Great geographical discoveries and the emergence of the colonial system. Formation of the colonial system

The countries of Europe, having carried out modernization, received huge advantages in comparison with the rest of the world, which was based on the principles of traditionalism. This advantage also affected the military potential. Therefore, following the era of great geographical discoveries, associated mainly with reconnaissance expeditions, already in the 17th-18th centuries. colonial expansion to the East of the most developed countries of Europe began. Traditional civilizations, due to the backwardness of their development, were not able to resist this expansion and turned into easy prey for their stronger opponents. The prerequisites for colonialism originated in the era of the great geographical discoveries, namely in the 15th century, when Vasco da Gama opened the way to India, and Columbus reached the shores of America. When confronted with peoples of other cultures, Europeans demonstrated their technological superiority (ocean sailing ships and firearms). The first colonies were founded in the New World by the Spaniards. The robbery of the states of the American Indians contributed to the development of the European banking system, the growth of financial investments in science and stimulated the development of industry, which, in turn, required new raw materials.

The colonial policy of the period of primitive accumulation of capital is characterized by: the desire to establish a monopoly in trade with conquered territories, the seizure and plunder of entire countries, the use or imposition of predatory feudal and slave-owning forms of exploitation of the local population. This policy played a huge role in the process of primitive accumulation. It led to the concentration of large capital in the countries of Europe on the basis of the robbery of the colonies and the slave trade, which especially developed from the 2nd half of the 17th century and served as one of the levers for turning England into the most developed country of that time.

In the enslaved countries, the colonial policy caused the destruction of the productive forces, retarded the economic and political development of these countries, led to the plunder of vast regions and the extermination of entire peoples. Military confiscation methods played a major role in the exploitation of the colonies during that period.

At the first stage of the colonization of traditional societies, Spain and Portugal were in the lead. They managed to conquer most South America.

Colonialism in modern times. As the transition from manufactory to large-scale factory industry, significant changes took place in colonial policy. The colonies are economically more closely connected with the metropolises, turning into their agrarian and raw material appendages with a monocultural direction of agricultural development, into markets for industrial products and sources of raw materials for the growing capitalist industry of the metropolises. Thus, for example, the export of British cotton fabrics to India from 1814 to 1835 increased 65 times.

The spread of new methods of exploitation, the need to create special organs of colonial administration that could consolidate dominance over the local peoples, as well as the rivalry of various sections of the bourgeoisie in the mother countries led to the liquidation of monopoly colonial trading companies and the transfer of the occupied countries and territories under the state administration of the mother countries.

The change in the forms and methods of exploitation of the colonies was not accompanied by a decrease in its intensity. Huge wealth was exported from the colonies. Their use led to the acceleration of social economic development in Europe and North America.
With the advent of the industrial age, Great Britain became the largest colonial power. Having defeated France in the course of a long struggle in the 18th and 19th centuries, she increased her possessions at her expense, as well as at the expense of the Netherlands, Spain and Portugal. Great Britain subjugated India. In 1840-42, and together with France in 1856-60, she waged the so-called Opium Wars against China, as a result of which she imposed favorable treaties on China. She took possession of Xianggang (Hong Kong), tried to subjugate Afghanistan, captured strongholds in the Persian Gulf, Aden. The colonial monopoly, together with the industrial monopoly, ensured Great Britain the position of the most powerful power throughout almost the entire 19th century. Colonial expansion was also carried out by other powers. France subjugated Algeria (1830-48), Vietnam (50-80s of the 19th century), established its protectorate over Cambodia (1863), Laos (1893). In 1885, the Congo became the possession of the Belgian King Leopold II, and a system of forced labor was established in the country.

In the middle of the XVIII century. Spain and Portugal began to lag behind in economic development and as maritime powers were relegated to the background. Leadership in the colonial conquests passed to England. Beginning in 1757, the trading English East India Company for almost a hundred years captured almost the entire Hindustan. Since 1706, the active colonization of North America by the British began.

African continent in the XVII-XVIII centuries. Europeans settled only on the coast and was used mainly as a source of slaves. In the 19th century Europeans moved far into the interior of the continent and by the middle of the 19th century. Africa was almost completely colonized. The exceptions were two countries: Christian Ethiopia, which offered staunch resistance to Italy, and Liberia, created by former slaves, immigrants from the United States.

In Southeast Asia, the French captured most of the territory of Indochina. Only Siam (Thailand) retained relative independence, but a large territory was also taken away from it.

Thus, in the XIX century. practically all the countries of the East fell into one form or another of dependence on the most powerful capitalist countries, turning into colonies or semi-colonies. For Western countries, the colonies were a source of raw materials, financial resources, labor, as well as markets. The exploitation of the colonies by the Western metropolises was of the most cruel, predatory character. At the cost of ruthless exploitation and robbery, the wealth of the western metropolises was created, a relatively high standard of living of their population was maintained.

Colony types:

According to the type of management, settlement and economic development in the history of colonialism, three main types of colonies were distinguished: Resettlement colonies. Raw colonies (or exploited colonies). Mixed (resettlement-raw material colonies).

Migration colonialism is a type of colonization management, the main purpose of which was to expand the living space of the titular ethnos of the metropolis to the detriment of the autochthonous peoples. The local population is suppressed, forced out, and often physically destroyed. An example of a modern resettlement colony is Israel.

The key points in the creation of resettlement colonies are two conditions: low density of the autochthonous population with a relative abundance of land and other natural resources. Naturally, migrant colonialism leads to a deep structural restructuring of the life and ecology of the region in comparison with resource (raw material colonialism), which, as a rule, ends with decolonization sooner or later.
The first examples of a mixed-type migrant colony were the colonies of Spain (Mexico, Peru) and Portugal (Brazil).
As time passed, the migrant colonies turned into new nations. This is how Argentines, Peruvians, Mexicans, Canadians, Brazilians, US Americans, Guiana Creoles, New Caledonian Caldoches, Breyons, French-Acadians, Cajuns and French-Canadians (Quebecs) arose. They continue to be connected with the former metropolis by language, religion and common culture.

Features of colony management.

Colonial dominance was administratively expressed either in the form of a "dominion" (direct control of the colony through a viceroy, captain-general or governor-general), or in the form of a "protectorate". The ideological substantiation of colonialism proceeded through the need to spread culture (culturism, modernization, westernization - this is the spread of Western values ​​around the world) - "the burden of the white man."

The Spanish version of colonization meant the expansion of Catholicism, the Spanish language through the encomienda system. Encomienda is a form of dependence of the population of the Spanish colonies on the colonizers. The Dutch version of the colonization of South Africa meant apartheid, the expulsion of the local population and its imprisonment in reservations or bantustans. The colonists formed communities completely independent of the local population, which were recruited from people of various classes, including criminals and adventurers. Religious communities were also widespread. The power of the colonial administration was exercised according to the principle of "divide and conquer" by pitting local religious communities (Hindus and Muslims in British India) or hostile tribes (in colonial Africa), as well as through apartheid (racial
discrimination). Often the colonial administration supported the oppressed groups to fight their enemies and created armed groups from.

