Marx and Engels begin The Communist Manifesto with the “history of class struggles” (473). From the hunters and gatherers of the tribal society to the lords and serfs of the feudal society, they claim that there has always been a group of oppressors and a group of the oppressed. The Industrial and French Revolutions led to the fall of the feudal system. From the fall of the feudal system came the rise of a capitalist society. The capitalist society led to the creation of two great classes: the bourgeois and the proletariat. The bourgeois owns the means of production and they have power over all of the wealth. The proletariat is the modern-day working class, who must sell their labor in order to live. Marx and Engels predicted that the technology and innovations that helped the bourgeois gain their power and increase their wealth in a capitalist society could lead to their downfall. …show more content…
Therefore, the bourgeois created the proletariat. In the passage from pages 478-479, Marx and Engels refer to the technology and innovations that came out of the Industrial Revolution as “weapons.” Examples of this technology would be technology with mass production capabilities. According to Marx and Engels, these “weapons” that helped the bourgeois overthrow feudalism, are going to be turned on the bourgeois. The same technology that helped them is going to cause the death of the system they created. Marx and Engels go on to say that the working class they created will use these “weapons” to overthrow them. The bourgeois created the proletariat in order to do their bidding. However, Marx and Engels predict that the proletariat will eventually gain class consciousness. The proletarians will realize that they are being oppressed by the bourgeois and