Karl Marx

Karl Marx (1818–1883) was a German philosopher, writer, and social thinker. He lived during a time of great change in Europe, when factories, cities, and new machines were growing quickly. Marx studied how people worked and lived in these new conditions. He tried to explain how society was organized and how it changed over time.

Karl Marx was born in Trier, a town in what is now Germany. He studied law and philosophy at university. Philosophy is the study of ideas about life, knowledge, and society. Marx later worked as a journalist and writer. Because of his political writings, he lived in several countries, including France, Belgium, and England. Much of his later life was spent in London.

Marx focused on the idea of class. A class is a group of people with a similar place in society, often based on work and wealth. He described two main classes in industrial society. One was the bourgeoisie, meaning factory owners and business leaders. The other was the proletariat, meaning workers who sold their labor for wages. Marx believed that conflict between these classes shaped history.

Karl Marx studied capitalism, an economic system where businesses are owned by individuals who seek profit. Profit is money earned after costs are paid. Marx argued that in capitalism, workers often did not receive the full value of their work. He used the term exploitation to describe this situation. Exploitation means unfair use of someone’s labor for gain.

Marx worked closely with another German thinker named Friedrich Engels. Together they wrote The Communist Manifesto in 1848. A manifesto is a public statement of ideas and goals. In this short book, they described their view of history and society. Marx later spent many years writing a longer work called Das Kapital, which examined how capitalism worked.

Karl Marx’s ideas became the basis of Marxism. Marxism is a group of ideas that study society through class relations and economic systems. After Marx’s death in 1883, his ideas influenced political movements and governments in many countries. His writings continue to be studied as part of history, economics, and social theory.