Similarities Between Karl Marx And Engels

Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels were both radical socialists who lived during the industrial revolution. They strongly opposed capitalism, the main economic system. They wrote in their book, the communist manifesto, that capitalism has always led to two groups of people opposing each other. They used examples from different times throughout history to support their theories. Some of these examples included patricians vs plebeians, and lords vs serfs. During the industrial revolution, a time of rapid change, there were different ideas as to how society should be run. Some people believed that industry should be run with no government interference whatsoever. This would allow owners of large corporations to operate their companies with no regulations. This system is called capitalism, and many people, including Marx and Engels, were opposed to it because without laws controlling businesses, workers were mistreated, monopolies formed, and children were working instead of getting
an education. The theory that industry should be regulated is socialism. Socialism led to many reforms in industrial countries. These reforms included a limit on hours factory workers could work, banning child labor, setting a minimum wage, and requiring children to go to school. Marx and Engels believed that socialism was the transition between capitalism and communism. They were radical socialists, who believed that society needed total equality. Marx and Engels believed all of the evils of the 19th century were caused by capitalism and worsened by industrialization, which only made the wealthy wealthier and the poor poorer. During the industrial revolution, the lower class worked in the factories owned by the upper class. They depended on the small wages that they earned there, and entire families would have to work to support themselves. This system is very similar to feudalism, where serfs (lower class) worked the lords' (upper class) land. They had to work for the lord in order to be able to live on their land, and get enough money to feed themselves. In both of these organizations of society, the upper and lower class struggled against each other. The upper class could and often did mistreat the lower class. The bourgeoisie, patricians, and lords, were all the wealthy upper class. These groups were the aristocracy, and held the most political power. On the other hand, the serfs, plebeians, and proletariat made up the lower, working class. The lower class had to work for the upper class, often under unjust conditions. In Ancient Rome, there were patricians and plebeians, and the patricians held political power over the plebeians even though the plebeians greatly outnumbered the patricians. According to Marx and Engels, both of these systems fell but were quickly replaced by similar political & economic systems. In conclusion, Marx and Engels historical embrace of the concept of class struggle shaped their understanding of forces clashing during the Industrial Age by showing that under capitalism, even after the lower class revolted, the world would often turn back to a similar system.
This is why they believed that the only way to fix society's problems was to completely change it. All of these ideas were brought together in the communist manifesto, Marx and Engels book about communism, the political theory that everyone should be absolutely equal in a society. In this book, they theorize that the proletariat would overthrow the bourgeoisie and there would be a dictatorship of the proletariat. Over time, this dictatorship would no longer be necessary to keep order, and it would dissolve, leaving a classless society. This classless society is called pure socialism, or communism. However, when this theory was actually put into action, it failed, because the proletariat would not give up their
power.