, due to the development of new territories by it.

The capacity of world markets is insufficient to absorb the growing volumes of manufactured products. Time of world crises of overproduction and growth of social contradictions in industrial countries.

Aggravation of the struggle for the redivision of the world.

Contemporaries perceived this time as a period of crisis of industrial, capitalist civilization. The indicator was the 1st World War 1914-1918 and the revolution of 1917 in Russia.

Periodization and the term Recent history are controversial in modern science. For Soviet historians and philosophers, the revolution of 1917 marked the transition to the era of the formation of the communist formation, it was with it that the onset of modern times was associated.

Proponents of other approaches to the periodization of history used the term "Modern Time" to imply a period associated with the history of modernity in the 20th century.

Within the framework of the history of modern times, it stands out II main period.

1st period (first half of the 20th century) - early modern times - the process of deepening the crisis of industrial civilization (the Great Crisis of 1929-1932) brought the economies of developed countries to the brink of collapse.

Sovereign rivalry, the struggle for colonies and markets for products led to the Second World War of 1939-1945. The colonial system of the European powers is collapsing.

Conditions " cold war» break the unity of the world market. With the invention of nuclear weapons, the crisis of industrial civilization began to threaten the death of mankind.

II period (second half - end of the 20th century) - qualitative changes associated with the change in the nature of the social, socio-political development of the leading states of the world.

With the spread of computers and industrial robots changing nature of work The central figure of production is becoming an intellectual worker.

In developed countries, there is socially oriented market economy, changing the nature of human life and leisure. In the international arena, integration processes are underway, the creation of common economic spaces (Western European, North American), the development of the processes of globalization of economic life and the creation of a global system of information communications.

Questions for self-examination:

What functions does historical science perform, what methods and principles does it use in studying historical facts and events?

2. What are the main stages in its development of historical science? Name its leading schools and major representatives.

3. What options for periodization of historical development can you name? Which one seems to you the most reasonable?

We note right away that at present among scientists involved in the study ancient history There is no single opinion of humanity on the periodization of this history. There are several special and general (historical) periodizations of primitive history, partly reflecting the nature of the disciplines involved in their development.

Of the special periodizations, the most important is the archaeological one, based on differences in the material and technique of making tools. Already known to ancient Chinese and Roman philosophers, the division of ancient history into three centuries - stone, bronze (copper) and iron - received scientific development in the 19th - early 20th centuries, when the epochs and stages of these centuries were basically typified.

At dawn cultural development of mankind, the period of the Stone Age is distinguished, several hundred times longer than the entire subsequent history of mankind, and periodization within this period is carried out in accordance with the change and complication of the forms of stone inventory. Within the Paleolithic, as already mentioned, the epochs of the Lower, Middle and Upper Paleolithic are usually distinguished, the Olduvian stage, characteristic of the Australopithecus, just represents the beginning of the Lower Paleolithic era. It is this era that correlates in a wide chronological framework with the time of the Pithecanthropes, its duration is enormous, and it in itself reveals significant dynamics in the forms of settlements of the most ancient human groups and the types of stone tools they made.

So, the Stone Age begins with the Old Stone Age (Paleolithic), in which most scientists now distinguish the epochs of the early (lower), middle and late (upper) Paleolithic.

Then follows the transitional era of the Middle Stone Age (Mesolithic), which is sometimes called the “Post-Paleolithic” (Epipaleolithic), or “Pre-Neolithic” (Protoneolithic), sometimes it is not distinguished at all.

The final era of the Stone Age is the New Stone Age (Neolithic). At the end of it, the first tools made of copper appear, which gives reason to speak of a special stage of the Eneolithic, or Chalcolithic.

The schemes of the internal periodization of the New Stone, Bronze and Iron Ages at the stage of different researchers are very different from each other. Even more different are the cultures or phases distinguished within the stages, named after the areas where they were first discovered.

For most of the ecumene, the Lower Paleolithic ended approximately 100 thousand years ago, the Middle Paleolithic - 45 - 40 thousand years ago, the Upper Paleolithic - 12 - 10 thousand years ago, the Mesolithic - not earlier than 8 thousand and the Neolithic - not earlier than 5 thousand years ago. The Bronze Age lasted until the beginning of the 1st millennium BC. when the Iron Age began.

Archaeological periodization is entirely based on technological criteria and does not give a complete picture of the development of production as a whole. At present, archaeological periodization has turned from a global into a set of regional ones, but even in this form it remains of considerable importance.
The paleoanthropological (paleanthropological - site note) periodization of primitive history, based on the criteria of human biological evolution, is more limited in its goals. This is the allocation of the epochs of the existence of the most ancient, ancient and fossil modern man, i.e., archanthrope, paleoanthrope (paleanthrope) and neoanthrope. The taxonomy of the people themselves, distinguished as a family of hominids or a subfamily of hominins, their genera and species, as well as their names, varies greatly among different researchers. The most controversial periodization place of the so-called skilled man, in which some researchers still see a pre-human, others already a man. Nevertheless, paleoanthropological periodization in its most established part echoes the archaeological periodization of primitiveness.

