Marx and the Birth of Socialism

Karl Marx was born in Trier, Germany on 5 May 1918. The man with whom Marx would become linked in the pursuit of social reform, Friedrich Engels, was born about two years later--29 November 1920--in Barmen (now a part of the city of Wuppertal), Germany. Later in their lives, Marx and Engels would be closely identified with the concept of socialism, generally understood as a social system based on the ownership in common of the means of production and distribution. The use of the term socialism to describe this concept began in the 1830s, some 12-to-15 years after the birth of Marx and Engels, and well before they began to form their own ideas of social philosophy. Although Marx did some of his work in Germany, most was done in England, where he settled permanently in 1849. Marx died in 1883.

In the wake of the Industrial Revolution, the plight of the laboring classes became increasingly dismal, as the excesses of early capitalism proliferated. The inequities between the laboring and capitalist classes in society spawned the concept of socialism, and served as both a motivation and an inspiration for both Marx and Engels in the formulation of their own social philosophies.

Marx conceived of economics as an evolutionary science. Karl Marx also viewed economics as merely a part of broader societal processes. Marx raised economic theory above a preoccupation with agriculture and stationary states that had dominated earl

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epreneurs must strive for accumulation, if they are to survive; "one accumulates or one gets accumulated." The theories of Marx and Engels became intertwined with the concept of socialism, and exerted a profound influence on nineteenth century Europe. The theories of Marx and Engels were heavily influenced by the events in France in the first-half of the nineteenth century. Mercantilism had been the prevailing economic system in France the last-half of the seventeenth century. The structure and regulation of the French economic system was enforced by a strong monarchy. Thus, the economy worked relatively efficiently to serve the self-interest of the fortunate few in French society during that period. During this period, the working classes in France, as a general rule, received low wages, and worked long hours in all but intolerable conditions. Thus, while the French economy prior to 1789 was working relatively efficiently, most French citizens were receiving little of the benefits of this efficiency. Philosophically, the French during this period, again, as a general rule, (1) tended to emphasize the group, as opposed to the individual, and (2) tended to perceive societal systems, economic or political, as evolving,
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Approximate Word count = 1577
Approximate Pages = 6 (250 words per page)