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Elise McMullen
October 7, 2010
Professor Mezzano
Modern History II

Communist Manifesto

Over a one hundred year time span from the late eighteenth century to the end of

the nineteenth century, the Industrial Revolution transformed European society from a

farming economy to an industrial one centered in urban areas. The owners of factories,

mines and railroads became the leaders of the Industrial Revolution. As the population

grew and the owners acquired significant wealth, the labor workers were subjected to

poor working conditions and low wages. Thus, the gap between the rich and the poor

increased due to the new capitalist economic system. As a result, human suffering and

poverty occurred and reformers argued that class conflicts and competition caused the

problem. To solve these inequities, communist reformers Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels

devised a theory in which the working class gained control of the bourgeoisie and

subsequently, built a classless society by allowing people to own everything. In the

Communist Manifesto of 1848, the Marx and Engels criticized capitalism, promoted

communism, and ordered the proletariats of the world to unite in a communist revolution

in order to threaten and overthrow European leaders.

In their Communist Manifesto, Marx and Engels condemned capitalism and

believed it created the inequalities of the social classes by enhancing the rich and

depriving the poor. The theorists portrayed that in a capitalist society, conflicting social

classes existed between the bourgeoisie; the employers, and the proletariats; the working

class. Capitalism allowed the bourgeoisie to create a profit from surplus as they took

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advantage of the proletariat for low wages and physical labor. As a result, the bourgeoisie

ruled over the proletariats because they owned and controlled production. “Modern

industry has created a great factory of the industrial capitalist. Masses of laborers are not

only the slaves of the bourgeois class, the bourgeois State; they are hourly enslaved by

the machine.”1Marx and Engels agreed that the capitalist system stripped the working

class of their free will.2 A class struggle resulted in the capitalist system because one

class became the oppressor as the other the oppressed. Unfairly, the bourgeoisie class

maintained all the rights even though they did not produce any work.

To counteract the detrimental effects of industrialization, Marx and Engels

illustrated several critical issues in the Communist Manifesto which needed to be

remedied. Since the class system was a failed structure, the philosophers believed it must

be eliminated.3 Their main objective was to transform society from capitalism to

communism. The “first step is to raise the proletariat to the position of the ruling class, to

win the battle of democracy.”4 Secondly, the “proletariat will use its political supremacy

to wrest all capital from the bourgeoisie, to centralize all instruments of production in the

hands of the State.”5 In order to create a classless society, certain conditions had to be

met. All means of production which included factories, railroads, businesses, mines, and

land were owned by the public and operated for the good of all people.6 In addition,

private property and the right of inheritance were not permitted. Finally, a progressive

1
Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels, The Communist Manifesto (New York: Penguin Books, 2006) 12.
2
Michael Mezzano, October 10, 2010.
3
Michael Mezzano, October 10, 2010.
4
Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels, The Communist Manifesto (New York: Penguin Books, 2006) 31.
5
Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels, The Communist Manifesto (New York: Penguin Books, 2006) 32.
6
Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels, The Communist Manifesto (New York: Penguin Books, 2006) 32.

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income tax and a universal education were applied.7 The implementation of these

conditions would help lead to a classless society. “When class distinctions have

disappeared and all production has been concentrated in the hands of the vast association

of the whole nation, the public power will lose its political character.”8 Ideally, an

association of free individuals would exist.

“Working men of all countries, Unite! They have a world to win.”9 These pleas

expressed the enthusiasm of Marx and Engels to gather all labor workers in the world in

order to rise to power. To succeed, the theorists wanted to raise consciousness in the

proletariat class. “Communists everywhere support every revolutionary movement

against the existing social and political order of things. They openly declare that their

ends can be attained only by the forcible overthrow of all existing social conditions.”10

The “spectre” of communism alarmed European leaders because the situation resembled

the French Revolution of 1789. European leaders believed they could be subject to a

dangerous revolution and the possibility of the loss of power and control. As in the

French Revolution, the 3rd estate was similar to the Proletariat class.11 Both working

classes were responsible for all of the physical work and barely received any monetary

rewards or individual rights.12 Without a revolution, both the 3rd Estate and the proletariat

class would not escape their dismal environment. They would only regress to a lower

status.13 Eventually, Marx expected that capitalism would destroy itself. Since the

working class was the majority of the capitalist society with no property, it affected the

7
Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels, The Communist Manifesto (New York: Penguin Books, 2006) 32.
8
Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels, The Communist Manifesto (New York: Penguin Books, 2006) 33.
9
Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels, The Communist Manifesto (New York: Penguin Books, 2006) 52.
10
Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels, The Communist Manifesto (New York: Penguin Books, 2006) 51.
11
Michael Mezzano, October 10, 2010.
12
Michael Mezzano, October 10, 2010.
13
Michael Mezzano, October 10, 2010.

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future. “Of all the classes that stand face to face with the bourgeoisie today, the

proletariat alone is a really revolutionary class.”14 The ultimate rise to power by the

proletariats would destroy social classes completely. Both Marx and Engels predicted that

the working class would win the revolution because they had nothing to lose.15

In the Communist Manifesto, Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels condemned

capitalism, supported communism, and called to action the working class in a communist

revolution to overthrow European leaders. These philosophers believed that capitalism

was the root of all social inequalities and human suffering. They supported communism

and stressed that it was essential to class equality amongst the citizens of Europe. To rid

the inequities in society, all means of production would be owned by the public and

operated for the good of all people. Although it did not happen, the theorists predicted

that capitalism would eventually destroy itself with the rise of the large proletariat class.

14
Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels, The Communist Manifesto (New York: Penguin Books, 2006) 17.
15
Michael Mezzano, October 10, 2010.