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break with the monarchy traditionalism and paving the way to the Great French revolution. The normative involutionary period was virtually established after Cromwells death (1658) and confirmed with the restoration of constitutional monarchy (1689) and confirmation of the Great Charter and primary human rights and freedoms.
The main historical events of the involutionary period were as follows: the fight of Great Britain for preserving the empire (the War of Independence of the USA, 1775-1783), the competition with the revolutionary France for the hegemony in Europe and for the repartition of colonies Trafalgar battle (1805), the continental blockade organized by Napoleon (1806-1814).
The co-evolutionary transitional phase of development, which began in the first quarter of the 19th century, is connected with the transformation of Great Britain into the worlds workshop, the industrial revolution, the first parliamentary reform which extended the categories of people who had a right to vote (1832).
The evolutionary period takes its beginning since the middle of the 19th century and is marked by the following significant events: in political history the classic confrontation between the Liberals (William Gladstone, 1809-1898) and the Conservatives (Benjamin Disraeli, 1804-1881), the concession of the dominion status to Canada (1867); the colonial Boer War (1899-1902), which virtually opened a new historical period of redistribution of spheres of the colonial influence and forestalled the First World War (1914-1918). In fact, it was the fight for preserving status quo of the British Empire. The main internal political event was the foundation of the Labour Party (1900). Its activity created an alternative to the liberals and Tories at the beginning of the 20th century. When this party came to power (1924), the accents of political struggle shifted from the confrontation liberals-conservatives to labourites-conservatives.
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. Churchills 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 Britains 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 countrys 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 countrys 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 Napoleons 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 rea