AP European History

## Learning Outcomes

- Understand why Marx called his ideas **scientific socialism**
- Explain **historical materialism** and how it shaped Marx’s view of history
- Identify the roles of the **bourgeoisie**, **proletariat**, and **means of production** in Marxist theory
- Distinguish Marx’s ideas from earlier **utopian socialism**
- Recall key figures, texts, and dates, including **Karl Marx**, **Friedrich Engels**, **1848**, _The Communist Manifesto_, and _Das Kapital_
- Analyse why industrialization made Marxism appealing in nineteenth-century Europe
- Apply this material to AP European History causation, comparison, and continuity/change questions

## AP European History Syllabus

For the AP European History, you are expected to understand Marx’s scientific socialism within the context of nineteenth-century industrialization and ideological change, with a focus on the following syllabus points:

- Know that **Karl Marx (1818–1883)** and **Friedrich Engels (1820–1895)** developed a form of socialism they called **scientific socialism**
- Identify **1848** as the year of publication of _The Communist Manifesto_
- Explain **historical materialism** as the claim that economic and material conditions shape society and historical change
- Understand **class struggle** as the driving force of history in Marxist theory
- Distinguish **bourgeoisie** from **proletariat** and explain their conflict under capitalism
- Explain how Marx differed from **utopian socialists** such as **Saint-Simon**, **Fourier**, and **Robert Owen**
- Understand that Marx saw capitalism as unstable because of its internal contradictions and exploitation
- Recognise the significance of _Das Kapital_ and the **First International (1864)** as evidence of Marxism’s wider influence

## Test Your Knowledge

_Attempt these questions before reading this article. If you find some difficult or cannot remember the answers, look more closely at that area during your revision._

1. Why did Marx describe his socialism as “scientific” rather than “utopian”?
2. What is meant by **historical materialism**?
3. How did Marx explain the conflict between the **bourgeoisie** and the **proletariat**?
4. Why did industrialization make Marx’s ideas more persuasive to many workers?
5. What was the significance of _The Communist Manifesto_ in **1848**?

## Introduction

In AP European History Unit 6, Marx matters because he turned socialism from a loose criticism of industrial society into a theory of historical change. Earlier reformers had pointed to poverty, low wages, and harsh factory life, but **Karl Marx** argued that these were not random abuses. He claimed they were built into the structure of capitalism itself.

That is why Marx’s socialism is usually called **scientific socialism**. He believed he had discovered the laws by which history moved: economic systems create class conflict, class conflict drives change, and capitalism would eventually be replaced by socialism. For AP exam purposes, this topic connects directly to **poverty and prosperity**, **individual and society**, and **states and other institutions of power** in the period **c. 1815–1914**.

> **Key Term: scientific socialism**
> Marx and Engels’s claim that socialism was based on a systematic analysis of history, society, and economics rather than on ideal plans or moral hopes alone.

### Why Marx thought socialism was “scientific”

Marx sharply attacked earlier socialists, especially **Saint-Simon**, **Charles Fourier**, and **Robert Owen**. These thinkers criticised capitalism and imagined fairer communities, but Marx thought their ideas were too hopeful and too dependent on goodwill. In his view, they described what a better society should look like, but not how power would actually change hands.

Marx wanted to do something different. He did not begin with the question, “What would be fair?” He began with, “How does society actually work?” That method is what made his socialism “scientific” in nineteenth-century language. He was not talking about lab experiments. He meant a claim to objective analysis.

Earlier **utopian socialists** often assumed that if people were shown a better model, they would adopt it. Robert Owen’s **New Lanark** is a good example. Owen improved housing and education and tried to show that humane management could improve workers’ lives. Marx did not deny that such efforts could help some people. But he argued they did not remove the underlying problem: private ownership of production by one class and wage dependence by another.

This difference is a common comparison point on the AP exam. Utopian socialism looked for reform through model communities. Marxism looked for change through historical forces and class conflict.

> **Key Term: utopian socialism**
> Early socialist thought that proposed ideal communities or cooperative reforms, but did not explain social change through a systematic theory of class conflict and historical development.
>
> **Test Tip:** If a prompt asks you to compare Marx with earlier socialism, do not just say Marx was “more radical.” The better distinction is that Marx claimed socialism would arise from the internal workings of capitalism, not simply from moral persuasion or ideal communities.

### Historical materialism and the logic of class struggle

Marx’s central method was **historical materialism**. He argued that the most basic fact about any society is how it produces and distributes material goods. In other words, the economy is not just one part of society. It shapes law, politics, social hierarchy, and even dominant ideas.

Marx believed history moved through stages. Different eras had different economic systems and therefore different ruling and subordinate classes. In a feudal society, the main tension was between nobles and peasants or serfs. In capitalist society, the main tension became one between factory owners and wage labourers.

This is why Marx and Engels opened _The Communist Manifesto_ in **1848** with the claim that the history of society is the history of **class struggles**. They were not saying every event has only one cause. They were saying the deepest engine of change is conflict over wealth, labour, and power.

> **Key Term: historical materialism**
> The Marxist theory that material and economic conditions, especially the mode of production, shape society, institutions, and historical change.

Marx borrowed part of the idea of historical movement from the German philosopher **Hegel**, but he reversed its direction. Hegel had treated ideas as the main force shaping reality. Marx argued the opposite: material life shapes ideas. A student who understands this can write a much stronger comparison answer.

The sequence in Marx’s reasoning can be simplified like this:

- material conditions shape class relations
- class relations produce conflict
- conflict produces historical change

This also explains why Marx saw capitalism as historically important. He did not think it was useless. In fact, he thought capitalism had massively expanded production and transformed the world. But he also believed it sharpened inequality and conflict in a new way.