Initially, European countries did not bring their own political culture and socio-economic relations to the colonies. Faced with the ancient civilizations of the East, which had long developed their own traditions of culture and statehood, the conquerors sought, first of all, their economic subjugation. In territories where statehood did not exist at all, or was at a fairly low level, they were forced to create certain state structures, to some extent borrowed from the experience of metropolitan countries, but with greater national specifics. In North America, for example, power was concentrated in the hands of governors who were appointed by the British government. The governors had advisers, as a rule, from among the colonists, who defended the interests of the local population. Self-government bodies played an important role: an assembly of representatives of the colonies and legislative bodies - legislatures.

In India, the British did not particularly interfere in political life and sought to influence local rulers through economic means of influence (enslaved loans), as well as providing military assistance in internecine struggle.

The economic policy in the various European colonies was largely similar. Spain, Portugal, Holland, France, England initially transferred feudal structures to their colonial possessions. At the same time, plantation farming was widely used.
Many of the effects of colonization were negative. There was a robbery of national wealth, merciless exploitation of the local population and poor colonists. Trading companies brought stale goods of mass demand to the occupied territories and sold them at high prices. On the contrary, valuable raw materials, gold and silver, were exported from the colonial countries. Under the onslaught of goods from the metropolises, the traditional oriental craft withered, the traditional forms life, value systems.

However, eastern civilizations more and more drawn into the new system of world relations and fell under the influence of Western civilization. Gradually there was an assimilation of Western ideas and political institutions, the creation of a capitalist economic infrastructure. Under the influence of these processes, the traditional eastern civilizations are being reformed.

Features of the formation of the colonial system

In a slave society, the word "colony" meant "settlement". Ancient Egypt, Mesopotamia, Greece, Rome had colonies-settlements in foreign territory. Colonies in modern meaning words appeared in the era of the great geographical discoveries at the end XV - early XVI centuries As a result of the Great geographical discoveries, the formation of colonial system. This stage in the development of colonialism is associated with the formation of capitalist relations. Since that time, the concepts of "capitalism" and "colonialism" have been inextricably linked. Capitalism becomes the dominant social economic system, the colonies are the most important factor that speeds up this process. Colonial plunder and colonial trade were important sources of primitive capital accumulation.

A colony is a territory deprived of political and economic independence and dependent on metropolitan countries. In the conquered territories of the metropolis, capitalist relations are being imposed. This happened in the colonies of England in North America, Australia, New Zealand and South Africa. The local population could not resist the force of the colonialists, it was either destroyed or driven into reservations. The main population in the states formed after independence was immigrants from Europe.

In the East, the colonialists could not establish themselves absolutely. In these countries, they were a minority, and attempts to change the established structure of society as a whole ended in failure. The main reason can be considered the centuries-old traditions and stability of Eastern society. At the same time, it would be wrong to say that the colonialists did not influence the course of historical development peoples of Asia and Africa. In this regard, it is important to note that in these regions the introduction of capitalist relations was opposed by traditional structures.

Thus, it is important to highlight the main stages and nature of colonization, which changed as European capitalism developed, and to identify the nature of the changes taking place in the countries of the East during the period of colonialism.

Initial period

The period of primitive accumulation of capital and manufacturing production predetermined the content and forms of relations between the colonies and mother countries. For Spain and Portugal, the colonies were primarily sources of gold and silver. Their natural practice was frank robbery up to the extermination of the indigenous population of the colonies. However, the gold and silver exported from the colonies did not accelerate the establishment of capitalist production in these countries.

Much of the wealth plundered by the Spaniards and the Portuguese contributed to the development of capitalism in Holland and England. The Dutch and English bourgeoisie profited from the supply of goods to Spain, Portugal and their colonies. The colonies in Asia, Africa and America captured by Portugal and Spain became the object of colonial conquests by Holland and England.

Period of industrial capitalism

The next stage in the development of the colonialsystems linked to the industrial revolutionto her, which begins in the last third XVIII in. and ends in developed European countries around the middle 19th century

There comes a period exchange of goods, which draws the colonial countries into world commodity circulation. This leads to double consequences: on the one hand, the colonial countries turn into agrarian and raw materials appendages of the metropolises, on the other hand, the metropolises contribute to the socio-economic development of the colonies (the development of the local industry for the processing of raw materials, transport, communications, telegraph, printing, etc.). ).

By the beginning of the First World War, at the stage of monopoly capitalism, the colonial possessions of three European powers were formed:

At this stage, the territorial division of the world is completed. The leading colonial powers of the world are intensifying the export of capital to the colonies.

25.2. Colonialism in the XVI-XVII centuries.

Trading companies and their role in the exploitation of the colonies

At the beginning and middle XVII in. in all colonial countries are created east india companies(English - in 1600-1858, Dutch - in 1602-1798, French - in 1664-1770 and 1785-1793, etc.). These companies, which united the largest merchants and industrialists of the mother countries, received from their governments the monopoly right to wage wars with the aim of annexing new lands, to trade in the colonial possessions of the mother country, etc. East India companies exported from the colonies spices(cinnamon, pepper, vanilla, cloves, etc.) which they purchased at low prices in the colonies and sold at monopoly high prices in European countries.

Constant clashes during the seizure of colonies, the fierce competition of the East Indian companies in the sea in the Atlantic, Indian and Pacific Oceans invariably led to severe armed conflicts not only in Asia, Africa and Latin America, but also in Europe.

The main sources of income for the colonialists were not trade in industrial goods in the East, but the resale of colonial goods, income from high taxes, extortions, and even from elementary robbery of the local population, military booty, additional payments that local merchants and feudal lords were forced to make, etc. d.

Thus, payment for English imports from Asian countries In the middle XVIII in. about 80% was carried out due to the export of gold and silver to the East, and only 20% - industrial products. The company arbitrarily imposed high levies on the population, set prices for salt, opium, betel and other goods.

Similar methods of exploitation of the newly acquired colonies were used by the Dutch East India Company, subordinating to its control the richest country of the East - Indonesia. First of all, a monopoly was established on the spice trade. The company began to introduce new cultures to the islands, such as coffee. Introducing new taxes and duties for the conquered population, the Dutch tried not to affect the established feudal system. They left the old (loyal to the colonizers) feudal lords, instructing them to collect taxes, oversee and partially manage the local population.

The population everywhere resisted the colonialists, but none of them were successful.

Colonization of the African continent

In the colonial policy of European powers XVI - XVII centuries special place occupies the African continent. The construction of trading posts of European powers in Africa did not initially threaten the local population. Only when plantation cultivation of sugar cane, coffee, and tobacco began in the West Indies, that is, in America, and gold and silver mines were opened in South and North America and cotton began to be grown, did the colonialists begin to use slaves from Africa.

