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FINALPAPERCommMan2 1
FINALPAPERCommMan2 1
FINALPAPERCommMan2 1
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
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
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.
remedied. Since the class system was a failed structure, the philosophers believed it must
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
“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
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
capitalism, supported communism, and called to action the working class in a communist
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.