An Incomplete Education - 3,684 Things You Should Have Learned but Probably Didn't

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In the Punic Wars (three of them: 2 6 4 - 2 4 1 B
146 B.C.), those Romans were able to finish off th
present-day Tunisia, a rival for trade and emp
Mediterranean. ("Punic" is from the Roman wo
having been settled by the Phoenicians in the ni
Punic War, Rome, which had just succeeded in sh
peninsula who was boss, kicked Carthage out of S
and Corsica while nobody was looking), and cam
naval power. In the second Punic War, Hannib
Rome from Carthaginian Spain by crossing the
wedged into the toe of Italy's boot. Rome relieved
but also of its fleet, then invaded the city itself. Th
ian commercial and imperial greatness, though t
tubes completely. Didn't, that is, until the third P
incited by Cato the Elder's famous Delenda est C
destroyed") speech—first blockaded, then conqu
house by house and stone by stone, and finally
under. The survivors became slaves and the su
province of Africa. That same year (146 B.C.), Gre
off and running.

Medieval

T h e Middle Ages are the thousand years that ela
Roman Empire in the West in A.D. 476 and the on
in about 1500. Scholars subdivide the Middle Age
(476 to 900 or 1000, the central figure of which is C
dle Ages (900 or 1000 to around 1300), and the
1500); together the three periods account for the m
Ancient world from the Modern one.

The Dark Ages is what Renaissance people, l
noses, called the whole of the Middle Ages. Sc
once again, preempted the term for the Early Mi
the five centuries after the year 1000 weren't, giv
War, the Crusades, the Spanish Inquisition, and th
as all that.

Medieval times—or the medieval era, or whatev
Latinate way of saying "Middle Ages," from the
aevum, "age." A n dfeudalism describes not a period
that prevailed during it, in which vassals (the anc

ORLD HISTORY

B.C., 218-201 B.C., and 149-
heir "hated city," Carthage, in
pire throughout the western
rd for Phoenician, Carthage
inth century B.C.) In the first
howing the rest of the Italian
Sicily (then grabbed Sardinia
me to appreciate the value of
bal, a Carthaginian, invaded

Alps, but wound up getting
d Carthage not only of Spain
his was the end of Carthagin­
the place didn't go down the
Punic War, in which Rome—
Carthago ("Carthage must be
uered the city, taking it apart
y ploughing the whole place
rrounding lands the Roman
eece was annexed. Rome was

l Times, Feudalism

apsed between the fall of the
set of the Renaissance in Italy
es into the Early Middle Ages
Charlemagne), the High Mid­

Late Middle Ages (1300 to
millennium that separates the

looking down their aquiline
cholars, however, stepping in
iddle Ages only, arguing that
e or take the Hundred Years'
he Great Plague, really as bad

ver—is simply, and literally, a
Latin medius, "middle," plus
of time but a political system
cestors of our nobles) pledge

6o8 AN I N C O M P L E T E

fealty (our loyalty) to their lie
of war for inheritable fiefs (ou
in most of Europe from abou
But while it coincides with m
to substitute one term for the

Thomas Aq
Thomas à

All four are saints. Think of
the humanist, respectively. Bu

Thomas à Becket, a twelf
somewhat loose-living youth
(see page 589) every reason
bishop of Canterbury, Becke
depending on whom you ta
Anyway, he interfered enoug
power at the expense of the
1170 in Canterbury Cathedr
mediate baronial rebellion (
subsequent canonization, an
(it's Thomas' shrine that Ch
plays (by Tennyson, Eliot, a
and Peter O'Toole).

Thomas Aquinas, a thirtee
breed of philosophers who lik
the head of a pin and, regardl
In a sense, he transcended the
of that endless Q & A energy
couldn't be endangered by rea
Known to some as the Angel
his delivery—as the Dumb O

Thomas à Kempis, a fourte
author of something called T
of the individual soul up to an
big trouble for the Catholic C
all commune directly with G
worship, or sacraments, let a
stop showing up on Sunday.
the Church's pattern of salv
thinking.

E EDUCATION

ege lord (our king) exchanging their service in time
ur real estate). A s it happens, feudalism was in effect
ut the tenth century until the end of the fourteenth.
much of the Middle Ages, that doesn't mean you get
e other.

quinaSy Thomas à Becket,
à Kempis, Thomas More

them as the scholastic, the martyr, the mystic, and
ut let's do this in chronological order.
fth-century Englishman, is the martyr. After a
h, during which he gave his friend King Henry II

to think he'd make an easygoing enough Arch­
et fooled everybody, including himself, by either,
alk to, getting religion or going on a power trip.
gh with Henry's attempts to consolidate national
Church that he wound up being assassinated in
ral. Thus began a martyrdom that would see im­
(and the consequent withering of royal power),
n enormous and centuries-long tourist industry
haucer's pilgrims are headed for), plus all those
and Anouilh) and movies (with Richard Burton

nth-century Italian, is the scholastic, one of that
ked to argue about how many angels could dance on
less of that answer, whether or not they had navels.
e genre (see page 312), managing to channel some
y into arguing with the real dopes about how faith
ason, which meant it wasn't a sin to go on thinking.
lic Doctor, to others—the result of the slowness of
Ox.
eenth-century German, is the mystic. Purported
The Imitation of Christ, which charted the progress
nd including its union with God, in fact he spelled
Church. After all, emphasize enough how we can
G o d in perfect solitude, without need of words,
lone church property, and a few of us are going to
. This wasn't Kempis' intention (he still honored
vation), but it got Martin Luther, among others,

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With Thomas More, we're back in England and
northern humanist, like the Dutchman Erasmu
Calvin (see below), he took Renaissance energy—w
down in Italy to make beautiful things and expl
human personality—and applied it to thinking abo
human nature. A statesman (and the author of Uto
a severe and snobbish agricultural community with
of the degrading stuff), he, like Becket, was put to
king's bidding. Required by Henry VIII to sign
which declared the English monarch to be the "P
Head of the Church and Clergy of England," there
under the thumb of the Pope and allowing Henry to
ine of Aragon, More demurred. He was offed the
four centuries later.

John Wyclif, John Huss, John C

Another group who, basically, gave the Catholic Ch
an Englishman teaching at Oxford, had noticed, l
was possible to do without the elaborate possession
devout by nature, even without priests. The differe
unlike Kempis, said as much, furthermore recomm
go home and read the Bible, which he just happene
glish.