A special aspect of the periodization of primitive history is its division into the history of primitive societies that existed before the appearance of the first civilizations, and societies that coexisted with these and later civilizations. In Western literature, they are distinguished as, on the one hand, prehistory, on the other hand, proto-, para- or ethnohistory, which are understood not only as sections of science, but also as the epochs they study. But this is mainly a source study distinction: prehistory is studied mainly archaeologically, protohistory - also with the help of written information of civilizations neighboring primitive societies, that is, historically proper. Meanwhile, the selection of those and other societies also has a content-historical significance. Both belong to the same socio-economic formation, since the criterion for belonging to a formation is the mode of production, and not the era of its existence. However, they are not identical in terms of the degree of independence of their development: as a rule, the former experienced less outside influences than the latter. Therefore, in recent years, many researchers distinguish them as apopolite primitive societies (APO) and synpolyte primitive societies (SPO).

For all the importance of special periodizations of primitive history, none of them is able to replace the general (historical) periodization of the most ancient past of mankind, the development of which has been going on for more than a century, mainly on the basis of ethnographic and archaeological data.

The first serious attempt in this direction was made by the outstanding American ethnographer L. G. Morgan, who came close to the historical-materialistic understanding of primitive history. Using the established in the XVIII century. dividing the historical process into eras of savagery, barbarism and civilization, and based mainly on the criterion of the level of development of productive forces (“production of means of life”), he singled out in each of these eras the lower, middle and higher stages. The lowest stage of savagery begins with the appearance of man and articulate speech, the middle stage with the emergence of fishing and the use of fire, the highest stage with the invention of the bow and arrows. The transition to the lower stage of barbarism is marked by the spread of ceramics, to the middle stage by the development of agriculture and cattle breeding, to the higher stage by the introduction of iron. With the invention of hieroglyphic or alphabetic writing, the era of civilization begins.

This periodization was highly appreciated by F. Engels, who at the same time laid the foundation for its revision. He generalized Morgan's periodization, defining the era of savagery as the time of appropriation, and the era of barbarism as the time of the productive economy. He also emphasized the qualitative originality of the elementary. corresponding to the lowest level of savagery of the stage of primitive history as a kind of formative period of the “human herd”. The same qualitative originality of the final stage of primitive history, corresponding to the highest stage of barbarism, was shown by him in a special chapter (“Barbarism and Civilization”) of his work “The Origin of the Family, Private Property and the State”. The underestimation in Morgan's scheme of the fundamental lines separating the stage of maturity of primitive society from the stages of its formation and decline, and a significant expansion of the factual material in the future, made it necessary to develop a new historical-materialistic periodization of primitive history.

A number of periodizations were proposed in Soviet science in the pre-war and especially in the post-war years, but even the most thoughtful of them did not stand the test of time. In particular, it turned out that the use of only the level of development of productive forces as a criterion for the periodization of primitive history leads to theoretical inconsistencies. So, even the creators of some civilizations did not yet know the production use of metals, while some of the late primitive tribes had already mastered the smelting of iron. In order to get out of this contradiction, one would have to take into account the level not so much of the absolute as of the relative productive forces, and thereby ultimately abandon the monistic principle of periodization. Therefore, scientists, and above all ethnographers, turned to the criterion on which the formational division of the entire historical process is based: differences in the mode of production and, in particular, in the forms of production relations. In this regard, an attempt was made to trace the development of forms of primitive property, which led to the allocation, in addition to the stage of the primitive human herd, the stages of the primitive tribal community and the primitive neighbor community.

The history of mankind is divided into two main periods: (I) the era of the formation of man and society, the time of pra-society and pre-history (1.6-0.04 million years ago) and (II) the era of development of a formed, ready-made human society (from 40 to 35 thousand years ago to the present).

Human civilization has several historical stages of development. They are very conditional, different schools of thought can interpret the development of civilization in different ways, but, nevertheless, an approximate division into historical periods helps to more clearly imagine the path of human society.

Within the last era, two main eras are clearly distinguished:

1) pre-class (primitive, primitive, egalitarian, etc.) society and

2) class (civilized) society (from 5 thousand years ago to the present day).

In turn, in the history of mankind, since the emergence of the first civilizations, the era of the Ancient East (III-II millennium BC), ancient (VIII century BC - V century AD), the Middle Ages ( VI-XV centuries), new XVI century. - 1917) and the latest (since 1917).

The period of prabschestvo and prehistory (1.6-0.04 million years)

Man has separated himself from the animal kingdom. As it is now firmly established, between the animal predecessors of man, on the one hand, and people as they are now (Homo sapiens), on the other, lies an unusually long period of the formation of man and society (anthroposociogenesis). The people living at that time were people who were still being formed (primal people).

The emergence of qualitatively new relations, and thus completely new stimuli of behavior inherent only to man, was absolutely impossible without restriction and suppression, without introducing into the social framework the old ones that reigned supreme in the animal world. driving forces behavior - biological instincts. An urgent objective necessity was the curbing and introduction into the social framework of two egoistic animal instincts - food and sexual.

