How Marx and Engels Believed That Industrialization Was a Positive Development - Essay Example

It is a known fact that Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels fully opposed the ideals of capitalism and the Industrial Revolution, but the fact remains that they believed that industrialization was a positive development and this fact shall be established in this paper.

In the Communist Manifesto, Engels and Marx believed that the impact of industrialization on the world economy would be so immense that it would bring about rapid development to different spheres of life. They argued that modern industry was the impetus behind the founding of the world market and that it was this market that helped to develop commerce, communication, transportation by land and seas. All this signals that Marx and Engels were trying to show that industrialization was actually a positive development (Tucker 5-19).

Marx and Engels believed that industrialization would bring about an increase in the number of wage earners in the society and this could actually mean that they were of the opinion that industrialization was a positive development as it helps to tackle the problems of mass unemployment in the society. They argued that the proletariats were the products of industrialization as the bourgeoisie class gradually disappeared in the face of industrialization.

They argued that industrialization would help develop the field of agriculture as it would now be mechanized which means work would be done at a fast rate and the agricultural output would be greatly increased. In advanced countries, for instance, there would be no difference between town and country as industrialization would bring an equal proportion of development across the town and countryside. People would now be able to live up to an improved standard in the countryside and this was also one of the fruits of industrialization. Marx and Engels also argued that industrialization would help abolish child labor as the works that were done by children would now be handled by the machines and the issue of child labor would be long forgotten as a result of industrialization. Education would also be affected by industrialization as it would now be combined with industrial production (Tucker).

They believed that industrialization would continue to improve inter-country trade and would ultimately make the demand for goods increase. Marx and Engels were also of the opinion that industrialization would help improve the areas of manufacture as productions would no longer depend on the hands of men but on the superior strength of the machines. The industrial middle class would be replaced by what they call the industrial millionaires; this could be interpreted to mean that industrialization would improve the status of people greatly.

They believed that the proletariat would eventually succeed in destroying the bourgeoisie as the exploitative powers of this system would be cut off by industrialization. The proletariats would not appropriate property like the previous ruling classes before them and this would ultimately make them destroy any claim to the ownership of private property and this could also mean that more people in the society would be empowered.