Prehistoric cave dwellers and hunter and gatherer societies used no money and there was no division of rich and poor, there was no private property (private property means property from which you can make income such land) and all the member of society was delivered social justice. Whatever they got was from the hard work of every member of the society. This is somehow related to what modern communism is, but this is known as primitive communism because this type of communism and their communal practices were not exactly based on ideological principles and they were not following all the principles of modern communism.
There are many pre historic primitive communist societies. To start with long, long ago in turkey there was a small village named Çatalhöyük which existed from approximately 7500 BC to 6400 BC and flourished around 7000 BC. Some historians such as Murray Bookchin argue that this proto-city was essentially egalitarian.
Long after in the bronze age the Indus valley civilization which existed in in the north west of India in 3300 BCE to 1300 BCE is argued to be a primitive communist society.
There were many communistic thinkers in Europe before the founder of modern communism, Karl Marx and Fredrich Engels, importantly Rome. The 1st century BC Roman philosopher Seneca believed that humans had fallen from a Golden Age of primitive communism. Seneca stated, “How happy was the primitive age when the bounties of nature lay in common…They held all nature in common which gave them secure possession of the public wealth.”. The words ‘all nature in common’ and ‘secure possession of the public wealth’. It is argued that Plato’s Republic described in great detail a communist-dominated society wherein power is delegated in the hands of intelligent philosopher or military guardian class and rejected the concept of family and private property.
In the late roman period scholars have argued that the mode of production seen in early Hebrew society was a communitarian domestic one that was akin to primitive communism.
The early Church Fathers maintained that human society had declined to its current state from a now lost egalitarian social order. An early Christian theological book called the acts of apostles, shows some amount of communism in it (particularly 4:32–45 and 2.44-47).
Not only in the European nations further south-east in Tamil Nadu at a period known as sang period. In the third Sangam period there was a philosopher named Thiruvalluvar. In his book Thirukkural, one Kural, that is Kural no. 385 says that the king should acquire wealth, to lay it up, to guard, and to distribute it.
இயற்றலும் ஈட்டலுங் காத்தலுங் காத்த
வகுத்தலும் வல்ல தரசு.
Fig2 – Kural no. 385
Not only the ancient period of Europe but even in medieval acts and ideas of communism and egalitarian societies where almost all property were held in common, are found. There were many intellectuals who supported the concept equality of goods. Around 1300 the Apostolic Brethren (a sect of Christianism) in northern Italy was taken over by Fra Dolcino who formed a sect known as the Dulcinians which advocated ending feudalism, dissolving hierarchies in the church, and holding all property in common.
A major uprising in Britain, the Peasants’ Revolt in England has been an inspiration for “the medieval ideal of primitive communism”, with the priest John Ball of the revolt being an inspirational figure to later revolutionaries and having allegedly declared, “things cannot go well in England, nor ever will, until all goods are held in common.”
. While this happened in Germany a group of protestors in the 16th century sought agrarian reforms and relief from the oppressive nobles. Sadly, a theologian of the religious revolution, martin Luther (do not confuse with martin Luther king) contributed to its defeat, principally by the army of the Swabian League. Some 100,000 peasants were killed. The situations only worsened from the situation where further requests for improving of the life standard for the peasants.
Moreover, around the same time In England an author named Thomas More wrote a book called utopia. In that book he portrayed that society should be governed by common ownership.
Not only medieval Europe had these communistic ideals but the other parts of the world also. The Chachapoyas a native American tribe in Europe were essentially egalitarian before they were captured by the Incas.
In the middle east a small Islamic militant group that led to a movement after which a country was built around a place known as al ahsa, the Qarmatians were egalitarian and had a communistic nature.
Around the same time in north America a tribe known as the Iroquois in the 17th century which is regarded as primitive communist.
Lewis Henry Morgan’s descriptions of “communism in living” as practiced by the Haudenosaunee of North America, a small native Indian tribe, through research enabled by and coauthored with Ely S. Parker, were viewed as a form of pre-Marxist communism. Other tribes such as Acoma, Cochiti and Isleta Puebloans are also viewed as primitive communist society also existed in the 20th century.
French revolution and France were also a very important ground for the development of pre-Marx communism importantly Charles Fourier, Louis Blanqui, Pierre-Joseph Proudhon, Pierre Leroux, Thomas Hodgkin, Claude Henri de Saint-Simon, Wilhelm Weitling, and Étienne Cabet. The French revolution from which republican party also known as the Jacobins came from was highly influenced by pre-Marx communist writers such as victor d’hupay, Jean-Jacques Rousseau. Therefore, Jacobins supported equal distribution of wealth. Founder of modern anarchism (a slightly different variable of communism) peire joseph Proudhon once said property is theft. Maximilien Robespierre and his Reign of Terror, aimed at exterminating the monarchy, nobility, clergy, conservatives and nationalists was admired among some anarchists and communists.
In China there was a revolution known as the Taiping revolution that sought to abolish the Chinese social classes. This revolution led to the Taiping heavenly kingdom which was located in the southern part of China which ruled almost 30 million civilians until the 1880 when the whole rebel forces were ended by the qing dynasty.
In 1948 the communist manifesto was released by two friends Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels. The modern communism came to life these two friends. They defined communism as a mass movement of the working class and only a communist society means a class-less and money-less society. He proposed the revival of communism from the evils of feudalism, semi-feudalism and capitalism.
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