Slavery existed in Africa for a number of centuries, but it was mainly patriarchal in nature and was not so tragic and destructive before the arrival of Europeans. slave trade the Portuguese started in the middle XV century, then the British, Dutch, French, Danes, Swedes joined it. The centers of the slave trade were located mainly on the West coast of Africa - from Cape Verde to Angola inclusive. Especially many slaves were exported from the Golden and Slave Coasts. Slaves were sold for European goods, weapons, trinkets. There was also a trade in slaves on the East coast of Africa; slaves were taken from there to Turkey, Arabia, Iraq, India, Iran and other countries.

25.3. Colonialism of the period of industrial capitalism

As a result of the industrial revolution, an industrial civilization was formed in the leading capitalist countries. Promoted to leading roles industrial production.

Changing the colonial policy of the mother country

Accordingly, the demand for new types of goods has also increased, especially in raw materials. The main role is now assigned to large industrialists, and not to trading companies, as was the case in the previous period. Accordingly, the situation in world trade has also changed. The importance of colonial goods fell, but the need for foodstuffs, raw materials, dyes, building timber, wool, and cotton increased, i.e., for those goods that were especially needed for developing European industry. This led to a change in the nature of the relationship between the colonies and mother countries. There was a need for export of goods to the colonies. The British bourgeoisie is revising its foreign trade and colonial policy.

As a result, England's exports, mainly to the colonies, increased immeasurably. According to economists, in the first half XIX in. up to 64% of English exports of cotton products, 74% of beer, about 70% of soap and candles, about 60% of copper and brass products, 43% of coal and coke, etc. were sent to the colony.

The colonial policy of England is also changing. It is striving more and more insistently to turn its vast colonial possessions into an appendage of its developing industry. Its policy is aimed at increasing the export of manufactured goods to the colonies, on the one hand, and securing supplies raw materials from the colonies for their industry, on the other. Standing in the middle XIX in. "workshop of the world", England begins to export to the colonies and capital, investing it mainly in the development of production.

In XIX in. trade and predatory methods carried out in the colonies by East India companies are replaced by economic ones. There comes a period exchange of goods between metropolises and colonies. The colonies were drawn into world commodity circulation and became participants in the world market. Using their industrial superiority, the capitalist countries greatly increase the export of their goods to the colonies. Only in 20 years (from 1794 to 1813) the export of Great Britain, mainly to India, only cotton goods increased 700 times.

The colonies become agricultural and raw material appendages of the metropolises, suppliers of raw materials and auxiliary materials for industry, and food for the growing urban population. Finished fabrics, metal products, semi-finished products and other goods were sent to the colonies. So, in 1870, the structure of Indian exports consisted of 36% of raw cotton, 21% of opium, 12% of cereals, 4% of jute, etc. Cotton fabrics occupied only 2%, jute products - 0.5% of India's exports. At the same time, the country's imports consisted of 45% of cotton fabrics, 8% of yarn, 13% of hardware (including rails for railways) and only 2% of machines, mainly for processing raw materials. It is clear that almost 85% of goods were imported into India from the metropolis.

The role of colonies in the economic development of metropolitan areas

Under the new historical conditions, the role of the colonies in the economic development of the metropolises is growing considerably. The possession of colonies contributed to industrial development, military superiority over other powers, maneuvering resources in the event of wars, economic crises etc. In this regard, all the colonial powers are striving to expand their possessions. The increased technical equipment of the armies makes it possible to realize this. It was at this time that the "discoveries" of Japan and China took place, the establishment of British colonial rule in India, Burma, Africa was completed, France seized Algeria, Tunisia, Vietnam andother countries, the expansion of Germany begins in Africa, the USA - in Latin America, China, Korea, Japan - in China, Korea, etc.

At the same time, the struggle of the mother countries for possession of colonies, sources of raw materials, and strategic positions in the East is intensifying.

25.4. The development of the economy of the colonies

Development of industry in the colonies

During the period of primitive accumulation of capital, the colonialists did not change the socio-economic structure in the countries of the East. However, the industrial revolution in Europe changed the situation. This manifested itself in the following.

Significant for the economy of the colonies was the emergence in them of enterprises for the primary processing of raw materials and certain types of goods: for cleaning and pressing cotton, jute, and the production of dyes; hardware, building materials, sugar, dried fruits, opium, rum, coconut and soybean oils, certain types of food (rice, wheat, corned beef), leather processing, valuable breeds wood, copper, silver, etc.

In the colonial countries, the construction of railways began in order to more easily and quickly export raw materials from the hinterland, mining hard coal and other minerals (diamonds, gold, copper, etc.), the organization of intermediary credit institutions (for example, English managing agencies in India), etc.

In the colonies and semi-colonies, the development of commodity-money relations accelerated noticeably, and the crisis of the feudal order accelerated.

In 1854, for example, the first Indian jute factory began operating in Calcutta, and two years later the first cotton factory, founded by an Indian merchant, opened in Bombay.

Owing to the influx of metropolitan industrial products and freedom of trade, family and semi-family communities, closed, isolated from the world, based on domestic industry, village crafts and a peculiar combination of hand weaving, hand spinning and manual (primitive, archaic) way of working the land, began to collapse.

The construction of railroads greatly expanded the scope of the exchange of goods and the pumping of raw materials from the interior of the colonies. The use of steamships accelerated the turnover of goods and capital.

In the era of industrial capitalism, the colonial countries were drawn into the world capitalist market, and through it into the production of goods, which had very complex and contradictory consequences.

On the one hand, the colonies and semi-colonies broke through the circle of isolation and joined the world development of capitalism. However, on the other hand, their dependence on industrialized states has increased. In the world economy, a division of labor between colonies and mother countries is being established. The colonialists oriented the economy of dependent countries to the production of the corresponding goods.

India specialized in the production and export of cotton, tobacco, sugar, and jute. Egypt supplied only cotton, Brazil - rubber and coffee, Australia and New Zealand - wool, China - tea, raw silk, etc.

The largest semi-colony is China

In Asia and Africa, there are semi-colonies, turned into the object of sharp disputes and clashes between the leading capitalist powers of the world.

Semi-colonies are formally independent states that had their own governments and management systems. Typical semi-colonies are China, Iran, the Ottoman Empire.

Characteristic story of transformation major countries East in a semi-colony, and above all the largest of them - China. The "closure" of this country in 1756, i.e. the prohibition of trade in foreign goods in China (except for the port of Macau) was a kind of reaction to the expansion of European powers into the countries of the Far East. But this complicated the situation of China itself. China lost the opportunity to use the achievements of European science and technology, its trade with other countries was reduced, which undermined production.

