Communist Manifesto By Karl Marx: Historical Analysis

In the Communist Manifesto, Karl Marx declarers that: "The history of all hitherto

existing society is the history of class struggles."() By examining several significant

historical events, this essay will prove that human history is the history of class conflict

and that the conflict among and between classes is what creates history.

The first historic example is that of the rise of Julius Caser and the fall of the Roman

Republic. In the ancient Roman Republic tensions ran high between the low born

plebeians and the aristocratic patricians, this tension spilled over into the political arena

when Julius Caesar began to be perceived as the champion of the plebeians. While his

former friend Pompey Magnus picked up the

Furthermore, the conflict ended in the "reconstitution of society at large"() This

statement proves true; because Caesar’s reign set a precedence which lead to the fall of

the Roman Republic and the Rise of the Roman Empire. Due to the indispensable role

the Roman Empire played in human history, this example helps illustrate Marx’s

viewpoint.

Another apt example of the impact class conflict has on human history, would be that

of the American Civil war. During this period in American history a great deal of the

population was owned by another segment of the population. The conflict between slaves

who produced labor and the masters who exploited the labor came to a head during the

Civil War. In the end the Union which was in favor of abolishing slavery defeated the

pro-slavery confederate States. This example compliments Marx’s assertion because

the struggle by one class to gain its freedom form another is what was at the heart of the

north-south military conflict. Due to the fact that the Civil War threw the south in into

disrepair, and both southern masters and slaves in financial disarray , the war ended in

"common ruin of the contending classes."() In the example of the civil war class