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The negative consequences of the Great Depression, the USA being its epicenter, cannot help to influence the situation in Great Britain. However, due to the developed democratic institutions and efficient mechanisms of regulation of the capitalist economy, the depression did not exert so great influence on this country as on the USA.
The evolutionary period of the third epochal cycle is also connected with the disintegration of the British Empire after the Second World War (1939-1945), the changes in the balance of power between Great Britain and the USA, its former colony, the transformation of London to the strategic partner of Washington in Europe. The most outstanding events of this period are as follows: the Labourist government of C. Attlee entered the scene, marking the beginning of the end of colonial policy – the loss of India, a pearl in the crown of the British Empire, the independence of Pakistan (1945-1951); the creation of the British atom bomb during W. Churchill’s second premiership (1951-1955); the Suez crisis (1952-1956); privatization processes in the state sector and expansion of the area for private initiative during the rule of Margaret Thatcher (1979-1990); the preservation of Britain’s greatness – the war with Argentina for Falkland Islands (1982); the victory of T. Blair and the «new» Labourists at the parliamentary elections (1997), and a following exclusion of hereditary peers from the poll, the reform in the House of Lords, the peace process in Ulster, decentralization (devolution) – the creation of assemblies in Scotland and Wales; the confrontation between the eurooptimists and eurosceptics on the issue of entering the Monetary union.
The analysis of events of the last period gives grounds to assume that Great Britain is standing on the threshold of the revolutionary stage of the fourth epochal cycle. The definition of a new role of the monarchy, the solution of the problems of multiracial society, and the coexistence of various cultural traditions may become the content of that cycle.
8.5. France
The hypothetical scheme of development of epochal cycles of the national history of France may be presented in a following way.
The history of France goes back to the period of establishment of the state of Franks. It would be quite natural to assume that the beginning of the first epochal cycle is connected with the revolutionary stage of origin of a new subject of history in Europe. The inclusion of the Frankish state into the Christian civilization is connected with the acceptance of Catholic Christianity (496). The victories of Chlodwig over the neighboring Germanic tribes (481-511) extended geopolitical borders, forming the present territory of France.
The involutionary stage of the cycle had the content of formation of classic West-European feudalist system (511-843), which lasted practically to the Verdun division of the Carlovingian Empire (843). The emerged historical events of the period are connected with the activity of Emperor Carolus Martellus (715-741). Due to his victory over the Arabs near Poitiers (732), the borders of Islamic expansion in Europe were finally determined. The next important figure of the period was Carolus Magnus (768-814). It is his territorial aggrandizements that laid down the background for creation of the united Europe. At the same time, the Carlovingian Empire was not a stable state formation, because it comprised various nations which were at different stages of historical development. All this predetermined the following differentiation of the single state formation and creation of the main states of Western Europe (France, Germany, Italy).
The Verdun division of the Carlovingian Empire (843) became the turning (co-evolutionary) point in the history of France. The truly French dynasty of Capetians, which came into confrontation with the British dynasty of Plantagenets, was created in this period. The King of England Henry Plantagenet invaded the French territory from La Manche to the Pyrenees (1154).
The evolutionary period of development of France during the first epochal cycle is marked by the appearance of the urban (burgher) culture and the struggle of towns for trade privileges against feudals. The Sorbonne University arises in 1136. Pierre Abailard (1079-1142) was one of the most prominent professors at this university. Large heretic movements and religious wars with Albigenses (13th century) are also characteristic of the period. French kings gradually restored their control over the territories lost before. Philippe IV (1180-1223) regained Normandy from Britain. Louis IX concluded peace with England (1259), leaving, therefore, only Aquitaine and Gascony under the British rule. The new greatness of France is confirmed by the political control over the pontiffs – the so-called Avignon imprisonment of Popes (1309-1379). The peripetias of the initial stage of the Hundred Years' War (1337-1358) became the historic event of long-duration meaning which stimulated the revolutionary processes of the second epochal cycle. Standing on the edge of ultimate defeat and seeking the ways of attraction of broad masses to take part in the war, the King of France Charles II was forced to call classes in the General states (fore-parliament). The revolutionary processes were followed by Jacquerie caused by a growth of military exactions and the attempts to enslave the population.
France was on the edge of catastrophe when it was rescued by Joan of Arc, who liberated Orleans (1429). Since that event, France gained victories over the Englishmen, and, during the rule of Louis XI (1461-1483), the political unification of France came to an end, and the conditions for absolutist monarchy, which symbolizes the peak of the involutionary period in country’s development, were created.
Having revived after the Hundred Years' War, France got engaged in the war with Germany and Spain for control over Italy. The protestant heresy appeared during the rule of Francis I (1515-1547).
Social-political contradictions which became more evident due to wars and reformist tendencies of spiritual life, raised the Fronde of civil religious wars (1562-1598), which, in fact, became the expression of co-evolutionary transformational processes. The events of the transient period lasted practically to 1629, when the Edict of mercy gave the freedom of conscience to Huguenots.
The outstanding historical events of the evolutionary period (1629-1789) were as follows: the Thirty Years' War which defined the French hegemony in Europe, a subsequent growth of the French culture, coming back to the early-Italian Renaissance. The spiritual face of the epoch was defined by the works of Francois Rabelais (1494-1533), Pierre Ronsard (1524-1585), Michel de Montaigne (1533-1592), Jean Bodin (1530-1596) and R. Descartes (1596-1650).
