Marx’s 6 stages

of history
1. He become the lifelong
friend of Karl Marx and
collaborator.
2. One of the most
influential political
manuscripts published in
1848.
3. It is a critical analysis of
political economy published in
1867 intended to reveal the
economic laws of the
capitalist mode of
production.
4. The majority of the
population had only their labor
(strength and time) to help them
make a living.
5. Power was held by a minority
(the elite or) who had access to
capital and could use their money
and power to generate more
wealth.
1. Friedrich
2. The Communist Manifesto
Engels
3. Das Kapital
4. Proletariat
5. Bourgeoisie
Write your own ideas on Marx’s
view of conflict in society?
 Communism

Socialism

Marx thought all of

history is a STRUGGLE Capitalism
between haves and have Feudalism
nots.
Slave Society

Primitive Communism
Primitive
Communism: this is
how humans
first lived together –
in small tribes.
Primitive means
‘not very advanced’ e.g. hunting and gathering.
Communism means that everything was shared
amongst the tribe – food, jobs, belongings. No
Primitive Communism
•as seen in cooperative tribal societies
–everyone would share in what was
produced by hunting and gathering
– no private property
– primitive society produced no
surplus
–few things that existed for any length of time were
held communally
– there would have been no state
Slave
Society
•when the tribe becomes a city-state. Aristocracy is born
– Systematic exploitation of labour
– Compelled to work for another
–held against their will from the time of their capture, purchase,
or birth
–deprived of the right to leave, to
refuse to work, or to receive
compensation in return for their
labour
Slave Societies = Greeks & Romans,
this is the beginning of class
struggle between the
haves and have
nots.
The king becomes the ruler over all
the people. He gives land and
privileges to ‘nobles’ who rule the
people for him. The people are
kept uneducated and told that God
chose the king to rule. The church
helps the king this way. As trade
develops, some people get richer.
This leads to Capitalism…..
Feudalism
•aristocracy is the ruling class
•Merchants develop into capitalists
– derived from the Latin word feodum
–composed of a set of reciprocal legal
and military obligations among the warrior
nobility
– revolving around the three key concepts
•lord
•Vassals
•fiefs
Capitalism
•ruling class, who create and employ the true working class
–Economic system in which the private ownership of
property is protected by law
– mode of production characterized by
•predominant private ownership of the means of production
• distribution and
•exchange in a mainly market
economy
•has been dominant in the Western world
since the end of feudalism
•provided the main, but not exclusive, means
of industrialization throughout much of the
world Capitalism
Capitalism creates a huge
working-class of people
who soon get angry at the
way they are treated.
They organize inunions
and demand changes.
This will lead to a
revolution and
Socialism…
Socialism
•Dictatorship of the Proletariat
•workers gain class consciousness
•share the belief that capitalism
unfairly concentrates power
•achieved via class struggle
and a proletarian revolution
which
represents the transitional stage between capitalism and
communism
Communis
•m
classless and stateless society
•socioeconomic structure and political ideology •based
on common
ownership of the
means of
production and
property in general
The Prophecy
•Revolution would be preceded by a series of
intensifying crisis
•Goods would be produced
which the impoverished
proletariat could not afford
to buy
•More workers would be
forced out of work because
their labor was not needed
The Prophecy
•This would drive wages down further
•Lessen the ability of people to buy the products
of capitalism
•Enterprises would collapse and be
swallowed by larger organization
in the centralization of capital