The era of primitive (pre-class) society (40-6 thousand years ago)

In the development of pre-class society, the stages of early primitive (primitive-communist) and late primitive (primitive-prestigious) societies were successively replaced. Then came the era of transitional society from primitive to class, or pre-class.

At the stage of pre-class society, there were emerging peasant-communal (pra-peasant-communal), emerging politary (proto-political), nobilary, dominant and magnar modes of production, the latter two often forming one single hybrid mode of production dominomagnary. Individually or in various combinations, they determined the socioeconomic type of preclass sociohistorical organisms.

The era of the Ancient East (III-II millennium BC)

The first class society in the history of mankind was political. It appeared for the first time at the end of the 4th millennium BC. in the form of two historical nests: a large political socio-historical organism in the Nile Valley (Egypt) and a system of small political socio-ditch in southern Mesopotamia (Sumer). Thus, human society split into two historical worlds: the pre-class world, which turned into inferior, and the political world, which became superior. Further development followed the path, on the one hand, of the emergence of new isolated historical nests (the Harappan civilization in the Indus basin and the Shan (Yin) civilization in the Huang He valley), on the other hand, the emergence of more and more new historical nests in the neighborhood of Mesopotamia and Egypt and the formation a huge system of political sociohistorical organisms that covered the entire Middle East.

Such a collection of sociohistorical organisms can be called a historical arena. The Middle East Historical Arena was the only one at the time. It was the center of world historical development and, in this sense, a world system. The world was divided into a political center and a periphery, which was partly primitive (including pre-class), partly class, political.

Ancient era (VIII century BC - V century AD)

Due to the dead end of the temporal mode of development of the productive forces, a political society was unable to turn into a society of a higher type. A new, more progressive socio-economic formation - ancient, slave-owning, ser-war - arose as a result of a process that was above called ultra-superiorization. The emergence of ancient society was a consequence of the comprehensive influence of the Middle Eastern world system on the previously pre-class Greek sociohistorical organisms. This influence has long been noted by historians who have called this process Orientalization.

As a result, the pre-class Greek Sociores, who belonged to a pro-formation different from the proto-political one, namely the proton-bilo-magnar, first (in the 8th century BC) became domino-magnar societies (Archaic Greece), and then turned into proper ancient, server ones. So, along with the two former historical worlds (primitive and political), a new one arose - the ancient one, which became superior.

In the subsequent development, in the IV century. BC. the Middle Eastern and Mediterranean historical arenas taken together formed a sociological supersystem - the central historical space (central space - site note), and as a result, became its two historical zones. The Mediterranean zone was the historical center, the Middle East - the inner periphery.

Middle Ages (VI-XV centuries)

Undermined by internal contradictions, the Western Roman Empire collapsed under the onslaught of the Germans. There was a superposition of Germanic pre-class demosocial organisms, which belonged to a pro-formation different from the proto-political one, namely the proto-militomagnar one, on the fragments of the Western Roman geosocial organism. As a result, on the same territory, some people lived as part of demo-social pre-class organisms, while the other part lived as part of a half-destroyed class geo-social organism.

Such coexistence of two qualitatively different socio-economic and other social structures could not last too long. Either the destruction of the demosocial structures and the victory of the geosocial, or the disintegration of the geosocial and the triumph of the demosocial, or, finally, the synthesis of both had to take place. On the territory of the lost Western Roman Empire, what historians call the Romano-Germanic synthesis took place. As a result, a new, more progressive mode of production was born - the feudal and, accordingly, a new socio-economic formation.

New time (1600-1917)

On the verge of the 15th and 16th centuries capitalism began to take shape in Western Europe. The Western European feudal world system was replaced by the Western European capitalist system, which became the center of world historical development. The Middle Ages were followed by modern times. Capitalism developed in this era both inward and outward.

The first was expressed in the maturation and establishment of the capitalist structure, in the victory of the bourgeois socio-political revolutions (the Dutch 16th century, the English 17th century, the Great French 18th century). Already with the emergence of cities (X-XII centuries), Western European society embarked on the only path that is capable of ensuring, in principle, the unlimited development of productive forces - the growth of labor productivity through the improvement of production technology. The technical method of ensuring the growth of the productivity of social production did not immediately prevail, but after the industrial revolution, which began in the last third of the 18th century.

Modern times (1917-1991)

The October Revolution of 1917, led by the Bolshevik Party, won. As a result, Russia's dependence on the West was destroyed and it broke away from the periphery. Peripheral capitalism was eliminated in the country, and thus capitalism in general. But contrary to the aspirations and hopes of both the leaders and participants in the revolution, socialism did not arise in Russia: the level of development of the productive forces was too low. A class society was formed in the country in a number of ways, similar to the ancient political society, but different from it in its technical base. The old political society was agrarian, the new - industrial. Ancient politarism was a socio-economic formation, the new one was a socio-economic paraformation.