Historical Periodisation (the events that lead to the next stage)

The aim of this blog is to present the Marxist theory on history up until the present day. I will not go beyond Capitalism because the next epoch is yet to happen and history is not about predicition. It is about facts and how we analyse and speculate these facts.

The current identified epochs of history within the Marxist framework are:

Primitive Communism: Humanity organised itself into tribes. At roughly 10 000 BC mankind experiences the agricultural revolution. Somewhere between 10 000 BC and 5500 BC private property and urban societies begin to emerge. From here the first Human civilisation begins to emerge. We know it as Mesopotamia. Thus begins the period of the slave society.

Slave Society: This period begins with the emergence of Mesopotamia. From here other civilisations emerge. Most notably Ancient Egypt, Ancient Greece and Ancient Rome. (Others include the ancient civilisations of South America and Asia.) Between 320 ad and 340 ad Rome coverts to Christianity. Thus begins the period of Feudalism.

Feudalism: With the beginning of the collapse of the Roman Empire, Smaller Kingdoms begin to fill the power vacuum. Landowners or the Aristocracy own the means of production, which in Federalism are farms, which is known as an agrarian economy. With the discovery of the Americas and the emergence of the 'Merchant Classes' the economy began to change into a consumer society and eventually led to the Industrial Revolution and this began Capitalism.




Capitalism: With the emergence of the merchant class, so consumerism began to emerge in society. With increase in demand, new methods of production were required. (there was an increase in demand because of the Black Death which killed half of the British population. As a result of this the Aristocracy no longer had a hold over the peasants. This was because with so few labourers peasants began to charge a lot of money for their services. As a result of this the market for consumer goods grew exponentially). The Capitalist classes begin to emerge. The Aristocracy begin to lose power and therefore fight for it. This leads to the English Civil War. Capitalist's back the Parliamentarians and the Aristocracy back the Royalists. Parliament wins and so does Capitalism over Feudalism. The Industrial Revolution begins and the Aristocracy is slowly wiped out and the Working class begins to emerge.


Who knows whats next? There are many theories and this one is the Marxist one. However as this blog is not about Marxism in general I will no go into predictions as I only wish to present the current social epochs of history.