The Industrial Revolution in Great Britain was a time of huge change, economically, socially, and politically. It was the birth of capitalism in Britain, the mass movement of millions of people to urban areas, and the perfect climate to fuel new ideas and more change.

    There are two distinct public opinions of Karl Marx, a German philosopher who saw the changing world around him and came to his own unique, and often radical conclusions. Many see him to be a revolutionary, a true philosopher and visionary, such as Steven Kreis who says Marx to be the “most influential socialist thinker to emerge in the 19th century. ” Others tend to pass Marx and his ideas off as “narrow, outdated and irrelevant. ”

    Whatever the opinions about him are though, he lived and worked during a time of great change. Karl Marx used the Industrial Revolution, and other outside influences to fuel and shape his ideas and works. Ideas that may just be as complex as the man behind them, and the situations that he drew off of to write them.

    Born on May 5th, 1818, Karl Marx was the eldest of eight children born to a family of liberal, but not radical thinkers in Trier, Prussia. He grew up Protestant, a change his family made to ensure that his father’s occupation of being a lawyer wouldn’t be compromised by religion. Marx himself though was a descendant of almost all rabbis in the Trier area since the seventeenth century, which could account for his lifelong moral standards and keen rationalism. Publicly Marx held a lifelong contempt of Judaism while privately denouncing it.

    This switch in faith at a young age went on to influence Marx in his ideas about religion, eventually composing a ‘Theory of Religion’ with Frederick Engels . This theory proposed that man created religion, and therefore can be used by different classes to control those beneath them. This theory played well into several of Marx’s other ideas about capitalism and the working world. Religion in his mind was a false happiness that oppressed people sought because they needed an escape from being used by capitalists. Marx also stated however, solely the bourgeoisie did not create religion for that known purpose, it was the general result of historical exploitation over time. One final and huge point that the ‘Theory of Religion’ makes that related to capitalism and the Industrial Revolution in Great Britain, is that religion gives people a series of set beliefs, that may be harmful to them, but are in the greater interest of the ruling class at the time. This fuels Marx’s opposition of the Industrial Revolution and society’s transformation.

    Although Karl Marx never wrote an exposition solely about his theory of Historical Materialism and Dialectal Materialism, it is contained in pieces throughout all of his other works . Taken from Georg Hegel’s ideas of progress through dialect, Marx came to his own conclusions taken from and related to the Industrial Revolution going on. In fact, Marx once stated that his ideas were the “direct opposite ” of Hegel’s in that Hegel’s claimed to be the only truth which was a direct contradiction to the laws of dialect.

    Marx’s theory of Historical Materialism is quite basically the theory of history. In this Marx states that history is the economic aspect of a society, and it’s sectors; social, political and cultural, are controlled by the relations within that society. Karl Marx believed fully that each society must look at the environment around them and then have a materialistic relationship with that environment in which everything they need comes from it. This relates to the Industrial Revolution because the ‘environment’ was owned by one group (capitalists), and used by the working class to create the goods. Marx also stated that since society rests upon an economic base, whatever else is connected to that base is in turn influenced. Such was the case in the time period, since the economic base was controlled by capitalism, the social, political and cultural aspects were all also capitalism.

    Dialectic Materialism dealt heavily with Marx’s beliefs about capitalism, and capitalists. He theorized that his modern society in that time had not come about by industrialization, but industrialization was the result of a changing society. Marx also stated in his theory, that the people that produced the economic needs of society, drove the economic market in great part. In this, Marx translates over to capitalism in the Industrial Revolution, the thought that the capitalists were so intent on making money that they forgot about the people that were working to meet these economic needs, the working class. This was a huge point of contention with Karl Marx, which was that the Industrial Revolution was moving so fast it was murdering society and the animosity between classes was growing.

    This leads to another of Marx’s theories, one that can be related most directly to the Industrial Revolution. His argument of class revolution said that as capitalism and the economy continued to grow at a rate alarming to him, the bourgeoisie would rise up against the noble class. A struggle would then ensure where the bourgeoisie would fight with the proletariat, and it was Marx’s supreme hope that the proletariat would win and take over, eventually creating a communist society that eliminated the inequality of people and gave no chance for class struggles to ensure. This theory however did not work so well in practice as it did on paper. Just as with Historical Materialism, this was based partially off of the ideas that what one level of society is based on, has an effect on the other levels. In this case it is the actions of the proletariat and bourgeoisie that affect all other aspects of society.

    Karl Marx throughout his lifetime worked at a series of newspapers; in 1842 he was the editor of ‘Rheinische Zeitung’ and the ‘German-French Annals’ of which he was co-editor. His work however caused him to become a wanted man, Marx moving around Europe extensively to avoid arrest. By 1843 Marx found himself in Paris with his wife, Jenny Von Westphalen and together they had six children, only three of which survived: Jenny, Laura and Eleanor.