John Huss, a Bohemian from central Europe who
took things one step further by turning his ritual-r
gious group into a Czech national movement in pro
the area. Both Wyclif and Huss were branded as h

John Calvin, a Frenchman who lived from 150
deal. A generation younger than Luther, he experi
the age of twenty-four, joined forces with the religi
lished his Institutes of the Christian Religion, addr
ings—not just to Germans but to everybody wh
existing Roman setup. Because Calvin did so much
tion (God had chosen some people to be saved, ot
who you were, and that was that, don't even bo
tended to be militant, uncompromising, self-rig
also refused to recognize the subordination of chur
of rules by any king or parliament. Rather, Chr
Calvin, Christianize the state, as Oliver Cromwel

ORLD HISTORY 609

d it's the sixteenth century. A
us and the Frenchman John
which tended to be employed
ore the infinite riches of the
out God, society, science, and
opia, his version of which was
h plenty of slaves to take care
o death for refusing to do his

the 1534 Act of Supremacy,
Protector and Only Supreme
eby getting England out from
o get his divorce from Cather­
following year and canonized

Calvin, John Knox

hurch a bad time. John Wyclif,
like Thomas à Kempis, that it
ns of a church and, if you were
ence is that in 1380 or so, he,
ending that everybody simply
ed to have translated into En­

o lived at about the same time,
resistant Hussites from a reli­
otest of German supremacy in
heretics.
09 to 1564, is a much bigger
ienced a sudden conversion at
ious revolutionaries, and pub­
ressed—unlike Luther's writ­
ho was dissatisfied with the
h with the idea of predestina­
hers to be damned; you knew
other to struggle), Calvinists
ghteous—i.e., Puritans. They
rch to state or the laying down
ristians should, according to
ll would do a century later in

AN I N C O M P L E T E

England. In the meantime, C
Calvinists) and spread not on
lands, Poland, and Hungary,

In Scotland, John Knox, a p
Queen of Scots, a bad case of
terianism—the established Sc

All four come from the Latin
(and the Frenchman's "Jacque
and increasingly cynical—dur
right after Elizabeth. More a
late, great tragedies and roman
of his contemporaries John Th
a Whore Ford; the poetry of D
James version of the Bible.

Jacobite describes those Br
later, were trying to get Jame
firm adherents of the divine r
with a lot of collaboration on
invasion attempts, via Scotlan
turn the clock back by a cent
moving. The net impact of th
tional Scottish Highlands cla
years.

Today, "Jacobite" is pretty
used, impishly, of Henry Jam
odd George Will or Mary M
radical of the essentially well-
French Revolution (who'd me
Paris); it embraced such subgr
included almost every French
pierre, Marat, Danton, Cond
found—by the rabble, the popu
because they went around no
ciently militant, and most of
the guillotine. Today, "Jacobi

E EDUCATION

Calvinism took root in France (the Huguenots were
nly to England and Germany, but to the Nether­
too.
particularly sober-sided type who would give Mary,
f the shakes, made Calvinism—later called Presby-
cottish religion.

n given name "Jacobus," the ancestor of our "James"
s"). Jacobean describes the period—rich, exuberant,
ring which the Stuart king James I ruled Britain,
a cultural term than a historical one, it evokes the
nces of Shakespeare; the grisly, overwrought drama
he Duchess ofMalfi Webster and John Tis Pity She's
Donne and the Metaphysicals; and, natch, the King

its who, several decades and an expulsion or two
es Is Stuart descendants—Scottish, Catholic, and
right of kings—back on the English throne. Even
the part of the French and a couple of out-and-out
nd, in 1715 and 1745, the Jacobites, who'd hoped to
tury or so, didn't so much as get the minute hand
heir scheming was the stripping down of the tradi­
ns and the banning of kilts and bagpipes for thirty

much relegated to the history books (except when
mes fans). Jacobin, by contrast, still shows up in the
McGrory column. Originally, it signified the most

-educated, middle-class revolutionaries during the
et in an old Jacobin, or Dominican, monastery in
roups as the Girondists and the "Mountain"; and it
h revolutionary leader you ever heard of: Robes­
dorcet, St. Just, etc. Eventually, the Jacobins were
ular revolutionaries like the sans-culottes (so called
t in knee breeches but in trousers)—to be insuffi­
them wound up, like the royalists before them, at
in" is used to describe radicals, or extreme leftists,

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who are determined to carry on the revolution at an
ical theory into the wee hours; and who, in general,
the majority, the persons-in-the-street, believing th
who are best equipped to call the shots. The Bols
revolution, are this century's most famous Jacobins

Oldest of all is jacquerie, from "Jacques," the ge
peasant, used to describe an insurrection of peasan
France in 1358, a response to the economic har
Black Death and the Hundred Years' War (see pa
risings took place in England, most notably Wat T
ing which, shaking their pitchforks, peasant spok
some people were rich and fancy, others poor and d
mous couplet, "When Adam delved and Eve spa
man?

Puritans, Pilgrims, Dissenters

The Puritans were the extreme, Calvinistic Protesta
erate, Church of England ones—in seventeenth-ce
were those Puritans who left England for Holland
rived at Plymouth Rock in 1620. T h e Roundhead
close-cropped hair) were the Puritan followers of O
war between the forces of Parliament (spearheade
the king, Charles I, whose followers had long h
cologne, and were known as Cavaliers. By the 165
that took in a variety of anti-Church of England n
would have designated the fellows you used to thin

Diggers, Levellers, Luddites

British antiestablishmentarians, all. T h e Levellers
record, Puritans) and the Diggers were both fixtur
The former pushed for almost-universal male suf
subordination of Parliament to the will of the vote
take the American and French Revolutions (and a
taste of. T h e latter thumbed their noses at the idea
around occupying and occasionally cultivating othe

ORLD HISTORY 6ll

ny cost; who like to talk polit­
, have contempt for the will of
hat it's they, the intelligentsia,
sheviks, behind Russia's 1917
s.
eneric French nickname for a
nts, such as was first set off in
dships brought about by the
age 593). Similar massive up­
Tyler's rebellion of 1381, dur­
kesmen wondered aloud why
drab—or as they put it in a fa­
an / Who was then a gentle-

s, Roundheads

ants—as opposed to the mod­
entury England. T h e Pilgrims
d in 1608, and eventually ar­
ds (so called because of their
Oliver Cromwell in the 1640s
ed by Cromwell) and those of
hair, wore too much lace and
50s, Dissenters, a broader term
nonconformists, was how you
nk of as Puritans.

s, Chartists

(many of whom were, for the
res in Cromwellian England.
ffrage, a written constitution,
ers, and other things it would
another century) to get a real
a of private property and went
er people's land.

6l2 AN I N C O M P L E T E

T h e Luddites were rioters w
northern England between 18
they blamed the impact of the
misery. Their leader was Ned

T h e Chartists were a work
they'd drafted in 1838, advoca
frage, the secret ballot, equal
bers of the House of Common
that you wouldn't have to be in
in session there. The Chartist
from the government and from
But, unlike the Diggers, the
least gotten a lot of smart, inf
be in place shortly after World

Both arose in seventeenth-cen
rounding the pro-French, pro
known as the Country Party
eager to weaken a king since
the middle class and the merch
mention his even more Catho
They stood for the supremac
Tories—also known as the C
the country squires, and the A
picious of the Whigs' commer

Of course, neither the Whi
political party back then (even
them), but by the next century
try, and would remain so righ
renamed themselves Conserva

Both terms were less than c
used by the opponents of the f
tish cattle rustler, a "tory" an I
these days, but even now, in E
servative, especially a right-wi

E EDUCATION

who took to destroying machinery in the factories of
811 and 1816; especially averse to textile machines,

Industrial Revolution for their unemployment and
Ludd.
ing-class group, named after the People's Charter
ating, among other things, universal adult male suf­
electoral districts, the annual election of the mem­
ns, and the payment of salaries to those members so
ndependently wealthy to be able to spend your days
t movement died down as the result of opposition
m businessmen, as well as from internal dissension.
Levellers, and the Luddites, the Chartists had at
fluential people to listen. Their full program would
d War I.

