Crisis, war and revolution: the triad of contemporary history

In this article we analyse the Iberian revolution and the impact of the Paris Commune (1868–1873), in Portugal, with the founding of International Workers Organization, the strike wave and the emergency of a public sphere, all these in the context of the countercyclical measures to face the 1870 crisis and the emergency of imperialism within (1) the intensification of the exploitation of workers in Europe, now based on relative surplus value, that is, intensification with the introduction of new forms of energy and machinery; (2) the global management of the industrial reserve army with the great migrations; (3) colonial expansion, which was boosted by the division of Africa among European powers in 1884–1885.