ABSTRACT
The following chronological table may prove useful as a guide for the reader, who, in order to trace the sequence of events in the present book, is obliged to skip pages and jump back and forth through the different chapters, for we have adopted a thematic arrangement in our exposition. However, and without obviously denying the practical side of the present chronology, I would like to stress here that the chronological ordering of the events is not just a routine corollary of the previous discussion, useful for the political history or even customary in works of this kind, but that it is the conditio sine qua non for understanding historical processes. As a matter of fact, causes and consequences of given events afford us the main clues as to their interpretation. And these causes and consequences cannot be obtained without establishing a proper chronological order. Therefore the frequently tedious discussion of chronology, which the present work may not have escaped, is a necessary step for a correct assessment of the events under discussion. It can be said without any exaggeration that the present chronological table, if proved to be correct, can be considered one of the major results of our research, for it will allow future scholars to reassess the historical processes under review.
