Marx's Theory of Societal Evolution into Communism

These conflicts mean that each system the country goes through collapses and is then replaced by another one. These are the stages Marx presented:

 

1. Primitive Communism: This is the very first stage of society. It was made up of small groups of hunters and gatherers. In these groups:

 

• No one owned land or things privately.

• There were no rich or poor classes.

• There was no formal government.

 

People shared the land and their simple tools. They worked together to find food and shelter for the day. Marx and Engels called this a simple, equal way of life, bound together by "shared blood, language, and customs."

 

This way of life ended when people started farming. The idea that someone could own land and keep its food for themselves is what broke this early system apart.

 

2. Slave Society (Ancient Mode of Production): When people began farming, they could grow more food than they needed right away. This extra food, or surplus, changed everything.

 

• It led to the idea of private property (owning land and tools yourself).

• It created social classes (groups of people with different levels of power and wealth).

• It led to the formation of a state, or government.

 

The two main classes were slave owners and slaves. A slave was not seen as a person, but as property — a living tool that the master owned to do work. Ancient societies like Greece and Rome were built on this system.

 

The government's main job was to protect the slave owners and their property. This system eventually fell apart because of constant slave revolts and the slave society becoming an inefficient way to run an economy.

 

3. Feudalism: After the Roman Empire collapsed, a new system called feudalism took over in medieval Europe.

 

The two main groups were:

• The lords (or nobility), who owned all the land

• The serfs (or peasants), who worked the land   

 

Serfs were not slaves, but they were not free either. They were legally bound to their lord's land. In return for the lord's protection and the right to farm a small piece of land for themselves, they had to give the lord a large part of their crops or spend days working on their land for free.

 

Marx called this a system where the lord used direct force to take the peasants' extra food and labour. It was a society of clear, rigid control.

 

However, a new group started growing in the towns: merchants and skilled craftsmen called the bourgeois. As this class gained money and power, they eventually clashed with the feudal lords, setting up the next big revolution.

 

4. Capitalism: The new merchant class, the bourgeois, led revolutions (like the French Revolution) to overthrow the old feudal system and set up a new one — capitalism.

 

Capitalism is defined by two main groups:

• The bourgeois: The owners. They own the factories, machines, and money (capital).

• The proletariat: The workers. They don't own anything but their own ability to work, which they must sell for a wage to survive.

 

In this system, things are made to be sold for a profit in a competitive market. In the Communist Manifesto, Marx and Engels admitted that capitalism was amazing at creating new technology and wealth. However, they argued this wealth is built through exploiting the working class.

 

They believed capitalism's own internal problems — like making too much stuff that people can't afford to buy, and the rich getting richer while the poor get poorer — would eventually cause the system to collapse from within.

 

5. Socialism (The Dictatorship of the Proletariat): This stage, called socialism, is the necessary transition or bridge between capitalism and communism.

 

It works through: 

• Worker Takeover: After a revolution, the working class takes control of the government and becomes the new ruling class. Marx called this the "revolutionary dictatorship of the workers."

• Removing Capitalism: The new worker-led government uses its power to:

  • Take control of the factories, land, and banks from private owners and put them under public or worker ownership.

  • Stop any attempts by the old capitalist class to fight back and regain power.

 

The purpose of all this was to completely erase the old class system of owners versus workers and to build a new, fair economic system. Once class divisions are gone and the new economy is stable, the people will no longer have incentives to commit crimes and the government (which exists to manage class conflict) will no longer be needed and will fade away, leading to communism.

 

6. Communism: This is the final, complete stage

 

It is a society with:

 

• No classes (no rich or poor)

• No money

 

The rule for sharing things is simple: "From each according to their ability, to each according to their needs." This means everyone contributes what they can, and everyone gets what they require to live well.

 

All the advanced technology and factories built under capitalism are now used wisely and cooperatively. The goal is to produce enough for everyone. 

 

Conclusion

Marx’s concepts show how tensions in old ways lead to the adoption of new methods and class struggles. As the Manifesto famously declares, "The history of all hitherto existing society is the history of class struggles" (Marx & Engels, 1848).

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Sources: 

Marx, K. (1867). *Capital, Volume I: Chapter 7 - The Labour-Process and the Process of Producing Surplus-Value*. Marxists Internet Archive. https://www.marxists.org/archive/marx/works/1867-c1/ch07.htm 

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Marx, K. (1867). *Capital, Volume I: Chapter 26 - The Secret of Primitive Accumulation*. Marxists Internet Archive. https://www.marxists.org/archive/marx/works/1867-c1/ch26.htm 

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Marx, K. (1875). Critique of the Gotha Programme. Marxists Internet Archive. https://www.marxists.org/archive/marx/works/1875/gotha/ 

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Marx, K., & Engels, F. (1846). The German Ideology, Part I: Feuerbach. Marxists Internet Archive. https://www.marxists.org/archive/marx/works/1845/german-ideology/ch01a.htm 

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Marx, K., & Engels, F. (1848). The Communist Manifesto. Marxists Internet Archive. https://www.marxists.org/archive/marx/works/1848/communist-manifesto/ 

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The editors of Encyclopaedia Britannica. (2023, April 12). Historical materialism. Encyclopedia Britannica. https://www.britannica.com/topic/historical-materialism 

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Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy. (2020, August 26). Karl Marx. https://plato.stanford.edu/entries/marx/