The defeat of France in the Seven Years’ War (1753-1760), the loss of colonial domains (the province of Quebec in Canada, trade outposts in India), and the ruin of country’s economy, stimulated the deep political crisis of the absolutism system which ended in the burst the Great French revolution (1789-1794). This epochal event, which had a globally historical meaning (for Western, Central, and East Europe, and also for Asia in XIX-XX centuries) resulted in opening the area for development of capitalist relations. The export of revolution during Napoleon’s wars (1799-1814), brought the bourgeois law by means of French bayonets to the most distant areas of Europe. The inability of a final victory of counterrevolution in France demonstrated all the radicality of changes.
The restoration of monarchy (1815-1848), opening the involutionary period of the third epochal cycle, was unable to change the bourgeois-democratic character of the state. The efforts to reanimate the absolutism were ruined by the revolts of the people in 1830 and 1848-1849. The following political development of the country predetermined the formation of the Third presidential republic (1875-1940).
The victory of France in the First World War did not strengthen economic positions of the country. Moreover, the ruined Germany could not pay off French military expenses by its reparations. The beginning of the conjuncture economic crisis of the Great Depression (1929-1933) became the turning co-evolutionary point in the development of France. The transient processes in France lasted up to the Algerian crisis (1958).
France enters the evolutionary period of the third epochal cycle with the return of De Gaulle to the political stage of the country.
The most important events of the period were as follows: the entrance of France into the European Economic Community (1958); French nuclear weapon test (1962); the reconciliation between France and Germany, put into life by the treaty between De Gaulle and Adenauer (1963). Student’s disturbances (May 1968) were aimed at democratization of the country’s political system and favored the rejuvenation of the country’s political elite. The enlivening of left-centralist sentiments in the country does not hold any pronounced radical character. The modern policy of France is directed to preservation of the former greatness. Its real economic position among the leading seven industrial states has a tendency to a decline. It shifted from the 4th to the 5th place according to its economic indices in the recent five years.
Quite probably, the evolutionary period of development has not exhausted its potency and will last in the first quarter of the 21st century.
8.6. Ukraine
For Ukraine, the beginning of the first epochal cycle is identified with sources of Kievian Rus’ history.
It would not be groundless to assume that the revolutionary phase of the cycle is connected with the seizure of power in Novgorod and Kiev by the Norman army of Oleg (882). The establishment of control over the trade way «from Varangians to Greeks» was the sense of the event. The campaigns of Svyatoslav (964-969) also became the content of the revolutionary phase. However, they did not provide for the territorial expansion of Rus to the West, and, moreover, they uncovered the southern borders of the state, exposing them to Khasarian attacks.
The entrance of Ukraine-Rus to the involutionary period was connected with the choice of belonging to a civilization and the introduction of Christianity of the Byzantine model (988). The fight for the Kievian throne, which flared up after the death of Prince Vladimir, ended only during the rule of Yaroslav the Wise (1019-1054). The inner political situation in Kievian Rus stabilized in that period. At the same time, under the influence of the external factor, the split of the Christian church to the Catholic (ecumenical) and Orthodox (right) ones, Ukrainian lands, according to Hrushevsky, lose their own civilizational rhythm of history. The insiccation of the Byzantine sources of culture, to what Ukraine-Rus belonged, did not allow that land to find the rhythm neither in the Catholic nor in Protestant civilizational cycles63. In fact, the civilizational failure was marked along the Dnieper («East»– «West»).
The fight for political influence in the country stimulated the processes of feudal disunity, confirmed at the meeting of Princes in Lubich (1097), where they made a decision: «everyone holds his own dominion». The reinforcement of kindred North-Eastern Russian princedoms in the XI century stimulated their struggle against the parental culture of the Kievian Rus. This process was symbolized by the war for the Kievian throne between Izyaslav Mstislavitch and the Prince of Suzdal, Jury Dolgoruky (1147-1149). The situation was complicated with permanent confrontation with the nomadic nations of steppe. The assault of hordes of Polovtsians upon Kiev (1169) did not stimulate any uniting processes in the military and political spheres. Every prince strived for his own victories, trying to prove his right to be primus inter pares. The bright example is the campaign of Severian Prince Igor Svyatoslavich against Polovtsians, which ended in the defeat of Igor by the Polovtsian Khan Konchak (1185).
The peculiar correctives, amended to the historical development of the Ukraine-Rus by the steppian nations, finally weakened the political influence of Kiev as a uniting power of the Slav nations. The situation promoted the appearance of new centers of power – the beginning of a growth of the Galych-Volyn princedom (1199) and princedoms of the North-Eastern Rus.
Transient processes of the co-evolution of the first epochal cycle are identified with defeats of the North-Eastern Rus and the Mogul-Tartarian invasion of it (1237-1238). This period includes: the defeat of Kiev (1240), the creation of «Saga on Defeat of Rus» by monks. In fact, Ukraine-Rus turned into a distinctive defensive line for Europe.
The blossom of the evolutionary period is connected with the strengthening of the Lithuanian princedom that took Ukraine-Rus under its military cover: the campaign of the Lithuanian prince Gediminas to the Kievian princedom (1323). The power of the Lithuanian princedom allowed it to inflict a defeat upon the Mogul-Tartaric horde near the Blue Waters in 1362. However, the military successes, strengthened by the Kievian Union (1385) of the Great Lithuanian princedom and the Kingdom of Poland, weakened the Orthodox hierarchy, especially after the metropolitanate had moved to Moscow (1326). It opened the doors for catholic missionaries to the Ukrainian land, by strengthening the western vector in its culture and, at the same time, stimulating the interconfessional confrontation.
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