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Marx exaggerates. In 1848 Communism was of almost zero significance. None of the

revolutions that had broken out were, or became, communist. This isn’t why The
Communist Manifesto is important. Rather it’s because Marx was the first socialist to
ground his theory in a rigorous analysis of society, economics, philosophy and
history. His analysis was complex, and was continually developed and reinterpreted
during and after his lifetime. He gets down to it straight away:

“The history of all hitherto existing society is the history of class struggles. Freeman
and slave, patrician and plebeian, lord and serf, guild-master and journeyman, in a

word, oppressor and oppressed, stood in constant opposition to one another, carried
on an uninterrupted, now hidden, now open fight”

The first sentence of the above is the key to Marx’s theory of history. Classes, not
individuals or nations, are the drivers of history. But he gives it a twist:

“Our epoch, the epoch of the bourgeoisie, possesses, however, this distinct feature: it

has simplified class antagonisms. Society as a whole is more and more splitting up
into two great hostile camps, into two great classes directly facing each other –
Bourgeoisie and Proletariat.”

Another key sentence, but a questionable one. It is a powerful rhetorical device to
reduce everything to a binary, good vs evil, conflict, but in the previous paragraph he
th
has described a multiplicity of classes. Isn’t this the norm? Wasn’t it true of the 19
century? Many historians think it was and that Marx is guilty of bending the facts to

fit his theory.

The next two passages are surprising:

“From the burgesses [medieval urban merchants] the first elements of the
bourgeoisie were developed. The discovery of America, the rounding of the Cape,

opened up fresh ground for the rising bourgeoisie. The East-Indian and Chinese
markets, the colonisation of America, trade with the colonies, the increase in the
means of exchange and in commodities generally, gave to commerce, to navigation,
to industry, an impulse never before known, Thereupon, steam and machinery
revolutionised industrial production. Modern industry has established the world
market.”

“The bourgeoisie has been the first to show what man’s activity can bring about. It
has accomplished wonders far surpassing Egyptian pyramids, Roman aqueducts, and

Gothic cathedrals; it has conducted expeditions that put in the shade all former