Communism - Engels

Question 1

When did Engels write ‘The Decline of Feudalism and the Rise of the Bourgeoisie’?

Answer 1

1884

Question 2

What is the class struggle?

Answer 2

European nobility stagnate
Merchant and businessmen classes make revenue
Feudal economy does not have capacity for taking advantage of money and nobility had little relation to labour

Monetary relations and goods became exchanged through bourgeois patterns

Decline in feudal social relations

Question 3

What does this class struggle foreshadow?

Answer 3

Peasants paid money rather than goods to lords = first glimpse at landowner and tenant relations

Question 4

What part of the manifesto does this link to?

Answer 4

First chapter
Bourgeoisie gained power through colonial endeavours - resources outside of Europe

Engels explains this is gold from Africa and India
Feudalism is undermined because it is based on agricultural labour and lord ownership of land

Question 5

What does bourgeoisie colonial endeavours lead to as explored by Engels and the Manifesto ch. 1?

Answer 5

Engels = shipping,
Manifesto = free trade

Free trade has an inherent anti-feudal character = the demise of feudalism

Question 6

What changed between the bourgeoisie and the monarchy? How does this link to trade?

Answer 6

Links between the bourgeoisie and the monarchy strengthened
Non-feudal armies emerged
Weight to bourgeoisie demands to end pursing conflict that emerges due to feudal lords bickering since it lacks any profitable motive

Bourgeois trading gave rise to increasingly industrial weaponry that gave the nobility little chance to compete