Despite this, at the end XVIII in. the British are increasingly eager to penetrate into China. The main subject of import into the country is opium, manufactured in India. The Chinese government is trying to fight smuggling. In 1839, the opium trade in China was banned, and approximately 1,000 tons of the drug, owned by British merchants, were destroyed. This was the reason for the war. In 1840-1842. flashes the so-called first opium war between China and England. Backward China suffers a severe defeat and is forced to sign the unequal Treaty of Nanjing. England achieved its goals: it captured the port of Hong Kong, expanded its trade areas, received military indemnities worth 23 million dollars. China lost its customs independence - the customs duty could not exceed 5% of the value of imported products.

Bombardment of the South Chinese port city of Canton by British ships during the Opium War

In 1843, a new treaty was imposed on China, which established the extraterritoriality of the British, British merchants enjoyed the most favored nation in trade. In 1844 The United States sent a squadron to the coast of China and forced it to give them the same rights. In 1844, the French signed the same treaty with China.

The Chinese government is making continuous concessions to the colonialists. In 1869, 15 ports were already "opened" for trade with foreigners. The Office of Imperial Maritime Customs was created in the country, which was completely transferred to the British (customs fees went to pay indemnity).

Strengthening the expansion of foreign capital, popular uprisings, the destruction of irrigation systems and, as a result, crop failures, constant wars (the Franco-Chinese war of 1885 over Vietnam, the Japanese-Chinese war of 1894-1895 over Korea, etc.) , the collapse of the "self-reinforcement" policy, etc. - all this completely upset the country's finances and ultimately made China a semi-colony.

The former mighty Ottoman Empire.

The only country that, although subjected to the expansion of European powers and which managed to defend its independence, was Japan.

Soon, she herself will become a colonial power.

Review questions

1. Tell us about the history of the formation of the colonial system.

2. Compare the methods of exploitation of the colonies in the era of primitive accumulation of capital and in the era of industrial capitalism.

3. Describe the largest metropolises and their colonial policy.

The main periods of the formation of the colonial system

Aggressive policies have been pursued by states since antiquity. Initially, merchants and knights exported goods from the colonies to the metropolis, used labor for slave farms. But since the middle of the 19th century, the situation has changed: the colonies are turning into markets for the industrial products of the metropolis. Instead of the export of goods, the export of capital is used.

All the time of colonial conquests can be divided into three periods:

1. XVI-mid XVIII century - trade colonialism based on the export of goods to Europe;
2. from the middle of the XVIII century-late XIX century - the colonialism of the era of industrial capital, characterized by the export of manufactured goods from European countries to the colonies;
3. the end of the 19th-beginning of the 20th century - colonialism of the era of imperialism, a distinctive feature of which is the export of capital from the metropolises to the colonies, stimulating the industrial development of dependent states.

By the beginning of the 20th century, the largest industrial powers were completing the territorial division of the world. The whole world was divided into metropolises, colonies, dependent countries (dominions and protectorates).

The main features of the colonial system at the turn of the XIX-XX centuries

In the 1870s, the colonial system of imperialism took shape in the world. It was based on the exploitation of the economically lagging countries of Asia, Africa and Latin America.

Definition 1

colonial system imperialism is created on turn of XIX-XX centuries, the system of colonial oppression by the developed imperialist states of the overwhelming majority of the less economically developed countries of Asia, Africa and Latin America.

During the period from 1876 to 1914, the European powers increased their colonial possessions many times over.

Remark 1

Before the First World War, the British colonial empire took over 9 million square kilometers, where approximately 147 million people lived. The French empire increased by 9.7 million square kilometers and 49 million people. The German colonial empire annexed 2.9 million square kilometers with 12.3 million inhabitants. The United States seized 300 thousand square kilometers of land with 9.7 inhabitants, and Japan - 300 thousand square kilometers with 19.2 million people.

The entire territory of the African continent was divided. Those countries that the colonial powers could not completely enslave were placed in the position of semi-colonies or divided into spheres of influence. These states include China, Turkey, Iran, Afghanistan and many other countries in Asia and Latin America.

In the era of imperialism, the colonial countries remain raw material appendages of the mother countries and function as a market for the sale of surplus industrial goods. The export of capital in the colonies begins to predominate when it does not find a sufficiently profitable application in the mother countries. The high profitability of investing capital in the economy of the colony is explained by the cheapness of raw materials and labor.

The struggle of the mother countries for the colonies

Remark 2

By the beginning of the 20th century, the struggle of the metropolises for colonies intensified. Since there are practically no undivided plots left, the war for the redivision of the world is escalating. Young states such as the German Empire demanded a "place in the sun" for themselves. Following Germany, Japan, the United States and Italy make similar demands on established colonial empires.

The war of 1898 between the United States and Spain is considered the first war for the redivision of the world. The Americans managed to capture part of the islands that previously belonged to the Spanish crown: the Philippines, Guam, Puerto Rico, Coupon, Hawaii. The United States tried to bring the entire American continent under its control. The Americans crowded out competitors in China, creating spheres of their influence. Germany joined the struggle for the redivision of the world. It expanded into Turkey, the Middle East, North Africa and Far East. Japan pressed Russia and gained a foothold in Korea and Manchuria.

The contradictions between the old rivals (England and Russia, England and France) threatened to escalate into a grandiose war. The world was on the verge of the First World War.

Colonies in the modern sense appeared in the era of the Great Geographers. Discoveries, as a result of which the colonial system begins to take shape. And this stage in the development of colonialism is associated with the formation of capitalist relations, therefore the concepts of "colonialism" and "capitalism" are inextricably linked, and capitalism becomes the dominant socio-economic system, and the colonies accelerate this process.

Stage 1 of the formation of colonialism is the colonialism of the era of primitive capital accumulation (PNK) and manufacturing capitalism. Here the main processes were colonial robbery and colonial trade, which were the main sources of PNK.

At this stage, as a result of the VGO, vast colonial possessions began to form, primarily Spain and Portugal, between which in 1494 an Agreement was concluded on the division of the world by 30 degree meridian in the Atlantic Ocean, along which all the lands to the West of this line were the colonies of Spain, and to the East - all the lands of Portugal. This was the beginning of the formation of the colonial system.

The first period of colonialism also affects the manufacturing period. Later, in the 60s of the 16th century, the Dutch merchants and bourgeois began to overtake Spain and Portugal in terms of the accumulation of wealth. Holland ousts the Portuguese from Ceylon, creates its strongholds in South Malaysia, Indonesia.

Almost simultaneously with the Portuguese, England begins its expansion in West Africa (in the countries of Gambia, Ghana), and from the beginning of the 17th century - in India.

Stage 2 of colonialism coincides with the era of industrial capitalism (i.e., stage 2 of the development of capitalism). A new stage in the development of capitalism applied new methods of exploiting the colonies. Thus, for further colonial conquests, it was necessary to unite large merchants and industrialists of the metropolitan countries.

At this stage in the development of the colonial system, the industrial revolution takes place (this is the transition from manufactories to factories and plants), which begins in the last third of the 18th century. and ends in developed European countries around the middle of the 19th century. At this stage, the period of commodity exchange begins, with the help of which the colonial countries are drawn into world commodity circulation. Thus, the non-economic methods of exploitation (that is, violence) are replaced by other economic methods (this is the exchange of goods between the colonies and mother countries), as a result, the mother countries turn the colonies into their agricultural appendages for the needs of their industry.