Whigs, Tories

ntury England in response to the controversy sur­
o-Catholic policies of Charles II. T h e Whigs—also
y, made up of the biggest-deal aristocrats, always
it automatically strengthened them, and backed by
hants of London—wanted to see Charles II (not to
lic brother, James II, due to succeed him) checked.
cy of Parliament and for religious toleration. The
Court Party, consisting of the lesser aristocracy,
Anglican clergy—supported Charles and were sus­
rcial leanings, among other things.
igs nor the Tories were anything like an organized
n taken together, there were only a few thousand of
y they would be the two leading parties of the coun­
t through the nineteenth century, when the Tories
atives and the Whigs renamed themselves Liberals.
complimentary in origin, and were in each case first
faction in question. A "whig" was originally a Scot­
Irish plunderer. You don't hear much about Whigs
England, a Tory is a mildly hostile name for a con­
ing one.

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Colony, Protectorate, Dominion, T
Trusteeship, Dependency,

Enjoy them while you can; the era of imperialism is
iar word here is colony, but it has an edge: A colony
company of people transplanted somewhere for the
sult, a colony should have a fair sprinkling of faces
look like back in the Mother Country. (Canada w
whereas in China—except for Hong Kong, another
of treaties and trading concessions in effect.) In a p
doesn't claim to be settling anything; it just strides
of the existing ruler, presumably to save him and
noble-minded imperial powers. A dominion is a spe
of a particularly well-regarded colony that, while st
was largely self-governing—Canada, Australia, an
today, the dominions are independent (which is not
standy popping by). Territory applies to a portion
and undeveloped, like Canada's Yukon and Nort
deemed ready to become a full-fledged state or prov

A mandate is what the victorious Allied powers h
the former empires of the defeated Central Powe
Britain got Palestine and Transjordan; France, Syr
of Germany's former holdings in the Pacific; and—
what—South Africa got the former German colon
Namibia, which finally achieved independence in
pened after World War II, except this time the U
doling out of former Italian and Japanese possessio
ity for the mandates. T h e Trust Territory of the Pa
the United States (which, just between us, seems
completely, though it's granted varying degrees of
nent parts), was the last remaining trusteeship, offi

A dependency could be any of the above, plus th
whose foreign affairs you're helping to handle eve
own it. If you did, it—like colonies, protectorates,
possession, and you would be both occupying and co

The Boer War, the Boxer

We know you think you know—and you're probabl
and Boxer Rebellion are tomorrow's Persian and Pu
them just to make sure.

ORLD HISTORY

Territory, Mandate,
Possession

s winding to a stop. The famil­
y, strictly speaking, consists of a
e purpose of settling it; as a re­
that remind you of what folks
as a colony of Great Britain's,
r colony—Britain just had a lot
protectorate, an imperial power

in and takes over in the name
d his subjects from other, less
ecifically British concept, used
till tied to the mother country,
d New Zealand, for example;

to say the queen isn't still con-
of a country—usually remote
hwest Territories—that's not
vince.
handed out to themselves from
ers after World War I. Thus
ria and Lebanon; Japan, some
—abbreviating the list some­
ny of Southwest Africa, a.k.a.
n 1990. The same thing hap­
United Nations supervised the
ons, plus assumed responsibil­
acific Islands, administered by
s very reluctant to let go of it
f independence to its compo­
icially dissolved in 1986.
he little sheikdom or sultanate
en though you don't claim to
dominions, etc.—would be a
ontrolling it.

Rebellion

ly right. But today's Boer War
unic Wars, so let's run through

614 AN I N C O M P L E T E

The Boers (from the Dutc
Dutchmen who'd originally s
of Africa, in the seventeenth
Cape according to the terms
Boers, simple, old-fashioned
the Transvaal and the Orang
British. They didn't think
fortune-hunting Englishmen
their planning for a Cape-to-
by two little Boer republics ju
posed to go down. The disco
surized matters further. Brits
that would allow the Brits to b
Boers, and Europe started s
emperor, William II, even s
congratulating him on having
call for the support of frien
to war with the two Boer repu
conquered them in the Boer
Empire, but with various o
Afrikaans) pretty much intac
Union of South Africa, today'
get going here. Britain, for h
Europe—which encouraged h
an acceptable potential ally fo
away.

T h e Boxer Rebellion also br
with every other Western pow
pire, now weakened, demora
cret society bent on revolu
Righteous Harmonious Fists
the nickname "Boxers") had
Russian, and German, as wel
aries and railway workers, a
European powers, joined by J
force against the Boxers, sq
made things even harder on
things, a bill for $330 million
it was high time to join its ne
younger Chinese, deciding it
and the government, rallied t

E EDUCATION

ch word for "farmer") were the descendants of the
settled the Cape of Good Hope, the southern tip

century. After 1815, when England annexed the
s of the Congress of Vienna (see page 595), the
d folk, made the "great trek" inland and cleared
ge Free State in an effort to get away from the

much of slavery or miners or adventurers or
n. Unfortunately, the English, in the course of
-Cairo railway, now found themselves confronted
ust where a few hundred miles of track were sup­
overy of gold and diamonds in the Transvaal pres­
s poured in, the Transvaal refused to pass the bills
build their mines, the Brits started to terrorize the
screaming about British bullying. (The German
ent a telegram to the president of the Transvaal
g staved off the British raiders "without having to
ndly powers.") Three years later England went
ublics, and over the course of the next three years,

War ( 1 8 9 9 - 1 9 0 2 ) . Incorporated into the British
of their institutions (including their language,
ct, the Boers soon found themselves a part of the
's Republic of South Africa, about which we'll not
her part, found herself the least popular nation in
her to rethink matters enough to present herself as
or a war that, it would turn out, was only a decade

roke out in 1899 and also involved Britain, along
wer with a stake in China—formerly a proud em­
alized, and on her last legs. Seems a Chinese se­
tion and named something like the Order of
s (the Westerners doubled over with laughter at
d besieged all the Western legations—French,
ll as British—in northern China, killing mission­
s well as Chinese converts to Christianity. The
apan and the United States, sent an international
quashing them in very short order. The victors
n the Chinese, hitting them with, among other
n. The upshot: The Chinese government decided
eighbor Japan in a Westernization program. And
t was high time to get rid of both the foreigners
to a fellow named Sun Yat-sen. It was the begin-

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ning of a Chinese revolution that, with time out
on for half a century.

Redshirts, Brownshirtsy Blackshirt

T h e Redshirts were Garibaldi's (he'd gotten the w
government of Uruguay, whose independence he'd h
he helped achieve the unification of the modern
1860s. T h e Brownshirts were Hitler's; they const
SA, the Nazi "stormtroopers." T h e Blackshirts wer
of his elite Schutzstaffel, or S S , the "security echel
from Mussolini, who'd first come up with the notio
tias. T h e Black and Tans were Britain's, recruited
Irish Constabulary caused by the killing or intimida
bers during the Troubles of 1919-1923; themselves
named after a local breed of hound), the Black an
and black belts.

Epochy Era, Period, Ag

"Epoch" and "era" present the big stumbling block
uses them anymore the way the historians meant th
epoch is the date of an occurrence that starts thing
under new conditions (i.e., a point in time). An
what started as an epoch continues, building stea
coming established—at which point you've got a
course and is ready for another epoch-making eve
era (the Age of Reason, the Era of Good Feeling: b
them); an eon any immeasurably, even infinitely lon
a cycle is a succession of periods followed by ano
your birthday is the day you were born, celebrated
countries.

Note to geology majors: You shouldn't have to b
cares—that the geologic time scale's largest division
followed by the era (one or more periods), the perio
the epoch. Thus, one—that is, you—speaks of the P
period of the Cenozoic era. Right?

