MODULE -2

KARL MARX

Socialism is a political and economic order in which the means of production (e.g. land,
factories, machinery, communication and transportation infrastructure, etc.) are subject to public
control and the traditionally gendered and often unpaid labor of reproduction (e.g. child rearing,
domestic labor, etc.) is compensated or socialized. While the structure of governance, use of
markets, degree of cooperative labor, and kinds welfare guarantees may vary, socialism seeks
to prioritize the satisfaction of human needs, while mitigating material inequality and social
oppression. Karl Marx (1818-1883) and Friedrich Engels (1820-1895) argued that the objective
possibility of socialism was immanent to capitalism. (Socialism supported by moral principles or
human will alone, was critically referred to as utopian.) Immanent to socialism, in turn, is the
objective possibility of communism, which entails the complete dissolution of the state, division
of labor, and the value form associated with commodity production. Marxist socialism is thus a
stage in the historical development of communism, whose defining characteristic is the
overcoming of all internal contradictions and radical otherness (a characteristic it shares with
Hegel’s notion of absolute spirit). Marxism, however, also refers to a systematic, dialectical, and
historical analysis of capitalism; a reflexive form of critical social theory with an emancipatory
intent; a historical materialist methodology; theories of class formation, conflict, and ideology; as
well as to critiques of alienation, reification, and commodity fetishism. There are now several
different schools of Marxist thought, from Humanist, Structuralist, and Autonomist Marxism, to
Analytical, Feminist, and Cultural Marxism, among others.

CONGRESS OF VIENNA

The Vienna Settlement refers to a series of agreements made by the European powers at the
Congress of Vienna in 1815. As the peace terms with France had already been decided by the
Treaty of Paris (signed earlier on May 30, 1814), the Congress of Vienna was mainly concerned
with solving the problems brought about by the Napoleonic wars. To solve these problems, the
four European powers reached certain agreements at the Congress of Vienna on June 9, 1815.
These settlements, consisting of both territorial and political ones, were commonly known as
the Vienna Settlement. There were many factors contributing to maintaining of the peace of
Europe in the period 1815-1914. One of them was the Vienna Settlement. However, there were
other factors as well, for example the Congress System. To decide the extent the Vienna
Settlement contributing to keeping European peace during 1815-1914, we have to find out
which one of the above factors could remove the threat to peace sustainably. The more
successful, the larger the extent, and vice versa. Not the entire Vienna Settlement contributing
to maintaining of the peace of Europe in the period 1815-1914. Only those settlements relating
to building the arc of containment around France, and to building an effective balance of power
in Europe helped to keep peace of the time. To begin, the European powers built an arc of
buffer states on the eastern borders of France at the Congress of Vienna. First, they joined
Belgium with the Netherlands to form a new Kingdom known as the Kingdom of the United
Netherlands. Then, they gave Prussia the Rhineland --- the land adjacent to the eastern borders
of France. Finally, they strengthened the southeastern border state of France, Piedmont, by
giving her two French provinces of Savoy and Nice. In building stronger buffer states along
France’s eastern borders, the powers ensured that France would not be able to expand towards
the northeast, east and southeast. By shutting off France through these stronger buffer states,
the Vienna Settlement helped to maintain European peace during 1815-1914. The part of
settlements made at Vienna relating to balance of power also helped to give 100 years of peace
to Europe. France attacked other European states during 1795-1815 since she was
comparatively stronger than any other European powers. The powers believed that if each was
as strong as one another, no power would dare to start wars, and there would be peace.
Accordingly, the powers took away all land conquered by Napoleon; they gave Russia most of
Poland and Finland; Prussia, half of Saxony, parts of Poland and the Rhineland; Austria, the land
it had lost during the Napoleonic period and the land on the Italian peninsula and the Balkans;
and Britain, the Cape Colony, South Africa, Malta and various other colonies in Africa and Asia.
As a result, Russia became strongest in Eastern Europe. In Central Europe, there saw the rise of
Austria and Prussia. In Western Europe, France was weakened. A balance of power was kept. In
this way, the Vienna Settlement relating to the balance of power kept the peace of Europe
during 1815-1914.