Slave state: the formation, shape, structure

The institution of slavery was the backbone of the economy of antiquity and antiquity. Forced labour produced benefits for many hundreds of years. Egypt, the cities of Mesopotamia, Greece, Rome – slavery was an important part of all these civilizations. At the turn of antiquity and the middle ages to replace him came feudalism.

Education

Historically, a slave state was the first state formed after the decomposition of the primitive communal system. The society was divided into classes, there was rich and poor. Because of this contradiction arose the institution of slavery. It was based on the forced labor on the Lord and was the Foundation of the then government.

The First of the slave States were on the verge of the fourth-third millennia BC. These include the Egyptian Empire, Assyria, and the cities of the Sumerians in the valley of the Euphrates and Tigris. In the second Millennium BC such education emerged in China and India. Finally, the first slave state consisted of the Kingdom of the Hittites.

Types and forms

Modern historians divide ancient slave States into several types and shapes. The first is the Oriental despotism. Their important feature was the preservation of some characteristics of the old primitive communities. Patriarchal slavery remained primitive – the slave was allowed to have his family and property. In later ancient States of this feature has disappeared. In addition to the private ownership of slaves, there was a collective slavery, when slaves owned by the state or temples.

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The Human labour were used mainly in agriculture. Oriental despotism was formed in the river valleys, but even with this they had to develop agriculture through the construction of complex irrigation systems. In this regard, slaves worked in the team. With this feature of Oriental despotism is associated the existence of the then agricultural communities.

Later ancient slave States formed the second type of these countries – Greco-Roman. He was distinguished by improved production and a complete rejection of primitive survivals. Evolved forms of exploitation, the ruthless suppression of the masses and the violence against them reached its peak. Collective property replaced private property of individual slaveholders. Sharp was social inequality and the domination and injustice of the opposite class.

Greco-Roman slave-owning state existed according to the principle that slaves were admitted things and producers of wealth for their owners. They did not sell their labor, they were sold to their masters. Ancient documents and works of art speak eloquently about this state of Affairs. Slave type of state suggested that the fate of the servant in importance equal to the fate of the animals or products.

People became slaves for various reasons. In Ancient Rome slaves were declared prisoners of war and civilians captured during the campaigns. Also people have lost the will, if could not pay off the borrowers debt. Especially widespread this practice was in India. Finally, slave state could make a slave of a criminal.

Slaves and semi-free

Exploiters and exploited was the basis of ancient society. But in addition to them, there third-party classes and semi-free and free citizens. In Babylon, China and India, these were artisans and peasants-congregation. In Athens there was a class of metics – settled in the country of the Greeks by foreigners. They also were ranked released slaves. Similar was the bar Peregrino that existed in the Roman Empire. The so-called free people without Roman citizenship. Another controversial class of Roman society were considered columns – the peasants, who were attached to the leased land and in many ways resembled enslavement of the peasants of the medieval period of feudalism.

Regardless of the form of the slave States, small landowners and artisans lived in constant danger of destruction by the moneylenders and large owners. Free workers were unprofitable for employers because their labour was too expensive compared to slave labor. If the peasants off the land, they sooner or later joined the ranks of the lumpen, especially large ones in Athens and Rome.

The Slave state of inertia suppressed and infringed their rights along with the rights of full-fledged slaves. So, columns and peregrini not fall under the full effect of the Roman law. Peasants could sell along with the land to which they were attached. Not being slaves, they could not be considered free.

Functions

A Complete characterization of the slave States can not do without a mention of its internal and external functions. Power activity was determined by its social content, goals, objectives, and a desire to preserve the old order. Creation of all necessary conditions for the use of slave labor and ruined free people – the primary internal function that performed slave state. Countriesthis device differed by the system meet the interests of the dominant social class of the aristocracy, large landowners, etc.

Especially clearly this principle is reflected in the Ancient Egypt. In the Eastern Kingdom government completely controlled the economy and organized social work, which involved considerable human weight. Such projects and “project of the century” was necessary for the construction of canals and other infrastructure, improve operating under unfavorable natural conditions of the farm.