Stage 3 - this is the stage of monopoly capitalism, corresponds to the last third of the 19th century. and before the First World War (until 1914). During this period, the forms of exploitation of the colonies change, they are drawn into the world capitalist market, and through it into the production of goods. And by the beginning of the First World War, the colonial system was fully formed, i.e. at this stage, the territorial division of the world was completed, when the colonial possessions of 3 European powers were formed: England, Germany, France.

The collapse of the colonial system

Stage 1 of the collapse of the colonial system dates back to the end of the 18th century. - the first quarter of the 19th century, when, as a result of the wars of independence from Spanish and Portuguese rule, countries gained freedom: in North America - the United States (a former English colony) and many Latin American countries (Argentina, Brazil, Venezuela, Honduras, Guatemala, Mexico, Colombia).

Stage 2 of the collapse is associated with the crisis of the colonial system, which began in the early 20th century. During the period of imperialism, the preconditions for the collapse of the colonial system are created, these are:

1) the creation of entrepreneurship in the colonies created an opportunity further development only with national independence;

2) the revolution in Russia in 1905-07, which predetermined the trend of the national liberation movement in the colonies;

3) the crisis of Western civilization associated with the First World War and the profound socio-political changes that followed it in the world, which influenced the anti-colonial struggle (i.e., the collapse of the colonial system).

Starting from the first steps in the formation of the colonial system and for most of the 20th century, the development of mankind to a large extent proceeded under the sign of the domination of a group of countries united under common name"West" (Great Britain, France, Germany, Russia (USSR), Italy, Spain, USA, Canada, etc.), i.e. the world was Eurocentric, or more broadly, Euro-American-centric. Other peoples, regions and countries were taken into account insofar as they were connected with the history of the West.

The era of exploration and subjugation of Asia, Africa and America by European peoples began with the Great geographical discoveries of the 15th-16th centuries. The final act of this epic was the creation by the end of the XIX century. great colonial empires that covered vast spaces and numerous peoples and countries in all parts of the globe. It should be noted that colonialism and imperialism were not the exclusive monopoly of Europe or the Western world of modern and contemporary times. The history of conquest is as old as the history of civilizations. Empire as a form political organization countries and peoples existed almost from the very beginning of human history. Suffice it to recall, for example, the empire of Alexander the Great, the Roman and Byzantine empires, the Holy Roman Empire, the empires of Qing Shi Huang and Genghis Khan, etc.

In the modern sense, the term "empire" (as well as the term "imperialism" derived from it) is associated with the Latin word "emperor" and is usually associated with ideas of dictatorial power and coercive methods of government. In modern times, it first came into use in France in the 30s of the 19th century. and was used against supporters of the Napoleonic Empire. In the following decades, with the intensification of the colonial expansion of Britain and other countries, this term gained popularity as an equivalent of the term "colonialism". At the turn of the XIX and XX centuries. imperialism began to be regarded as a special stage in the development of capitalism, characterized by the intensification of the exploitation of the lower classes within the country by the intensification of the struggle for the redivision of the world in the international arena.

Imperialism is also characterized by special relations of domination and dependence. Different nations are not equal in their origin, influence, resources, and opportunities. Some of them are large, others are small, some have a developed industry, while others are far behind in the process of modernization. International inequality has always been a reality, which led to the suppression and subjugation of weak peoples and countries by strong and powerful empires and world powers.

As historical experience shows, any strong civilization invariably showed a tendency to spatial expansion. Therefore, it inevitably acquired an imperial character. In the last five centuries, the initiative in expansion belonged to the Europeans, and then to the West as a whole. Chronologically, the beginning of the formation of the Eurocentric capitalist civilization coincided with the beginning of the Great Geographical Discoveries. The developing young dynamic civilization seemed to immediately declare its claims to the entire globe. During the four centuries following the discoveries of X. Columbus and Vasco da Gama, the rest of the world was either mastered and settled, or the rest of the world was conquered.

19th century industrial revolution gave a new impetus to the overseas expansion of European powers. Territorial seizures began to be seen as a means of increasing wealth, prestige, military power and gaining additional trump cards in the diplomatic game. A fierce competition for spheres and regions of the most profitable investment of capital, as well as markets for goods, unfolded between the leading industrial powers. End of the 19th century was marked by the intensification of the struggle of the leading European countries for the conquest of still unoccupied territories and countries in Africa, Asia and Oceania.

By the beginning of the XX century. the wave of creation of huge colonial empires ended, the largest of which was the British Empire, spread over vast expanses from Hong Kong in the East to Canada in the West. The whole world turned out to be divided, there were almost no "no man's" territories left on the planet. great era European expansion is over. In the course of many wars for the division and redistribution of territories, European peoples have extended their dominance over almost the entire globe.

Before late XIX- the beginning of the XX century. non-European peoples mastered European scientific, technical, economic, intellectual and other achievements passively; Now the stage of their active development, as it were from within, has begun. The priority in this regard undoubtedly belongs to Japan, which, as a result of the Meiji reforms in 1868, embarked on the path of capitalist development. The reforms marked the beginning of a noticeable economic growth of the country, which, in turn, gave it the opportunity to switch to the path of external expansion. The attack by Japanese aircraft on December 7, 1941 on the American naval base at Pearl Harbor demonstrated with his own eyes the real beginning of the end of the Eurocentric world and became a starting point new era in world history. But until the second half of the XX century. the world remained Eurocentric: Western countries continued to dictate their will and determine the rules of the political game in the international arena. The overwhelming majority of other countries and peoples were assigned only a passive role as objects of the policy of the great powers.

Formation of the world economy World economic relations take their origin in world trade, which is calculated for thousands of years. In pre-industrial eras, the paradigm (from Gr. paradeigma - sample) of economic development can be characterized as "sustained consumption". At that time, simple reproduction was typical, and subsistence farming was dominant. From the point of view of the socio-economic form, this corresponded to the primitive, slave-owning and feudal modes of production. Enrichment of the ruling classes was carried out by non-economic coercion of slaves and peasants.

World trade and world economic relations acquired their new quality on the basis of the Great geographical discoveries of the late XV-XVI centuries. and the dissolution of feudalism in Europe. The great geographical discoveries were not accidental. They were the result of the development of technology and science, economics, cities, commodity-money relations. The creation of a new type of sailing ships - caravels allowed the expedition of X. Columbus to cross the Atlantic Ocean (1492). A compass began to be used, in combination with an astrolabe, helping to navigate the high seas. Improved cartography.