ORLD HISTORY 615

for World War II, would go

ts, Black and Tans

wool for them cheap from the
helped secure), and with them
n nation of Italy in the early
ituted the Sturmabteilung, or
re also Hitler's, in the persons
lon," but he'd gotten the idea
on of color-coded private mili­
to fill vacancies in the Royal
ation of its native-Irish mem­
s given to terrorist tactics (and
nd Tans wore khaki uniforms

ge, Eon

k here, because almost nobody
hem to be used. Which is: An
gs going in a new direction or
era is the time during which
am, gaining momentum, be­
a period, an era that's run its
ent. A n age is pretty much an
both have a sense of center to
ng time. Anything else? Well,
other, similar succession. And
with a cake in most Western

e reminded—and no one else
n is the eon (one or more eras),
od (one or more epochs), and
Pliocene epoch of the Tertiary

6i6 AN I N C O M P L E T

ontributor Michael So
V^woman—who took Ka
history and did so much th
among themselves as to wha
and ought to have meant that
and fairly early on, "Je ne sui
Marxist or not, himself.

KARL MARX

Marx, and Marxism, didn't si
was influenced by the social
economic ideas that came ou
cially, by the philosophical
coming—out of Germany as
Marx can himself be thought
philosophers, the most notab
he—along with other "Youn
his youth and from whom he
any philosopher, Marx was in
tem "solves" is that most bas
and where. Marx answers t
antithesis-synthesis dynamic
philosophy that says matter c
sult, as if you didn't know: dia

In a nutshell, Marx's argu
forces in history and that it i
cial relationships arises. Marx
"base" and the social "superst
of production"—the basic se
or classes who are doing the
defined by the "base" decreed
spiritual processes of life. It
their existence, but, on the c

E EDUCATION

Reds

orkin casts a cold eye on the men—and the
arl Marx's more or less straightforward theory of
hinking, rethinking, second-guessing, and arguing
t he really meant, didn't mean, might have meant,
t poor Marx had no choice but to confess, famously
is pas un Marxiste." But first, a look at the old boy,

X (GERMAN, 1818-1883)

imply happen. A German, born in 1818, Karl Marx
ideas that came out of the French Revolution, the
ut of the British Industrial Revolution, and, espe­
ideas that were now coming—and coming and
s it emerged into the European high noon. In fact,
t of as one in an ever-lengthening line of German
ble of whom was Hegel (see page 321), to whom
ng Hegelians" like Engels—was much devoted in
e picked up the very useful dialectical method. Like
nterested in the big questions, and the one his sys­
sic quandary of history; namely, what makes it go,
the question by taking dialectics (Hegel's thesis-
) and combining it with materialism, the half of
constitutes, and has precedence over, mind. The re­
alectical materialism.
ument is that economic relationships are the basic
is only around them that the whole complex of so­
x called these two interrelated aspects the economic
ructure." As a materialist, he felt that the "relations
tup and reciprocal interaction among those people
e work and making (or not making) the money—
d the "general character of the social, political, and
is not the consciousness of men that determines
contrary, their existence that determines their con-

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Ltbenslaaf and besoad

sciousness." (Those who really know their Marxis
now how Marx has found Hegel "standing on his
actualities come before ideas, that the mind doesn
decide to go out and found a Greek city-state, but t
"setting him on his feet again.")

There's one more very big issue: As with all dia
very nature of things; a force necessarily calls its op
the social system—the superstructure, as it were—c
of "contradiction," leading to a disequilibrium with
tually, to the overthrow of the whole business—in
progress. Watch how it works: Material condition
ever) spawn economic classes. Thus, at some poi
landholding, class, which, according to the theo
whelmed by a bourgeois, or commercial, class. No
anybody else whose eyes were open, that bourgeoisi
alectical antithesis, the proletariat. In fact, the more
more it was going to become proletarian: The busie
laboring class. Eventually, with all these bourgeois
their race to get ahead, the proletariat will see its c
priating the expropriators," "seizing the levers of

ORLD HISTORY 617

c&nfafymcHcif:UrtP-^cfrutshtr; Karr» !Vo. .

/
nridt: UnJtiuU /fol

Ansdtrift:

distorttn:
/ * «6a*v /fifths
ûL^r^Ù^. .

dtrt Ltistangtn:

m like to observe along about
head" and—by insisting that
n't conceive of freedom, then
the other way around—is here

alectics, change is part of the
pposite into being. For Marx,
contains within itself the seeds
the economic base and, even-
n other words, revolution; also
ns (agrarian, industrial, what-
int, there'd been a feudal, or
ory, got top-heavy and over-
w, in plain sight of Marx and
ie was calling into being its di-
e bourgeois a country was, the
er the factories, the bigger the
types devouring each other in
chance and take over, "expro-
f production," and abolishing

6i8 AN I N C O M P L E T E

private property. Marx thinks
ety isn't quite ready to become
"the opiate of the people," th
grimness of their lives by pro
bags and leave town.

O f course, the theory is m
scriptions like the foregoing
Marxism.") In fact, Marx de
producing a vast body of wo
Marx knew that he couldn't c
in the library. H e was also a r
with practice. "Philosophers h
lem is to change it." So Marx
went to meetings and debates
more evolved than any Germ
evitable revolt. He wrote new
correspondent for the New Y
deported. And he, with his f
perhaps the most stirring and
nothing to lose but their ch
Workers of the world, unite."

Marx had a lot of faith in th
ism was, in effect, fleecing. No
the system, they were the harb
initially a new socialist order
would be distributed on the p
each according to his ability."
away," leaving no oppressive in
time, it was to be governed,
tariat."

But while Marx was proba
regime, many subsequent self
especially to the possibilities o
many other great thinkers, ha
As his work attained the statu
multiplied. Marx became a do
and incomplete: Das Kapital,
battled over by countless factio
A s a result, the first thing mo
which side they're on. The fol

E EDUCATION

he sees this coming in 1848, but he s wrong; soci­
e classless, the state to "wither away," or religion—
he only thing that keeps them from protesting the
omising all of them another one later—to pack its

much more complicated than that. (Simplified de­
are the basis for what is commonly called "vulgar

evoted his life to elaborations on all of the above,
ork, vastly documented and vastly ramified. But
change the destiny of the world just by hanging out
revolutionary who held that theory must be joined
have studied the world," as he put it, "but the prob­
x organized. He lectured and made speeches. He
s. Eventually, he went west, to London and Paris,
man city was and hence that much closer to the in­
wspaper articles (Marx was for a time the European
York Tribune). H e , with his family, starved and got
friend Engels, wrote The Communist Manifesto—
incendiary document ever. "The proletarians have
hains," it concludes. "They have a world to win.
"
hese proletarians, the class of wage earners capital­
ot only were they destined to rise up and overthrow
bingers of everything Marx was working toward—
in which the oppressed would be freed and wealth
principle of "to each according to his needs, from
Ultimately, even this workers' state would "wither
nstitutions to mediate among people; in the mean­
in Marx's phrase, by a "dictatorship of the prole­

bly just trying to describe the class content of the
f-avowed Marxists have seen it otherwise, warming
of that first word, "dictatorship." Such, as with so
as been the fate of Marx: He has been interpreted.
ure of holy writ, his disciples—and his exegetes—
ogmatist's dream. His work (enormous, changing,

his magnum opus, was never finished) has been
ons, each of which claims to know the "real" Marx.
ost Marxists want to know about other Marxists is
llowing may provide some clues.