    It was in that same year of 1843 that Marx met Frederick Engels, the son of a German industrialist who owned a cotton factory in Manchester, England. From this time on Marx and Engels were partners, collaborators on all bodies of works and general friends. It was Engels who after Marx’s death completed the editing of the final volume of ‘Das Kapital’. Just as Marx, Engels was committed to improving the standard of living for workers in England, having seen the issues first hand. In November of 1847 Marx and Engels were commissioned to write the ‘Communist Manifesto ’, as requested by the Young Communist League of German émigrés.

    Included in the pages of the Communist Manifesto is the outline of communism as Marx saw it, simply and purely. It stated that nothing would be able to change the clashes going on between the classes, as there were historical and scientific laws that governed human progress. It was to be the final outcome of human beings. The issues going on in Britain in the time, and later other countries were also addressed. In countries with advanced communism education would be mandatory for all children, and no child would be allowed to work. Land would be communal land, inheritance rights were null and void, and the state would control all factories, credit and money. This of course would be until the class system dissolved completely and then all three would return to public ownership, as no one would have a greater share than anyone else. The same philosophy went for the issues of transportation and communication. The Communist Manifesto covered a great scale of issues pertaining to communism and it’s goals.

    The Manifesto may be more relevant today than ever, but at it’s publishing, the 1848 Revolutions broke out, making it highly relevant to the time. Marx and Engels traveled quickly to Cologne, Germany to spur on the workers and push their ideas as revolts continued. Marx and Engels became best known not for the Manifest, but for a work entitled ‘The Civil War In France’ about the workers uprising that took control of Paris for two months.

    The French Revolution was what Marx considered to be the first stage of the class revolution that would continue on worldwide. The events in France in 1789 mirrored those starting to take place in the rest of Europe in 1848, events Marx was experiencing first hand. To him, the French Revolution was the perfect example of his theories about the bourgeoisie and proletariat classes coming into conflict in history. It was the first step towards a communist government, Marx’s ideal system.

    While Marx and Engels did not particularly care for the capitalism taking over society, they did recognize that capitalism was what in turn leads to socialism and then communism. The abuses of capitalism were what would lead to socialism, which was a “middle class movement ”, and then to communism, a “working class movement ”. In short, Marx and Engels believed that communism was what would empower the working class and save them from the hardships that capitalism had given them and socialism had not achieved.

    Marx’s communism is based on the theory of everyone is equal, and that everyone is taken care of, “From each according to their ability, to each according to their needs. ” Communism was for the communal good of the people, and their lives would become as fair and justified as they could be. The means of production and conditions that production existed in would not be in the control of the state but more so in the hands of the producers themselves. The Industrial Revolution and capitalism was to Marx the next logical step in the process of class revolution and bringing about change for the greater good of humanity.

    At the time of Karl Marx’s death on the 14th of March in 1883, only the first volume of his most expansive work, Das Kapital, had been published. And although the second and third editions would not be published until after extensive editing by Engels, they are known as his greatest work. Das Kapital touches on or relates to almost everything Marx ever theorized about. It is his study of the economy relating to the class system, the role religion plays in society and the conditions of the world.

    It was especially at this period of time that Marx was influenced by the Industrial Revolution; the unbearable conditions in the factories, wages that were barely enough to live on, disease reeking havoc on the population, and the few governmental groups pushing for change. Mathematics is a huge part of these volumes, as Marx attempted to support everything using a mathematical or scientific theory. It does not just give moral justification for each idea, but also a type of proof. Most thoroughly explained however, are Marx’s ideas on the relationship between capitalists and laborers, mechanization and how the capitalist system is destined to fail and will be over-taken by socialism. Which of course in his eyes, would lead to communism.

    Marx’s final great work before his death was the ‘Critique of the Gothica Program’, a congress designed to unite rival German socialists that Marx and Engels were not invited to participate in. His best known work the Communist Manifesto and Das Kapital, are just a small portion of the works he completed, and the ideas he came up with. Revolutionary in every sense of the word, Karl Marx authored the platform for the First International in 1868, and was a General Councilman of the International Workingmen’s Association.

    Drawing from the life he lead, the people he met, and the Industrial Revolution time period he lived in, Karl Marx stands today as the author of the “Working class bible ” and the author of thirteen published works, not to mention the countless articles he wrote for various newspapers during his lifetime.

    Leaving an impact in some way or another on all who read his works, Karl Marx is responsible for establishing the ideas of communism and helping to give laborites a sense of identity. Without him there would be a very different theory of modern economics, and communism all together may not exist. And although world leaders such as Lenin and Stalin have been ‘communist’ in their rulings, Marxism the way Marx hoped it would exist may never do so. But that cannot even slightly undermine the sheer scale and depth of work one man did. No matter the opinion on him or his work though, Marxism has been, and most likely always will be a powerful political force.



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