Marx and Engels Publish: The Communist Manifesto
Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels published The Communist Manifesto in London on February 21, 1848, a 23-page pamphlet commissioned by the Communist League that opened with one of history's most famous lines: 'A spectre is haunting Europe.' The timing was extraordinary: within weeks, revolutions erupted across the continent, though the pamphlet itself had almost nothing to do with them. The Manifesto's core argument was elegantly simple: all history is the story of class struggle, capitalism creates its own gravediggers in the proletariat, and the workers will inevitably overthrow the bourgeoisie. Marx wrote most of the text in a three-week frenzy at a Brussels cafe. The pamphlet sold poorly at first and had negligible influence on the 1848 revolutions. Its impact grew over decades as labor movements adopted its language and framework. By the twentieth century, governments claiming to follow its principles controlled a third of the world's population.
February 21, 1848
178 years ago
Key Figures & Places
What Else Happened on February 21
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