W

FRIEDRICH ENGELS (GERM

Friedrich Engels was the perfect collaborator: patie
thusiastic, and rich. The son of a wealthy textile m
years, in charge of the Manchester branch of his f
enabled him to send regular checks to Marx (ofte
tween the Marx family and destitution), it also g
from which to survey the course of mid-nineteenth
grist for such works as The Condition of the Worki
Engels' work is inseparable from that of Marx (th
The Communist Manifesto, and Engels ghosted man
and he proved Marx's staunchest defender in the
self-educated, Engels was not as deep a thinker a
polemicist, and his ongoing fascination with scie
made him even more adamant than his colleague a
talism's downfall. Perhaps his most enduring contr
oration of the idea of the "relative autonomy" of t
that it could interact with the base, sometimes act
only for a limited period. Through such subde
started a trend toward revisionism—the customa
tampering with Marx—that would soon become s

VLADIMIR ILYICH
(RUSSIAN, 1870-1

With Lenin, as with college freshmen, the key wo
party—in this case, the Communist Party. Lenin
Ulyanov) was the revolutionary's revolutionary. H e
Marxism—up to that point, don't forget, a We
doctrine—to a strong, and absolutely Russian, trad
of false names, forged passports, and invisible
Then, incredibly single-minded, he proceeded to
everything through the sieve of revolutionary practi
the belief that any issue could be resolved in respon
the query: "Is it good for the revolution?" Tireless
propagandist, prolific as a writer, incomparable as a
itator, and merciless as an adversary, Lenin emerg
the leader of the Bolshevik (or "majority") faction o

ORLD HISTORY

MAN, 1820-1895)

ent, intelligent, articulate, en­
manufacturer, he was, for many

family's factory. This not only
en the one thing standing be­
gave him a fine vantage point
h century capitalism, providing
ing Class in England. In truth,
hey wrote successive drafts of
ny of Marx's Tribune articles),
years after his death. Largely
as Marx but he was a brilliant
ence, particularly Darwinism,
about the inevitability of capi­
ribution, however, is the elab­
the superstructure, the notion
ually pushing it along a bit, if

divergences as these Engels
ary pejorative for any and all
tandard operating procedure.

LENIN
1924)

ord is
n (né
e wed
estern
dition

ink.
o put
ice in
nse to
s as a
an ag­
ed as
of the

6zo AN I N C O M P L E T

Russian Communists, and be
head of state of the new Russ
tended to emphasize the d
exercised not by the unwieldy
munist Party proper, compo
could both understand the pro
according to Lenin, there cou
ful vanguard party to get thin
ment on this, which Lenin, w
heirs had him embalmed and
an object of necrophiliac adm
continuing embarrassment to
can't quite make up its mind h

ROSA LUXEMB

Ro
kno
tho
Bol
mo
Lux
the
thin
for
arg
by
com
mu
trul
frui
bes

L
lati
by
ine
lon
bet
and
me
tac

E EDUCATION

ecame, after the October 1917 revolution, the first
sia. His version of the dictatorship of the proletariat
dictatorship. As he saw it, authority was to be
y mass of proletarians but by a surrogate: the Com­
osed of dedicated and knowledgeable people who
oletarian worldview and act as its instrument. In fact,
uldn't be any revolution at all without such a power­
ngs organized. There was, needless to say, disagree­
who died on the job, never saw resolved. Even so, his
d placed on display in Red Square, where he remains
miration for what's left of the masses and a source of
o the post-Communist Russian government, which
how to dispose of him.

BURG (POLISH, 1871-1919)

sa Luxemburg ("Red Rosa," as she came to be
own) was the great champion of revolutionary or­
odoxy. Considerably more leftist than Lenin and the
lsheviks, she vigorously assailed their revisionism,
ost notably over the issue of party organization.
xemburg pushed for what she called "spontaneity,"
e kind of worker-originated impulse that resulted in
ngs like general strikes and that upbraided Lenin

his opportunistic advocacy of "ultra-centralism,"
guing that "revolutionary tactics cannot be invented

leaders, they must develop spontaneously—history
mes first, leaders' consciousness second." And "We
ust frankly admit to ourselves that errors made by a
ly revolutionary labor movement are infinitely more
itful and more valuable than the infallibility of the
st of all possible central committees."
Luxemburg's major theoretical work is The Accumu­
ion of Capital, which attempts to supplement Marx
establishing a precise economic argument for the
evitability of the collapse of capitalism. To make a
ng story short, she contends that the contradiction
tween capitalism's reliance on noncapitalist markets
d its tendency to destroy its noncapitalist environ­
nt can only lead to its ruin. T h e Leninist camp at­
cked her for this theory, which they twisted into

W

the "automatic collapse of capitalism" and brand
would not live to see her reputation totally besm
and her friend Karl Liebknecht (with whom she f
predecessor of the German Communist Party) wer
by the German authorities.

JOSEF STALIN (RUSSIAN

What can you say about Stalin except that he was
news since the Flood? Born Josef Dzhugashvili,
Stalin ("Man of Steel"), which you'd think would
his mettle. On assuming power, Stalin's interpreta
proletariat turned out to be even simpler than L
His legacy includes the gulag, the cult of pers
purges, mass starvation, a police state, and the i
Union. It is to this last that Stalinists tend to po
ments. Except among the three of them, howev
term of abuse. When Stalin died, he was put on di
ple had second thoughts some years later and rem
toned surroundings.

LEON TROTSKY (RUSSIA

Like Lenin and Stalin, Leon Trotsky (né Bronste
changed his name. On other points they had
in common. One of the revolutionary "old bo
(though a relatively late joiner of the party, for wh
he was given much grief), Trotsky organized the R
Army after the revolution and led it to success in
ensuing civil war. Energetic and smart, he was one
the key men around Lenin, despite differences o
the role of the Party. Under Stalin, he was not o
not key, he was not even around very long, sent i
exile by the jealous despot. The issue over which t
nominally came to blows was Trotsky's theory
"permanent revolution," which was in conflict w
Stalin's espousal of "socialism in one country." Tr
sky had what might be called a "process" view of r

WORLD HISTORY 621

ded as "fatalistic." Luxemburg
mirched—by Stalin—since she
founded the Spartacus League,
re murdered while under arrest

N, 1879-1953)

one of the worst pieces of bad
he soon changed his name to
have given someone a clue to
ation of the dictatorship of the
Lenin's: dictatorship by Stalin.
sonality, the show trials, the
industrialization of the Soviet
oint when citing his achieve­
ver, "Stalinist" is considered a
isplay next to Lenin until peo­
moved his corpse to less high-

AN, 1879-1940)

ein)
less
oys"
hich
Red
the
e of
over
only
into
they
y of
with
rot­
rev-

622 AN I N C O M P L E T E

olution. H e felt that the suc
pended on its continuous exp
nations. "Socialism in one co
ing the revolution at home w
solved by one of Stalin's agen
ax (almost certainly not an
things, though, "Trotskyism"
fervently believed by Trotsky
Trotsky was such a prize, eit
though he was a fine writer an
revolution. Should someone
tributes that he or she is prob
is a "Trotskyist" to a Stalinis

MAO ZEDON

M a o Zedong's was the last tr
starts as Tito, Khaddafi, and
among Marxists, Mao's was t
this along by being as brilliant
told billions of Chinese with
bright, and no one can chang
only by eating it and we know
and "Some play the piano wel
the melodies they produce."