The “lust for gold” became a huge stimulus. It was determined not only by the desire of kings and other nobles to replenish their treasury, not only by the adventurers' passion for enrichment, but also by the need for a growing trade turnover. The pursuit of money, their fetishization began. Trade interests were important. The capture of Constantinople by the Seljuk Turks interrupted the Levantine trade. All this stimulated the geographical expeditions of the Spaniards and the Portuguese, and later the French, Dutch, and British.

Russia played an outstanding role in the exploration and development of the northern coast of Asia and America, the Arctic and Pacific Oceans. The consequences of geographical discoveries were extremely important. A significant share of colonial booty went into the hands of kings and court nobility and received feudal use. Large land ownership, serfdom, and even plantation slavery were imposed in the colonies. But still, the capitalist consequences were predominant - the process of primitive accumulation of capital.

Throughout the 16th century the territory known to Europeans increased by 6 times. The territorial base of trade has reached gigantic proportions. It has become global, oceanic. The scope of the international division of labor has expanded. Huge masses of new goods were involved in the trade turnover. European capital became more full-blooded and viable. Penetrating into industry, he forced the development of manufacturing capitalism. There was a movement of trade routes to the Atlantic and Indian oceans.

The Mediterranean Sea began to lose its importance, the cities of its coast fell into decay. But Lisbon, Seville, Cadiz (Spain), Antwerp, Amsterdam, London towered. Economic centers during this period move to the west. The influx of cheap gold and silver caused in the XVI century. "revolution of prices" - they increased by 2-5 times. This accelerated the enrichment of merchants and manufacturers, who sold goods at ever-increasing prices and paid wages in ever cheaper money. Wealthy peasants, who speculated in raw materials and food, were also getting richer. As for the workers and the rural poor, they suffered from high prices. The incomes of the nobility were depleted, as cash dues were depreciated.

One of the most important consequences of geographical discoveries was colonialism. The acceleration of the economic development of Western Europe took place at the cost of unequal exchange, robbery and enslavement of the peoples of America, Africa, and Asia. All of the above allows us to conclude that it was the Great geographical discoveries that laid the foundation for the formation of the world economy.

From the standpoint of socio-economic forms of society, this stage is characterized by the process of decomposition of feudal relations, the feudal mode of production as a whole, the genesis of capitalism - the initial accumulation of capital, which, on the basis of geographical discoveries, exploitation of the subsoil and enslaved peoples, also received a new quality. Concerning First stage the formation of the world economy is usually associated with final victory over the feudal mode of production, the process of primitive accumulation of capital and the formation of free competition. Happened fundamental change economic development paradigms. The central figure in the movement of the economy becomes an "economic man" with strong motives and benefits, enterprising, ready to take risks for the sake of profit. The pace of economic growth increased sharply. Great Britain is becoming the most developed, advanced country in the world.

Great geographical discoveries contributed to its economic rise. Before that, England occupied a rather modest place. The process of the formation of capitalism here took place more intensively and with greater distinctness than in other countries. Therefore, England is considered a "classical" country of capitalism.

The main commodity sector of the country was agriculture. Wool was exported for processing in Flanders and Florence. Own industrial production was also developed on the basis of guild craft. The great geographical discoveries expanded the world market, increased demand and prices. Thanks to lower production costs, manufactory quickly supplanted small-scale handicraft production.

Further development required more raw materials and free labor. Sheep breeding was profitable for the feudal lords, but ran into limited pastures. Landlords seized communal pastures, drove peasants from the land, which in history was called fencing. In this case, cruel measures were used, entire areas were devastated. Driven from the land, the peasants lost their livelihood, turned into beggars and vagabonds.

Agrarian revolution in the 16th century created conditions for the rapid growth of the wool industry, providing it with raw materials and labor. The "bloody" legislation formed a new capitalist labor discipline. Workers received meager wages with long working hours (from 5 o'clock in the morning to 6-8 o'clock in the evening). Development industrial production and the growth of the non-agricultural population contributed to the formation of an internal market, the size of which was limited by low effective demand. This oriented production to the foreign market.

The characteristic policy at that time was mercantilism. However, the growing bourgeoisie experienced oppression from the ruling elite of the nobility, which caused them to fight against the feudal system. Bourgeois revolution 1642-1649 put an end to feudalism in England, ended the Middle Ages and opened a period of new history - capitalism. In the economy, this contributed to the industrial revolution and the formation of a new stage in the world economy. Thus, the first stage in the formation of the world economy can be conditionally limited to the end of the 15th - the end of the 18th centuries. The industrial revolution of the late 18th century marked a new stage in the development of the world economy. The central place in the economy is beginning to be occupied by industrial capital, which has also changed the paradigm of economic development, the model of which is becoming an industrialized economy.

Stages of development of the world economy In its formation and development world economy has come a long and difficult path.

By the middle of the 20th century, the world economy was split into two parts: the world capitalist and the world socialist.

Since the 1960s, developing countries have been included in the MX system. By the mid-70s, the following stand out among them: the so-called "new industrial countries" of Southeast Asia (the first wave - 4 "small dragons" - South Korea, Taiwan, "Hong Kong, Singapore) and Latin American countries: Brazil, Argentina, Mexico. After the collapse of the USSR and revolutionary changes in the countries of Eastern Europe, the world economy begins to acquire the features of a single, integral entity. The emerging global world economy, not being homogeneous, includes the national economies of industrialized countries, developing countries and countries with an economic system of a transitional type. Keeping many contradictions and diverse trends, MX on turn of the XXI century is incomparably more holistic, integrated, dynamic than in the middle of the 20th century.

The world economy at the turn of the 21st century is global in scope; it is based entirely on the principles of a market economy, the objective laws of the international division of labor, the internationalization of production and capital. By the end of the 1990s, a number of stable trends emerged in the world economy. These include: - stable rates of economic growth.

The average growth rate of all countries in the world rose from less than 1% in the early 1990s to 3% per annum at the end of the decade; - increasing the external economic factor in economic development. Significantly increased the scale and qualitatively changed the nature of traditional international trade in tangible goods, as well as services. “Electronic commerce” has appeared, i.e. trade in the Internet system; - globalization of financial markets and increased interdependence of national economies; - growth in the share of the service sector in national economy and international exchange; - development of regional integration processes. The achieved degree of unity of trade, production and the credit and financial sphere of the industrially developed countries is a sign of the formation of the world economic complex (IEC).

Russia and Europe in the 18th century. Changes in the international position of the empire.

The outcome of the palace struggle of the end of the 17th century, having cleared the power Peter, predetermined the nature of the further development of transformations. Peter sharply advanced the German technical direction to the detriment of the Polish scholastic one and concentrated his vigorous activity on the continuation of military, financial and administrative reforms. The starting points for the reform had already been given by the experiments of the seventeenth century.

The development of the reform was devoid of systematic planning and proceeded in shocks, under the direct influence of current military events and growing financial difficulties. Only in the second half of the reign, by the 20s of the XVIII century, a more systematic plan of reform was outlined, inspired by Western theories of enlightened absolutism and mercantilism and based on models of foreign, mainly Swedish, institutions.

