Person1818 – 1883

Karl Marx

German philosopher and economist who wrote The Communist Manifesto with Engels and published Capital, founding scientific socialism (Marxism)

Born in Trier, he studied Hegelian philosophy, was expelled for his radical journalism and, after Paris and Brussels, lived in London from 1849. With Engels he wrote The Communist Manifesto in 1848. In London he studied the capitalist economy, publishing the first volume of Capital in 1867, and he led the First International founded in 1864. His view of history as shaped by relations of production and class struggle (historical materialism) profoundly influenced the socialist revolutions of the twentieth century.

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2 related events

1
1848The Communist Manifestoauthor
Marx and Engels published The Communist Manifesto in London as the programme of the Communist League. It saw history as class struggle and called on workers to unite in revolution.
2
1871Paris Communerelated figure
A self-governing city government set up by the people and workers of Paris against the government that had surrendered to Prussia. It was crushed after two months, and huge numbers died in the “Bloody Week”.

People who appear alongside

Friedrich Engels1820 – 1895
German thinker who wrote The Condition of the Working Class in England, co-wrote The Communist Manifesto with Marx and completed Capital after his death

Themes this person appears in

Revolutions and Nation-States1776 – 1871
From the Declaration of Independence to the German Empire — a century in which liberalism and nationalism toppled the old order in Europe and the Americas and built nation-states