What makes it all so spec
uniquely Chinese, with dialec
Hegel. But Mao's major contr
1920s Mao broke with the ort
lutionary class and proposed,
antry play the leading role—a
oppressed peasants and scarce
thodoxy by emphasizing the i
lead to the so called Hundred
criticize the Party and which
tural Revolution (which enco
rapidly got out of hand). In th
ably because you can only say
sea of the people" so many tim

E EDUCATION

ccess of the revolution that Russia was having de­
pansion, both within Russia and in other European
ountry," as you may have guessed, held that nurtur­
was the top priority. The question was finally re­
nts, who tracked Trotsky to Mexico and put an ice

ice pick) through his skull. Like so many other
" was mainly a fiction invented by Stalin (though
y and a few others) out of sheer paranoia. Not that
ther, being rigid, doctrinaire, and even brutal, al­
nd the author of the définitive account of the 1917
call you a "Trot," however, it's to the former at­
bably alluding. Remember also that a "Trotskyite"
t.

NG (CHINESE, 1893-1976)

ruly great cult of personality. Beside him, such up­
Barbra Streisand pale into insignificance. Indeed,
the last of the great isms. M a o surely helped all of
t an aphorist as he was a revolutionary, stirring un­
lines like "The world is progressing, the future is
e the general trend of history," "We know the pear

w society only by participating in the class struggle,"
ll and some badly, and there is a great difference in

cial? To start with the obvious, Mao's Marxism is
ctics as much indebted to Taoist yin and yang as to
ibution is the idea of peasant revolution. In the late
thodox view that the proletariat was the only revo­

to the consternation of the Soviets, that the peas­
a strikingly apt idea in a country that had jillions of
ely a prole. M a o also departed from theoretical or­
importance of the superstructure. Later, this was to
d Flowers Campaign (which encouraged people to

rapidly got out of hand) and to the so called Cul­
ouraged people to criticize the Party and which
he West, nobody much is a Maoist anymore, prob­
y "The revolutionary is like a fish swimming in the
mes before beginning to feel a little silly.

W

GEORG LUKÂCS (HUNGAR

If you're determined to go after bourgeois cultur
work of Georg Lukâcs is indispensable. Lukâcs
kahsh") provided the first serious evaluation of H
revising then-current views of dialectics. No intell
that the historical interaction of subject and object
insisting in History and Class Consciousness, his maj
consciousness would impel the proletariat to beco
object of history. As he put it, proletarian diale
sciousness which "is not the knowledge of an op
consciousness of the object the act of consciousness
of the object."

Another riveting concept of Lukâcs' is "totalit
sisted, tends to destroy the possibility of imag
the-trees-style, preventing proletarians (among
knowledge of reality. Dialectics is the answer, becau
sees the isolated facts of social life as aspects of th
grates them in a totality, can knowledge of facts h
reality." Which brings us to the idea of reification
about Lukâcs should you choose to remember anyt
cept Marx had introduced in his discussion of the
Das Kapital) is the process by which bourgeois soc
into commodity relations, the process by which peo
it's the real culprit behind our inability to grasp the

ANTONIO GRAMSCI (ITAL

Antonio Gramsci is everyone's favorite Marxist, as
ure as the movement has spawned. A hunchbacke
who was in on the founding of the Italian Commun
years of his brief life in a Fascist prison, where he
priately named Prison Notebooks, his major legacy
him to focus his attention on theoretical questions
structed a Marxist philosophy of culture, in the pro
oretician of the superstructure.

Perhaps one of the reasons for Gramsci's curren

WORLD HISTORY 62J

RIAN, 1885-1971)

e with a Marxist cleaver, the
s (that's pronounced " L O O -
egel's role in Marx's thought,
lectual lightweight, he argued
t is the basic form of dialectics,
jor work, that a developed class
ome both the subject and the
ctics implies an idea of con­
pposed object but is the self-
overthrows, the objective form

ty." Bourgeois society, he in­
ges of the whole, forest-for-

others) from acquiring true
use "only in this context which
he historical process and inte­
hope to become knowledge of
n, the one thing to remember
thing at all. Reification (a con­
e fetishism of commodities in
iety transforms social relations
ople become mere objects, and
e totality of things.

LIAN, 1891-1937)

s poignant and congenial a fig­
ed scholar and man of action
nist Party, he spent the last ten

managed to write the appro­
y. A lengthy sentence allowed
s and, over the years, he con­
ocess becoming the great the­

nt popularity in academic foot-

624 AN I N C O M P L E T E

notes is the great emphasis he
he saw as the leading agent
counterrevolutionary) force i
This ideological ascendancy
cocktail-party concept. The
everywhere, so much so that
seem like simple common se
and other progressive element
miliar?) that would challenge
ology. In opposition to Len
control—Gramsci envisioned
Sixties in the United States, h
resulting less in Party than in

HERB
(GERMAN-BOR

Marcuse is on
ism tended to
early work on
joining of poli
virtually synon
simistic view
everywhere yo
tion that used
that we could
human relatio

Marcuse wa
implacable op
logic, the A B C
the union of
which, rather
he saw as the
make for free
among Marxists, a Utopian ap
ing out who was keeping w
dimensional" society which,
make it look as if we had optio
formity. You needed violence t

E EDUCATION

e places on the significance of intellectuals, whom
ts of ideology, an indispensable (and heretofore
in preserving the dominance of the ruling class.

he called "hegemony," the central Gramscian
danger of hegemony lies in the way it sneaks in
t the Weltanschauung of the ruling class comes to
ense. To combat this, Gramsci urged proletarians
ts to struggle to create a counterculture (sound fa­
the hegemonic domination of the prevailing ide­
nin—obsessed with the seizure of governmental
d a cultural, educational role for the Party. In the
however, Gramsci's countercultural ideas wound up
partying.

BERT MARCUSE
RN AMERICAN, 1898-1979)

ne of ours, local hero to a generation whose Marx­
be closer to Groucho's than Karl's. Never mind his
n Hegel—Marcuses great contribution was the
itics with sex, a conjunction that would come to be
nymous with the Sixties. Abandoning Freud's pes­
of society (with so much labor-saving technology

ou looked, who needed the repression and sublima­
to get us all to the factory on time?), Marcuse held
d finally afford to liberate Eros, to eroticize all

ons. This sounded good.
as also popular around the campus because of his
pposition to positivism, empiricism, and formal
C s of your typical college curriculum. H e stood for
Logos, more or less "reason," with Eros, again,
than the union of subject and object à la Lukâcs,
e main job of dialectics and which he felt would
edom and happiness. Marcuse was a Meher Baba
postle of good times. He was also keen on point­
whom from having any fun—the reified, "one-
with its pluralist "repressive tolerance," tried to
ons but which really only offered the terrors of con­
to overthrow this, violence which Marcuse believed

W

would be wielded not by the industrial proletariat
but by people who were really outside the system,
dents. No wonder the kids loved him.

