Beginnings Of The New Bourgeoisie Class example essay topic

"The history of all hitherto existing society is the history of class struggles". (TCM pg. 50) This crucial opening to The Communist Manifesto holds the key to understanding Karl Marx's conceptions of history. Marx outlines history as a two dimensional, "linear" chain of events. A constant progression of class divisions being created and overthrown, one after the other, until the result is the utopian endpoint, otherwise known as communism.

The Communist Manifesto was generally an attempt to highlight the evils of the bourgeois society, and how through a natural progression of events, it would cause its own undoing. Karl Marx argued that human history unfolds in a teleological manner; therefore, it unfolds according to a distinct series of historical stages, each necessarily following the other. Marx begins by criticizing the historical complexities of early societies. He emphasizes the differences in classes and the complications that occur because of the struggles between opposition. The bourgeoisie and the proletariat were two major social oppositions, which gave way to his manifesto. The French Revolution sparked the rise of the bourgeoisie and the abolition of a feudalist society.

During the rise of the bourgeoisie, it allowed much other advancement to take place. Medieval guilds gave way to new methods of manufacturing, and the discovery and colonization of the New World demanded more efficient, larger scale production. As the Industrial Revolution continued, there was a widespread use of the division of labor. The bourgeoisie introduced free trade and the pursuit of profit, and gradually became an economic power. The bourgeoisie evolved from small traders in the old feudal system, through the industrial revolution where they emerged as. ".. industrial millionaires, the generals of whole industrial armies". (TCM, pg. 9) Their ability to make society reliant on capitalism was reinforced by the implementation of the modern representative state, which is. ".. a device for administering the common affairs of the whole bourgeoisie class".

(TCM, pg. 9) The working class, known as the proletarians, emerged as wage laborers in massive numbers in order to keep up with the growing economy and demand. The change in the running of society had meant that the bourgeoisie had been able to sever any traditional relationships that were feudal, patriarchal or idyllic, and had, "left intact no other bond between one man and another than naked self-interest, unfeeling 'hard cash'". (TCM, pg. 10) The bourgeoisie had successfully transformed their society into one of complete Capitalism; forced reliance on industrial production and wage labor had made peasant societies reliant on bourgeoisie societies. However, the extreme conditions of modern production are an endangerment to the bourgeoisie society and their properties. By an inevitable process, "the modern bourgeoisie is itself the product of a long course of development, of a series of revolutions in the modes of production and of exchange". (TCM, pg. 57) "From the surfs of the middle ages sprang the chartered burghers of the earliest towns.

From these burgesses the first elements of the bourgeoisie were developed". (TCM, pg. 56) Therefore, the serfs gave rise to the burghers who formed the beginnings of the new bourgeoisie class. The beginnings of the European trade with America and the Far East contributed to the "rapid development" of "the revolutionary element in the tottering feudal society". (TCM, pg. 56) The petty bourgeoisie gradually sank into the proletariat as the need for specialized skill diminished. Marx gradually explained that the proletarians went through many stages of development during the empowerment of the bourgeoisie.

Their struggle began from birth as they were exploited for labor. Then, as the need for manual labor subsidized, they destroyed the instruments of production that had taken their jobs. It was at this time where the proletariats found themselves fighting in the direction of communism. The bourgeoisie had pushed and pulled them long enough to create the domino effect of linear progression into the next step toward communism. The proletariats had defeated the bourgeoisie by coming together and uniting as one people with one goal. Karl Marx strongly believed that it was impossible to achieve communism without passing through a series of critical stages.

The transitions from feudalism to capitalism and capitalism to communism were imperative in order to condition the people. The bourgeoisie had a significant contribution to Marx's idea of communism. It did away with feudalism, brought about the next stepping-stone in the program (capitalism) and kept the idea of linear progression alive. The Communist Manifesto boldly emphasizes this belief, and clearly proclaims Marx's ultimate goal of achieving a utopian society.