Question

the communist manifesto is an 1848 political pamphlet by the german philosophers karl marx and frederick engels. it was prepared for the meeting of the communist league. this text went on to influence many revolutions and political thinkers.
ii. it is high time that communists should openly, in the face of the whole world, publish their views, their aims, their tendencies, and meet this nursery - tale of the spectre of communism with a manifesto of the party itself.
to this end, communists of various nationalities have assembled in london, and sketched the following manifesto, to be published in the english, french, german, italian, flemish and danish languages.
i. bourgeois and proletarians
the history of all ... society is the history of class struggles.
... society as a whole is more and more splitting up into two great hostile camps, into two great classes, directly facing each other: bourgeoisie and proletariat.
masses of laborers, crowded into the factory, are organised like soldiers. ... not only are they slaves of the bourgeois class, and of the bourgeois state; they are daily and hourly enslaved by the machine, by the overlooker, and, above all, by the individual bourgeois manufacturer himself. ...
hitherto, every form of society has been based, as we have already seen, on the antagonism of oppressing and oppressed classes. ... the modern laborer, on the contrary, instead of rising with the progress of industry, sinks deeper and deeper below the conditions of existence of his own class. he becomes a pauper, and pauperism develops more rapidly than population and wealth. ... society can no longer live under this bourgeoisie ...
iv. position of the communists in relation to the various existing opposition parties
in short, the communists everywhere support every revolutionary movement against the existing social and political order of things ...
the communists disdain to conceal their views and aims. they openly declare that their ends can be attained only by the forcible overthrow of all existing social conditions. let the ruling classes tremble at a communistic revolution. the proletarians have nothing to lose but their chains. they have a world to win.
working men of all countries, unite!
source: frederich engels and karl marx. the communist manifesto. 1848

1. explain the historical circumstances that led to the developments shown in the excerpt from the communist manifesto.
2. identify frederich engels and karl marxs point of view concerning capitalism and the impacts of the industrial revolution on the proletariat.

Explanation:

1. The Industrial Revolution had led to rapid industrial - ization, creating a large proletariat class exploited by the bourgeoisie. There were growing class tensions and social unrest. Workers faced poor working conditions, long hours, and low pay. The Communist League needed a clear statement of its ideology and goals.
2. Marx and Engels believed capitalism, as a result of the Industrial Revolution, turned the proletariat into slaves of the bourgeois class and the bourgeois state. The proletariat was oppressed by machines, overseers, and individual bourgeois manufacturers. Instead of improving with industrial progress, the modern laborer sank deeper into poverty, and pauperism grew faster than population and wealth.

Answer:

1. The Industrial Revolution's impact on class relations and the need for the Communist League to define its ideology.
2. Capitalism and the Industrial Revolution oppressed the proletariat, making them slaves and driving them into deeper poverty.