LOUIS ALTHUSSER (FREN

Of contemporary Marxist theorists, the hardest o
may account for his recent vogue. Althusser is the
structuralism (see page 334) and Marxism, a comb
Hegelo-Marxism as well as to more recent M
Althusser focuses on Marx's later work (the hum
Marx," Marx the "poet" and the Utopian, the mes
an "epistemological break" between the early writ
old friend the "subject," and the mature ones, in w
get down to something that might be the basis of

After explaining how to give Marx the properly
ing attention, like the psychoanalyst, to both what
Althusser explains how the object of knowledge is
This process—equivalent to knowledge working on
ical practice." Such theoretical practice, when appl
to a view of society as a totality (you remember "t
be broken down—not into a vulgar base/superstru
partite division of economy, politics, and ideology,
tonomous but all of them united in a larger "st
Althusser says, "The whole existence of structure c

As you may have gathered, these structures are
complex relationships. Althusser calls particular re
junctures, and reasons that any specific conjunc
memorable term, "overdetermined." Which is to s
dundant. This is the one Althusserian concept you
you are late to work because your mother called, y
lenses, and the bus broke down, your lateness m
mined.

Otherwise, should you actually meet an Althus
can do. In a pinch, try asking by what criterion he
rialism is scientific. Failing that, the charge of Stali
case, Althusser proves our basic point as well as the
understands Marx any better than you do.

WORLD HISTORY 625

(which had been bought off)
like racial minorities and stu­

NCH, 1918-1990)

ne to read is Althusser, which
main proponent of a hybrid of
bo he opposes to old-fashioned
Marxist humanism. Basically,
manists celebrate "the young
sianic and "hip" Marx), citing
tings, hopelessly mired in our
which Marx was finally able to
a real science.
y "symptomatic" reading (pay­
is said and what gets left out),
s different from the real object.
n its object—he calls "theoret­
lied to society, leads inevitably
totality"), which can, however,
ucture scheme, but into a tri­
each of the three relatively au­
tructure of structures." Or, as
consists of its effects."
e very complex and have very
elationships among them con­
cture is likely to be, in his
say, complex—also, slightly re­
u may actually be able to use: If
you couldn't find your contact
might be said to be overdeter­

sserian, there's not much you
or she knows historical mate­

inism may prove useful. In any
e next Marxist: Nobody really

6z6 AN I N C O M P L E T E

Four C

EACH OF THE
SOBERING

MAURY POVIC
TRY TO

THE D

A landmark in the history of
Captain Alfred Dreyfus, a we
cused of having betrayed secr
him was slim, rabid anti-Sem
convict him of treason and se
Great applause from the pu
chief of army intelligence, dis
Dreyfus and the guilt of one F
torious adventurer. The milit

E EDUCATION

Cautionary Tales

EM CONSIDERABLY MORE

G THAN THE ONES

CH AND JERRY SPRINGER

O SCARE YOU WITH

DREYFUS AFFAIR

f modern France and a national disgrace. In 1894,
ealthy Jewish officer in the French artillery, was ac­
ets to the Germans. Although the evidence against
mitism in the military prompted a court-martial to
entence him to life imprisonment on Devil's Island.
blic. Two years later, Colonel Georges Picquart,
scovered new evidence pointing to the innocence of
Ferdinand Esterhazy, a major in the army and a no­
tary, however, was unwilling to admit its error and

W

opted for a cover-up. Picquart was silenced and the
the case. But Dreyfus' brother made a few discover
whole affair turned into a major political issue, w
two factions: the Dreyfusards and the anti-Dreyfu
republic, anticlerical liberals, and royalist, militarist
The former group included a number of intellectua
ical—big guns, including Emile Zola, Georges
France, who, although determined to redress the inj
cerned with the plight of Dreyfus himself, who wa
Island, than with discrediting the rightist governm
who included no small number of reactionaries a
obliged to resort to perjury and intimidation to prot

The plot continued to thicken. Major Esterhazy
ted by a court-martial. An outraged Zola wrote hi
ning "faccuse" for which he was promptly sente
England. Major Henry, an army intelligence officer
forged much of the evidence used against Dreyfus
hazy followed Zola's lead and escaped to England
mier. Dreyfus was retried, convicted again by a mili
"guilty with extenuating circumstances." Great hue
President of France finally stepped in and pardone
pardon wasn't good enough. The public was still
for Dreyfus' complete exoneration were coming in
nally, in 1906, he was cleared, and, in 1930, his in
publication of secret German papers showing that
the culprit.

The repercussions of "/'affaire Dreyfus" were enor
alist elements in France, brought the left wing to p
period of rabid antimilitarism and anticlericalism,
church and state, and exposed the extent and dept
And for at least a decade, the country remained s
Dreyfusards and righteous Dreyfusards, many of wh
bers of the same family, who would no longer sip a
poor old Dreyfus, he was promoted to the rank of m
Legion of Honor, but he had a hard time readjusting
scurity in Paris in 1935.

ORLD HISTORY 627

authorities refused to reopen
ries of his own, and soon the
with all France divided into
usards (for which read pro-
t conservatives, respectively).
al—and a scattering of polit­
s Clemenceau, and Anatole
justice, were actually less con­
as still languishing on Devil's
ment. The anti-Dreyfusards,
and out-and-out bigots, felt
tect their idea of patriotism.
y was finally tried and acquit­
is famous open letter begin­
nced to jail. He escaped to
r who, it now turned out, had
s, committed suicide. Ester-
. A Dreyfusard became pre­
itary court—this time, found
and cry from the public. The
ed Dreyfus, but by this time,
l up in arms, and demands
from all over the world. F i ­
nnocence was proven by the
Esterhazy had, in fact, been

rmous. It discredited the roy­
political power, gave rise to a
, hastened the separation of
th of French anti-Semitism.
split between die-hard anti-
hom were neighbors or mem­
a vin du pays together. A s for
major and decorated with the
g to army life. H e died in ob­

628 AN I N C O M P L E T E

THE SARAJ

June
nan
phie
capi
sinc
The
Gav
soci
next
man
was
One
ultim
allo
feel
what has turned out to be an
bian government. When the
clares war. As a result of t
alliances in effect, Germany
Britain declare war on Germ
Japan is engaged against Ger
in on the side of the Germans
Powers. World War I is in
weird little country nobody e
monarch yet.
Obviously, blaming World
ing Norman Bates' slasher im
Europe had been on the verge
the century as a result of both
1870s. That was when Germa
Prussian War, started angling
Europe. In order to consolid
thoughts of revenge on the pa
cellor, ran around forging se
door—specifically, the Hapsbu
sians in their attempt to grab a
liked the idea of siding with
the Germans, who struck the
culent, and devious to make

E EDUCATION

JEVO ASSASSINATION

e 28, 1914: The visiting Archduke Francis Ferdi­
d, heir to the Austrian throne, and his wife, So­
e, are shot dead in the streets of Sarajevo, the
ital of Bosnia, for centuries under Turkish rule but
ce 1878 a part of the Austro-Hungarian Empire.
e assassin is a young Bosnian revolutionary named
vrilo Princip, member of the Black Hand, a secret
iety headquartered in the kingdom of Serbia, just
t door. The murder has the characteristic irony of
ny political assassinations, since the Archduke
, himself, something of a Serbian-rights activist.
e month later, Austria, delivering an outrageous
matum to the Serbian government, demands to be
owed to participate in suppressing anti-Austrian
ing in Serbia and in punishing any conspirators in
n assassination plot involving officials of the Ser­
Serbs tactfully rebuff the ultimatum, Austria de­
the elaborate, if somewhat tenuous network of

declares war on Russia, and France and Great
any, all within a week. By the end of the month,
rmany, too, and three months later, Turkey jumps
s and Austrians, an alliance known as the Central
full swing, and all because a fanatic from some
ever heard of blew away a man who wasn't even a

War I on what happened at Sarajevo is like blam­
mpulses on Janet Leigh's turning on the hot water.
e of a nervous breakdown since at least the turn of

family and personality problems dating back to the
any, having just trounced the French in the Franco-
g for its own place in the sun among the powers of
date the new German position and forestall any
art of the French, Bismarck, then Germany's chan­
ecret alliances with anyone who'd let him in the
urgs, who were looking for an ally against the Rus­
a bigger piece of the Balkans, and the Italians, who

a winner. Virtually everyone else was offended by
m not only as parvenus, but as too ambitious, tru­
acceptable neighbors. Bismarck's Triple Alliance

W

turned an undercurrent of resentment into out-a
France, Russia, and Great Britain had formed the
as formal as an alliance (Britain was too determin
an entente cordiale, whereby each would pitch in to
was attacked by members of the Triple Alliance. T
who now saw themselves surrounded by potenti
along with. By the early 1900s, every major power
and Europe was divided into two camps, each nerv
draw first.

