80 The fortress of Kars was captured by Russian troops during the Crimean war in November 1855. See K. Marx’s series of articles “The Fall of Kars”.
81 The Suez Canal was built from 1859 to 1869. Ferdinand de Lesseps, a French diplomat and engineer, obtained a concession for the building and exploitation of it on November 30, 1854. The British Government was against the project at first, fearing the expansion of French influence in Egypt and the Middle East.
82 The town of Narva was captured by the Russian troops in 1558 during the Livonian War (1558-83) fought by Russia against the Livonian Confederation, the Polish-Lithuanian state and Sweden.
83 The Treaty of Ryswick of 1697 ended the war between France and the Augsburg League (the Netherlands, England, Spain, the German Emperor and several German princes) which lasted from 1688. It confirmed the slightly changed pre-war state boundaries. France was obliged to recognise the 1688 coup d'état in England (see Note 54).
84 Marx has drawn on the anonymous pamphlet Reasons for the present conduct of Sweden in relation to the trade in the Baltic set forth in a letter from a gentleman at Dantzick, to his friend at Amsterdam. Translated from the French original published in Holland; and now submitted to the consideration of all just and impartial Britons, London, 1715.