According to Marx, historical materialism is the economic system of any people that determines its social structure, the latter, determining its political and religious structures. The fundamental cause of any social evolution, and consequently of any social advance, being the struggle man wages against Nature for his own existence. Marx's fundamental idea can be summed up as follows: 1) the production relations determine all other relations existing among people in their social life. 2) The production relations are determined by the state of the productive forces. .
The basic principle of the materialist explanation of history is that men's thinking is conditioned by their being, or that in the historical process, the course of the development of ideas is determined by the course of development of economic relationships. So, historical materialism claims to be a way of explaining history. It deals with the causes of social evolution, stressing that history is governed by necessary laws that are as immutable as laws of nature.
Historical materialism is considered a scientific method by which to comprehend the events of the past and to grasp their true nature. It also permits us to view the present historically and hence scientifically, so that we can look beneath the surface and understand the more profound historical forces which in reality control events.
In the first half of the 19th century great changes were taking place in Europe. Under the energy of the industrial revolution, factory production was advancing in leaps and bounds, and with it, the economic power of the manufacturers. They became the most active section of the class of owners of capital, standing at the head of the other sections, the merchants and financiers, in a general struggle against the landowning aristocracy for the position of ruling class. This class of capitalists had grown up out of the small masters or "burgesses" of the cities and is also known by the French word "bourgeoisie".
