In 1848, Karl Marx wrote "The Communist Manifesto," a ground-breaking series of ideas that, once implemented, would change the lives of millions of people for generations. In the text, Marx emphasized the importance of ongoing class struggles and their historical consequences. .
Marx believed that human history was largely defined by the animosity between the working class and the governing class, with the latter in control of providing for the lower classes. He divided the classes into what he labeled the bourgeois and the proletarians. According to Marx, the bourgeois were direct descendants of a primitive society that had "not done away with class antagonisms." He also explained that the discovery of America assisted in the drive and rise of the bourgeois class. The most important factor in the rise of the ruling class resulted from a "series of revolutions in the modes of production and of exchange." .
The proletariat, were considered a byproduct of the bourgeois. Marx considered the proletariat to be slaves of the bourgeois and the bourgeois state. However, Marx pointed out, "the proletariat was recruited from all classes of the population." Marx acknowledged the bourgeois with integrating everyone, including barbarians into civilization through improved communications and productivity. The creation of massive cities significantly increased the urban and rural residents. The class divisions grew as they focused property into fewer hands and created political centralization. Nations were then formed and ruled by the powerful and wealthy bourgeois, a new system and over-production began. This over-production did not mean an over-production of merchandise but of civilization. The growth of society led to a large pool of famine and dissatisfaction. Marx believed that this would develop in to the weapons of their own destruction. .
Marx blamed the ruling class for turning personal worth into an exchange value.