> **Key Term: class struggle**
> Conflict between social classes over wealth, power, and control; in Marxist theory, the main driver of historical change.

### Bourgeoisie, proletariat, and the contradictions of capitalism

Marx argued that capitalist society was increasingly divided into two main classes. The **bourgeoisie** owned the factories, machines, land, and capital used to produce goods. The **proletariat** did not own these things. Workers had to sell their labour for wages in order to survive.

> **Key Term: bourgeoisie**
> The capitalist class that owns the means of production.
>
> **Key Term: proletariat**
> The working class that does not own the means of production and must sell its labour for wages.
>
> **Key Term: means of production**
> The land, factories, machines, tools, and resources used to produce goods.

This distinction matters because Marx said exploitation was structural, not just personal. A cruel employer might make conditions worse, but even a kind employer still profits from wage labour. Marx believed workers produced more value than they received back in wages. That difference became profit for the capitalist.

> **Key Term: surplus value**
> The difference between the value produced by workers and the wages they are paid; Marx saw this as the source of capitalist profit.

For Marx, this meant capitalism created its own contradictions:

- it depended on workers, but kept wages low
- it increased production, but many workers could not afford what they produced
- it concentrated wealth in fewer hands, while insecurity spread among labourers
- it made society more productive, but also more unequal

He thought these tensions would deepen over time. Industrialization seemed to support his case. Across Europe, many workers faced long hours, irregular employment, dangerous factories, child labour, urban crowding, and poor sanitation. Even where wages improved later in the century, the early industrial city gave plenty of evidence for socialist critics.

Marx also believed capitalism produced **class consciousness**. Workers thrown together in factories and cities would begin to see that their problems were shared, not individual. Once they understood themselves as a class with common interests, they could organize politically.

> **Key Term: class consciousness**
> Awareness by workers of their shared social position and common political interests as a class.

A common exam mistake is to treat Marx as if he simply said “workers were poor, so they revolted.” His argument is more precise. He believed industrial capitalism itself created the conditions for organization: large workplaces, urban concentration, and a shared experience of exploitation.

### The Communist Manifesto, revolution, and Marx’s wider impact

Marx and **Friedrich Engels** wrote _The Communist Manifesto_ for the **Communist League** in **1848**, the same year Europe experienced major revolutions. The pamphlet was short, direct, and political. It argued that capitalism had created the modern struggle between bourgeoisie and proletariat and predicted that the workers would eventually overthrow the capitalist class.

Marx did not see this as a reform movement within capitalism. He expected a revolutionary break. After the overthrow of the bourgeoisie, he believed there would be a transitional stage sometimes called the **dictatorship of the proletariat**. This meant rule by the working class as a class, not simply a single dictator. In Marxist theory, the state would then eventually lose its purpose once class divisions disappeared.

> **Key Term: dictatorship of the proletariat**
> A transitional stage in Marxist theory in which the working class holds political power after overthrowing the bourgeoisie.

Marx later wrote _Das Kapital_, a much larger and more difficult study of capitalism. For AP purposes, know its significance: it was Marx’s major critique of political economy and explained how capitalist profit came from labour and exploitation.

Marx also tried to turn theory into organization. In **1864** he helped found the **First International**, formally the International Workingmen’s Association. This group linked labour activists, trade unionists, republicans, Marxists, and anarchists across borders. It later broke apart because these groups disagreed sharply, especially over the state and revolutionary strategy. Even so, it shows that Marxism was becoming more than an idea. It was becoming a political movement.

> **Test Tip:** In an LEQ or SAQ, a high-scoring answer usually links Marxism to industrialization. Do not present Marx as an isolated thinker. Tie him to factories, urban labour, class tensions, and the broader worker response to nineteenth-century change.

For AP historical reasoning, Marx can be used in several ways:

- **Causation:** industrial capitalism helped produce socialist ideology
- **Comparison:** Marxism differed from liberalism, conservatism, and utopian socialism
- **Continuity and change:** class conflict existed earlier, but Marx argued capitalism made it sharper and more global
- **Contextualization:** the failures of 1848, labour unrest, and urban misery explain the appeal of socialist politics

Marx was not always proven right in the short term. Capitalism did not collapse in the nineteenth century. Trade unions, reform laws, and later revisionist socialism challenged some of his predictions. But for AP European History, the main point is not whether he was correct in every forecast. It is that he created the most influential nineteenth-century socialist critique of capitalism and gave it a language of history, class, and revolution that shaped later European politics.

## Key Point Checklist

_This article has covered the following key knowledge points:_

- **Karl Marx** and **Friedrich Engels** developed **scientific socialism** as a response to industrial capitalism
- Marx contrasted his ideas with earlier **utopian socialists** such as **Saint-Simon**, **Fourier**, and **Robert Owen**
- _The Communist Manifesto_ was published in **1848**
- Marx argued that history is driven by **class struggle**
- **Historical materialism** claimed that economic and material conditions shape society and historical change
- In capitalism, the main conflict is between the **bourgeoisie** and the **proletariat**
- The **bourgeoisie** own the **means of production**, while the **proletariat** sell their labour for wages
- Marx argued that capitalist profit comes from **surplus value** extracted from labour
- Industrialization made Marxism persuasive because it produced urban poverty, class tension, and factory exploitation
- Marx believed capitalism would create **class consciousness** among workers
- Marx expected revolutionary change, including a transitional **dictatorship of the proletariat**
- _Das Kapital_ and the **First International (1864)** show Marxism’s growing influence in nineteenth-century Europe

## Key Terms and Concepts

- scientific socialism
- utopian socialism
- historical materialism
- class struggle
- bourgeoisie
- proletariat
- means of production
- surplus value
- class consciousness
- dictatorship of the proletariat


Ideologies of Change and Reform Movements - Marx offered scientific socialism