Like any other order of the state, the slave system could not exist without providing its own security. Therefore, the power in these ancient countries did everything to suppress the protests of slaves and other oppressed masses. This protection included the protection of private slave ownership. The need for it was obvious. For example, in Rome, the uprising of the lower strata occurred regularly, and the revolt of Spartacus in 74-71 BC became legendary.

Suppression

The type of the Slave States have always used tools such as the courts, the army and prisons to repress the discontented. In Sparta, it was accepted practice periodic indicative of the mass murder of people who were in state ownership. Such punitive acts called kriptimi. In Rome, if a slave killed his master, the authorities in the penalty executed not only the killer but also all the servants that lived with him under one roof. These traditions have given rise to mutual responsibility and collective responsibility.

The Slave state, feudal state and other States in the past also tried to influence the population through religion. Enslavement and the lack of rights proclaimed godly order. Many slaves did not know a free life, as it was owned by the Lord from birth, and hence barely imagined freedom. The pagan religion of antiquity, ideologically protecting the operation, helped the servants to grow in the awareness of the normality of their situation.

In Addition to the internal functions, exploiting the power was function and appearance. The development of the slave States meant the regular war with its neighbors, the conquest and enslavement of new masses, the defense of their own realm from external threats, the creation of an effective management system of the captured lands. It should be understood that these external functions were in close conjunction with internal functions. They reinforced and complemented each other.

Protection of the established order

To perform internal and external functions there was a wide state apparatus. At an early stage in the evolution of the institutions of the slave system, this mechanism was distinguished by the lack of development and simplicity. Gradually he had strengthened and grown. That is why the administrative machine of the Sumerian cities cannot be compared with the apparatus of the Roman Empire.

Increased Especially armed groups. Moreover, expanded judicial system. Institutions were superimposed on one another. For example, in Athens in the V-V centuries BC management policy was carried out, Bula – the Council of five hundred. With the development of the state system joined elected officials in whose jurisdiction were military Affairs. It was hippargi and strategists. For administrative functions was also responsible individuals – arhati. Own the court and agencies associated with religious cults. The formation of slave States was formed about one and the same path – complexity of the administrative apparatus. Officials and the military could not be directly linked to slavery, but their activities in some way was protecting the established political system and its stability.

The Class of people in the public service, was formed only according to class considerations. The top posts could take just know. Representatives of other social strata in the best case were on the lower rungs of the state apparatus. For example, in Athens of the slaves formed units, carrying out police functions.

The Important role played by the priests. Their status are usually fixed in legislation, and their influence was significant in many ancient powers of Egypt, Babylon, Rome. They affect the behavior and the minds of the masses. The priests deified the power propagated the cult of personality the next king. Their ideological work with the population, strengthened the structure of such as slave, state. The rights of priests was extensive – they occupied in society a privileged position and enjoyed widespread respect, awe inspiring to others. Religious rituals and customs were considered sacred, which gave the clergy the inviolability of property and person.

Political system and laws

All the ancient slave States, including the first slave state on the territory of Russia (the Greek colony on the Black sea coast), reinforcing the established order by means of laws. They recorded the class character of contemporary society. Obvious examples of such laws are the laws of Solon the Athenian and the Roman laws of Servius Tullius.They have established as the norm inequality and divided society into strata. For example, in India, such cells are called castes and Varnas.

While the slave state on the territory of our country is not left behind legislative acts, historians around the world are exploring antiquity in the Babylonian laws of Hammurabi or “the Book of laws” of Ancient China. Your document of this type exists in India. In the II century BC there appeared the laws of Manu. They divided the slaves into seven categories: donated, purchased, inherited, became slaves as punishment, captured in war, slaves for the contents and slaves born in the house of the owner. They have in common was that all these people were different perfect lawlessness, and their fate depended entirely on the mercy of the owner.

A Similar magnitude were recorded in the laws of the Babylonian king Hammurabi, compiled in the XVIII century BC, the arch was said that if a slave refused to serve the master or contradicted him, he should have cut off his ear. Help the slave to escape were punished by death (this was true even of the free people).

Whatever unique documents of Babylon, India or other Nations of antiquity, the most perfect laws are considered the laws of Rome. Under their influence formed the codes of many other countries belonging to Western culture. Roman law, which became the Byzantine's influence on the slave state on the territory of Russia, including Kievan Rus'.