The development of this transformative plan was the collective work of a number of people who submitted transformative projects to Peter on monotonous questions. Understanding these projects, Peter gave the implementation of the planned transformations a coercive, terrorist character. Along with the properties of Peter's personal character, the feverishly excited pace of the work of transformation was determined by the course of external events.

The war filled the entire reign of Peter. The end of the 90s of the XVII century was occupied by the Azov campaigns. They were a continuation of Russia's participation in the European coalition against Turkey, which was formed under Peter's predecessors. By the capture of Azov and the construction of the Voronezh fleet, the prestige of Russia, shaken by the failures of Prince Golitsyn, was raised both in the eyes of the allies and in the eyes of Turkey. Moldavia and Wallachia turned to Peter with an offer of citizenship and the transfer of hostilities against Turkey to the banks of the Danube. But at that time, the members of the coalition were already in a hurry to make peace with Turkey: Western Europe was preparing for another grandiose struggle - for the Spanish inheritance.

The collapse of the coalition forced Russia to conclude a truce with Turkey for 30 years (July 3, 1700). Azov went to Russia, the annual tribute of Russia to the Crimean Khan was destroyed. Two months after the conclusion of this truce, a war began with Sweden, against which, back in 1699, Peter concluded an alliance with Poland. The Polish king Augustus and the Livland nobleman Patkul, who was busy making a lot of efforts to conclude a Polish-Russian alliance, dreamed that when dividing future conquests, Peter would be satisfied with Ingermanland and Karelia.

The defeat of the Russians near Narva further increased the claims and hopes of Augustus. He demanded from Peter the concession to Poland of Little Russia; but the union was renewed without fulfilling this condition. Charles XII after the Narva victory, in the words of Peter, "stuck in Poland", and the Russians at that time ravaged Livonia, captured Derpt and Narva and established themselves on the Neva by taking Noteburg and Nyenschanz and founding Petersburg (1703). Having reached the sea, Peter began to think about peace with Sweden and requested mediation from Austria, England, Holland and France. The powers that fought against Louis XIV did not sympathize with the strengthening of Russia and coldly met Peter's request. Negotiations with Sweden began with the mediation of France, but were interrupted due to the demand of Charles XII to return all Russian conquests to Sweden.

Russia occupied Courland; Karl, having forced Poland to peace and replaced Augustus on the Polish throne with Stanislav Leshchinsky, was preparing for a campaign deep into Russia. Peter was afraid of the Swedes' campaign against Moscow, but Charles, counting on the Little Russian Cossacks and the Crimean Khan, moved to Ukraine. The Battle of Poltava (1709) turned the whole course of both military and diplomatic actions. Charles fled to Turkey; With its success, Russia attracted the keen attention of all Europe, combined with fear. Fear was hostile. France and Poland raised Turkey against Russia. Peter went to the break, encouraged by the hope of the Balkan Slavs, who did not stop during this reign of Peter to appeal to the protection of Russia. The rulers of Moldavia and Wallachia entered into formal alliances with Peter against the Turks, under the condition of declaring the independence of their states. The betrayal of the Wallachian ruler Brankovan exposed the Russian army to terrible danger from the Turks and forced the Prut campaign to end with a difficult peace for Russia with Turkey: Azov again passed to Turkey, the newly built Russian cities near the Sea of ​​\u200b\u200bAzov were devastated, Charles XII was guaranteed a free return to Swedish possessions.

1711 - 1715 were busy with military operations in Pomerania and Finland. The deepening of Russian troops into Germany further increased the anxiety of Europe hostile to Russia. The end of the War of the Spanish Succession made it possible for the European powers to closely monitor the political growth of Russia. England, Austria, France behaved towards Russia partly with cold stiffness, partly with open hostility. Poland, where Augustus reigned again after the Battle of Poltava, Denmark and Prussia were allied with Peter, but the first two powers were afraid of Russia and intrigued against her successes.

Despite all this, Peter, after successes in Finland, drew up a plan for the landing of a combined Russian-Danish fleet in southern Sweden. The plan was not carried out due to discord among the allies. Peter then began to seek rapprochement with France. After his trip to Paris, an alliance was concluded between Russia, France and Prussia, with the obligation to open negotiations with Sweden through the mediation of France.

Simultaneously with this agreement, however, at the suggestion of the Swedish diplomat Hertz, a congress of Russian and Swedish representatives in the Åland Islands was decided, without the participation of French representatives. The Åland Congress, during which Charles XII was replaced on the throne by Ulrik Eleanor, did not lead to anything. Peter resumed the war. Despite the demonstrative cruising of the English fleet in the Baltic Sea, the Russian army landed several times in Sweden and devastated the environs of Stockholm. This led to the conclusion of peace in Nystadt, in 1721 Finland, except for Vyborg, was returned to Sweden, but Russia received Livonia, Estland, Ingermanland, with the payment of 2 million rubles to Sweden. Russia's two-century longing for the Baltic coast was satisfied. Not later than a year later, Peter set off on a new campaign, to Persia.

The idea of ​​Caspian acquisitions occupied Peter from the beginning of his reign and became even more intensified after the Prut campaign. The strengthening of Russia in the Caspian Sea was supposed to be a reward for the failure in the Black Sea. The internal disorder of the Persian monarchy, revealed by Volynsky's embassy to Persia (1716), further strengthened Peter in terms of the Persian campaign. Russian troops quickly occupied the western shore of the Caspian Sea.

The Persian war caused in Europe a new outburst of hostile mistrust towards Russia and almost led to a new break with Turkey, to which Persia turned for help and which was zealously incited against Russia by Austrian and British diplomats. Peter's conquests raised the international position of Russia to an unprecedented height and increased the state territory by more than 10,000 square miles, but terribly increased the size of the army. In the first decade of the 18th century, the war caused an increase in the army from 40 to 100 thousand people and required the creation of a navy.

Military spending increased, compared with the budget of 1680, by 40 million, and spending on military needs accounted for 65% of the total state spending. The growth of troops and military spending led to a new reorganization of the military and financial system, which in turn caused a number of social and administrative changes. The archery infantry and the local noble cavalry of the old time were replaced by a regular army.

In the first half of the reign, new direct taxes were introduced, new objects of taxation were found, defacement of coins was widely used by re-minting silver money, state quitrent items were re-turned, owner's fishing, domestic baths, mills, inns were again taxed, a number of state monopolies were established. All this did not warn financial crisis. In 1710, a half-million deficit was expected.

The house-to-house census carried out in 1710 showed a huge decline in the population throughout Russia. The decentralization of financial management, carried out with the establishment of the provinces, did not contribute to the increase and streamlining of revenues; new "request" and "extraordinary" fees came with ever greater arrears. The government again faced the task that had already been solved at the end of the 17th century - the reform of the taxation procedure and the consolidation of the direct tax. This was done in the 20s of the 18th century.

