February 21st 1848: Communist Manifesto published
On this day in 1848, the Manifesto of the Communist Party - now known as The Communist Manifesto - was published. It was written by Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels, often considered the founding fathers of communism, on behalf of the London-based Communist League. Engels laid the foundations for the theory, and had been drafting a treatise on communism for some years until he collaborated with Marx who developed his work and proposed the leading principles. The main ideas expressed in the manifesto are chiefly that capitalism and class struggle (between the proletariat and bourgeoisie) have been the chief concerns of society throughout history. Marx and Engels theorised that capitalism would be replaced by socialism and then communism, fulfilling their vision of global communism. Their work has been incredibly influential, and communism has become the ideological basis of several states including the Soviet Union and the People’s Republic of China.