In the Empire of the Romans to perfection, were developed the institutions of inheritance, private property, mortgage, loan, store, sale. The object in such relations could be slaves, as they were considered only as the goods or property. The source of these laws were Roman customs that originated in ancient times, when there was no Empire, no Kingdom, and there was only a primitive community. Drawing on the traditions of past generations, the lawyers much later and formed the legal system of the main States of antiquity.

It was thought that the Roman laws are in force, as their “decided and approved the Roman people" (this concept was not part of the plebs and the poor). These rules controlled slave relationship for several centuries. Important legal acts were edicts of the magistrates, which was published immediately after the inauguration of another high official.

The Exploitation of slaves

Slaves were used not only for agricultural work in the village, but also for maintenance of the manor house. Slaves guarded the manor house, kept them in order, cooking in the kitchen, waited on tables, buying supplies. They could perform the duties of chaperone, following his owner on walks, working, hunting, and wherever it entered the case. Owning for his honesty and intelligence due respect, the servant got a chance to become the tutor of the children of the owner. Most close servants were working the case, or were appointed overseers of the new slaves.

Heavy physical work were assigned to slave for the reason that the elite were busy with the state protection and expansion against neighbors. Such orders were particularly characteristic of the aristocratic republics. Shopping powers or in the colonies, where flourished the sale of scarce resources, the conquerors were occupied by the best commercial transactions. Consequently, agricultural work was delegated to slaves. This distribution of authority has developed, for example, in Corinth.

Athens, on the contrary, quite a long time retained their Patriarchal agricultural practices. Even under Pericles, when this policy reached its political peak, free citizens preferred to live in the village. These habits lasted for a long time, despite the affluence of the city trade and its decoration unique artwork.

The Slaves who were owned by cities, performed work on their accomplishment. Some of them were engaged in law enforcement. For example, in Athens contained a corps of one thousand Scythian gunmen executing police functions. Many slaves served in the army and Navy. Some of them are at the service of the state were sent to private owners. Such slaves became sailors, took care of vehicles and equipment. In the army, slaves were mostly workers. Soldiers, they were made only when immediate danger to the state. In Greece, these situations developed during the Persian wars or on the outcome of the battle against the advancing Romans.

Law of war

In Rome footage of slaves was replenished mainly from the outside. For this, the Republic and then the Empire had acted so-called right of war. The enemy, taken prisoner, deprived of all civil rights. He was outlawed and ceased to be a personality in the full sense of the word. The marriage of the prisoner was terminated, his inheritance was open.

Many enslaved foreigners were killed after celebrating the triumph. Slaves could be forced to take part in entertainment for the Roman soldiers fighting, when two strangers were supposed to kill each other to survive. After the capture of Sicily, it used a decimation. Every tenth man was killed – thus the population of captured Islands suddenly decreasedon the tenth. Spain and Cisalpine Gaul, at first, regularly rebelled against the Roman power. Thus, these provinces were the main suppliers of slaves to the Republic.

During his famous wars in Gaul, Caesar at once auctioned 53 thousands of new slaves from among the barbarians. Sources such as Appian and Plutarch, mentioned in his works on even larger numbers. For any slave state issue was not even the taking of slaves, and retention. For example, the inhabitants of Sardinia and of Spain famous for its recalcitrance, which men of these countries, Roman aristocrats tried to sell, not to keep as his own servants. When the Republic became the Empire, and its interests embraced all of the Mediterranean regions the main suppliers of slaves instead of the West become the East of the country, as there is a tradition of slavery was considered the norm for many generations.

End of slave States

The Roman Empire collapsed in the fifth century BC She was the last classic antique state, uniting almost the whole ancient world around the Mediterranean sea. From her left a huge East the shard, which later became known as Byzantium. In the West formed the so-called barbarian kingdoms, who turned the prototypes of European national countries.

All these States gradually moved into a new historical era-the middle Ages. The legal basis for their steel feudal relations. They replaced the Institute of classical slavery. Dependence of peasants from the more wealthy of the nobility survived, but it took other forms, which are markedly different from ancient slavery.