The yard tax was replaced by the poll tax, for the sake of best achievement universality and uniformity of taxation. Indirect taxes temporarily occupy a secondary place in the revenue budget. Military and financial reforms helped to change the structure of Russian society. Changes in the order of service completed the estate-corporate organization of the nobility; the reform of taxation was accompanied by a further assertion of the serfdom of the peasantry.

After the special duty of the service class, military service, was turned into an all-class duty, the nobility received its special role in the performance of this duty: after serving ordinary service in the guard, the nobles became officers in the army, constituting in it a noble-officer corporation. Another special-class duty of the nobility was compulsory education according to the program approved by the government. public service still remained for the nobility unlimited and obligatory: the civil service in the offices was put on a par with military service in the regiments, and the distribution of members of each noble family between both branches of service was subject to the proportion established by law.

With the abolition of the local militias, the land ceased to serve as the material basis for the distribution of service burdens, but all noble lands, both former estates and former estates, began to be regarded as a fund officially assigned to the nobility for the material support of service noble families.

Therefore, the decree of 1714 legitimized the inalienability and indivisibility of noble lands. By creating a service class corporation from the nobility, Peter opened free access to outside elements in his environment. The table of ranks finally replaced the old beginning of the breed in the service routine with the beginning of personal length of service, legitimizing the receipt of nobility by rank, which greatly contributed to the democratization of the social system.

The decrees on revision and the poll tax completed the transformation of the lower social strata into a homogeneous, enslaved mass. These decrees have changed legal basis attachments, legalizing attachment with a note from a peasant to a landowner in a revision tale, and extended serfdom to new social ranks - to children of the parish clergy who do not have certain occupations, people walking and serfs, who, along with peasants, were recorded in revision tales for owners and subjected to poll salary. All this legally united serf mass was placed under the control of landowners-nobles, who were responsible to the treasury for the tax service of their peasants and the police order within their estates. Administrative reform Petra stood in the same close connection with the military and financial transformations.

In the first half of the reign, under the pressure of military alarms and in view of the need to ensure the maintenance of a new regular army, the system of military administrative districts outlined already in the 17th century was completed. The empire was divided into eight such districts, called provinces. The constant movement of troops, on the occasion of hostilities, did not make it possible to carry out the territorialization of the army in these districts; nevertheless, financially, each part of the army was assigned to one of the provinces, and the main function of the provincial administration was the transfer of provincial dues directly to the maintenance of the regiments. The indefinitely broad power of the governors had to be somewhat moderated by the introduction of a collegiate and elective principle into the mechanism of the provincial administration.

In fact, however, the elections of the Landrats soon gave way to an appointment. In 1719-20, the administrative system underwent a new revision, under the influence of Swedish models and in the spirit of bureaucratic centralization. The collegiate principle was transferred from the region to the center, and the elective principle was eliminated. The collegiums, established according to the Swedish model, distributed the administration of the empire among themselves according to the nature of their affairs. For a short time the Senate became, as it were, the common presence of the collegiate presidents, who were appointed from among the senators; but this order was soon abolished, as contrary to the controlling role of the Senate in relation to the colleges. The colleges received new, low-ranking presidents, while the old noble presidents remained in the Senate, which gave the Senate personnel an aristocratic tinge and turned the colleges into subordinate bodies of the Senate.

Collegia remained in an exceptional position Military, Admiralty and Foreign: they retained the former presidents and did not fall under the subordination of the Senate, which clearly expressed the primary importance of issues of external struggle in the circle of immediate state tasks. With the establishment of the central collegiums, the Landrat collegiums in the provinces disappeared.

The elective principle was retained in the districts, where Zemstvo commissars, elected from local nobles, were vested with very diverse powers, from collecting taxes to the moral police, inclusive. In practice, however, the commissars soon turned into subordinate agents of the military authorities, mainly in the collection of the poll tax. Having established the administration on the basis of centralization and bureaucratic guardianship, having paralyzed the weak germs of public control, Peter subordinated the administrative mechanism to double crown control: secret over finances - to the fiscals and overtly over the courts - to the prosecutor's office; the top leadership of both was concentrated in the hands of the prosecutor general. Public autonomy in the field of urban management has become somewhat wider.

Developing the reform of the 1680s, Peter transferred financial collections, management and court over the commercial and industrial population of cities to burmisters elected from among this population, who were subordinate to the burmister chamber or town hall, also composed of elected persons. However, in this area, with the transformation of town halls into magistrates, a bureaucratic element was introduced in the 20s of the 18th century. Service in the magistrates was made, as it were, the privilege of the highest, "primary" stratum of the city merchants.

This was the main trend of Peter's economic policy - the encouragement of large-scale urban industry, bequeathed to him by the transformative program of the 17th century. Rapprochement with the West gradually developed this tendency into a conscious mercantilist system, expressed in three directions: 1) in encouraging the mining industry in order to increase the metal reserves in the country, 2) in regulating foreign trade on the basis of a balance of trade, and 3) in encouraging the native factory industry.

Until 1719, Peter continues, like his predecessors, to call foreign technicians and craftsmen from Austria, Venice, Holland, Sweden, Germany to Russia, and also send Russians abroad to learn skills. In 1719, with the establishment of the Manufactory College, these activities were systematized. All the measures of Peter, however, could not accelerate the growth of the factory industry, which was not yet based on the natural successes of the national economy.

At the beginning of the 18th century, Russia was still a country of agricultural and small-scale domestic industry. Peter's reform forever put an end to the outward forms of the old Muscovite statehood, but at the same time brought it to highest development the same principles that underlay the previous state system. The reorganization of the military and tax organization proceeded from the old principle of absorbing all national resources by the needs of the fiscal, the needs of state military defense.

The estate reforms changed the former order of distribution of state duties between social classes, but still left the entire population from top to bottom enslaved to service and tax.

Administrative reforms modified the scheme of government institutions, but even more sharply carried out the elimination public unions from participation in the current management, which was completely transferred to the hands of the bureaucracy. Economic and educational measures were aimed at bringing to life two truly new forces that had not previously played a prominent role in state building - industrial capital and scientific knowledge. But the experiments of the first category anticipated the forthcoming results of economic development in the future, and therefore did not quite reach the goal, and the experiments with the implantation of knowledge proceeded from the old, narrowly applied view of book learning, with the transfer of only interest from questions of spiritual salvation to questions of technical progress.

Completing the previous process of state structure, Peter's reform nevertheless prepared new era progressive development of Russian life. The rapprochement with the West, undertaken for the sake of borrowing a purely technical nature, did not stop within these initial limits and gradually captured all new spheres of life. Already in the first half of the 18th century, the influence of political and philosophical Western European literature was quite widespread in the upper strata of society. The ideas of natural law, the contractual origin of the state, popular sovereignty were perceived by Russian leaders and appropriately applied to the native movements that emerged among the Russian nobility. These movements themselves were, in turn, an indirect consequence of the Petrine reforms.