In such a high-stress situation, a German un
might have been enough to set things off, but th
Balkans. A cluster of wild, backward countries tha
from under the thumb of the crumbling Ottoman
object of perpetual rivalry between the Russians
both of whom were on their last legs without rea
semi-hysterical much of the time. The Austrians,
crazy to keep trying to throw their weight around t
404), much of which was inhabited by angry Sla
Montenegrins, and Slovenes—who, believe it or n
nationality and who, being quasi-Orientals who st
off vampire attacks, felt closer to the Russians than
down on them as ethnically inferior.

Thanks largely to the Serbs, who had a tende
forming secret societies and committing terrorist
by 1914, ready to be driven around the bend. An as
It was also the chance the Germans had been w
treated, as they saw it, as second cousins, and conv
had been notoriously unreliable allies up to that p
full rein to their ambitions—and to the military st
years. As for Great Britain, it felt honor-bound to d
German troops invaded Belgium on their way t
point, no one was thinking clearly and everyone w
would just go away. But, as the British historian A
and generals had a hard time keeping up with each
days, and before they knew it, the heads of state h
tions, when diplomacy collapsed," writes Taylor, "
who sees the express thundering through the sta
alight."

And that's only what was happening on the su
neuroses was the newfound conviction, born out o
winism (see page 557) on human consciousness, t
survival of the fittest; that, in the case of people, the

WORLD HISTORY 629

and-out paranoia. Pretty soon
Triple Entente—not anything
nedly isolationist for that), but
o help out if either of the others
This didn't make the Germans,
ial enemies, any easier to get
r had armed itself to the teeth,
vously waiting for the other to

nexpectedly scratching his ear
here was a better catalyst: the
at had only recently gotten out

Empire, the Balkans were the
s and the Austro-Hungarians,
alizing it, and were, therefore,

in particular, had to be a little
the Balkan peninsula (see page
avs—Serbs, Croats, Bosnians,
not, saw themselves as a single
till depended on garlic to ward
n to the Austrians, who looked

ency to register discontent by
acts, both rival empires were,
ssassination was just the ticket.

waiting for. Fed up with being
vinced that the Russians, who
oint, wouldn't fight, they gave
rategy they'd had ready for ten
declare war on Germany when
to smash the French. At this

was wishing the whole business
. J . P. Taylor noted, politicians
h other's point of view in those
had lost control. "Their sensa­
were those of a train passenger
ation at which he intended to

urface. Behind all these global
of the traumatic effects of Dar­
that Nature was a struggle for
e fittest meant the best-armed;

630 AN I N C O M P L E T E

and that, under the circumsta
hoped this wasn't true tended
sides would act as a deterren
Wrong again. Not only was W
ning, it went on for four years
the world.

THE SP

World War II broke out offic
ran Poland, but it had really b
many had already, you may rec
few million additional Germa
even exactly German—to her
Italy was entrenched in Ethiop
The League of Nations prote
what the League of Nations
the proto-War period, though

E EDUCATION

ances, war was inevitable anyway. Those who still
d to believe that enormous military strength on all
nt, and that common sense would surely prevail.
World War I out of control virtually from the begin­
s, and it wound up ending European domination of

PANISH CIVIL WAR

ially on September 1, 1939, when the Nazis over­
been going on for the better part of a decade. Ger­
call, invaded Austria and Czechoslovakia, adding a
ns—some happy about it, some not, and some not
r empire, as Britain and France stood huffily by.
pia and Albania, and Japan in China's Manchuria.
ested from time to time, but, puhleez, who cared
thought? The saddest, most wrenching events of
h, took place in Spain—for over a century Europe's

W

backwater, self-contained, aloof, apathetic with re
nent, unenviable, even contemptible, in its eyes.

Civil war didn't start until 1936, but for the pre
Alfonso XIII was driven out in a fairly uneventfu
feeling shaky. The new republican government, pl
reform and determined to propel the country out o
into the twentieth, moved against the Church (
which it had been pushing around since at least the
of the big landed estates, redistributing the acrea
gave a degree of local autonomy to the Catalans,
well as to the Basques. Frankly, it was all a case of
the eyes of the extremists (anarchists and Comm
more than enough to infuriate the priests and the
the former royalists, who were upset anyway. In 1
the hands of the rightists, who themselves proved
matory: A simple miners' strike was put down w
brutality, and the Catalans were sent to their room

Okay, now it's 1936. New general elections. All
socialists, communists, anarchists, trade-union mem
against all the rightist types (monarchists, priests, l
Fascists, known locally as Falangists). The leftists b
but it's very close. Even so, the leftists push ahead
Spain, figuring that reconciliation was a luxury, o
damn well could wait—this part isn't so clear.

Next thing you know, the military (never a fact
has acted; revolts at Spanish army bases in Moroc
Franco, result in what amounts to an invasion of S
diers siding with their officers—and the rightist
drawn: the leftists, or Republicans, sometimes cal
trated in the south, which tends to be poor, in
Barcelona, and in Madrid, the capital; the rightist
called the Rebels (even though they're the Establis
the ancient—read strongly Catholic—heartland o
northwest corner.

Even without the foreign intervention, which w
it would have been an especially appalling civil wa
particularly well; the Republicans, at their worst, r
priests, and fought savagely and treacherously amo
ists came in the night and shot in the dark, with
weren't around in the morning; their most famous
Garcia Lorca. In the end, some six hundred thousa
many more permanently crippled; still others were

ORLD HISTORY

egard to the rest of the conti­

eceding five years, since King
ul revolution, Spain had been
ledged to economic and social
of the eighteenth century and
(separating it from the State,
e Inquisition); broke up a few
age among the peasants; and
, in and around Barcelona, as

too-little-too-late, at least in
munists, mostly). But it was
e landowners, not to mention
1933, the government fell into
d both ineffectual and inflam­
with more than your average
ms without any supper.
l the leftist types (republicans,
mbers) join in a Popular Front
landowners, army officers, and
beat the rightists at the polls—
d with their vision of the new
or an impossibility, or that it

or to be discounted in Spain)
cco, led by General Francisco
Spain, with almost all the sol­
ts. Thus the battle lines are
led the Loyalists, are concen­
the industrial region around
ts, or Nationalists, sometimes
shment types), are strongest in
of Spain, plus Galicia, in the

we'll be getting to in a minute,
ar. Neither side behaved itself
raped nuns, cut off the ears of
ng themselves. The National­

the result that whole villages
s victim was the Spanish poet
and Spaniards would die, with

in exile, never to return.