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But industrialisation also had a darker side. The European urban infrastructure had been unprepared for the rise in numbers that followed the rapid growth in industry; by-products were serious overcrowding, disease, poverty and unrest – a state of affairs highlighted by the popular press. Socialist ideology arose from the desire to introduce some equality into the conditions that had arisen in the new factories of Europe. Why was it that the workers did all the work and the owners gained all the profit? Surely this was unfair?
Writing in England after he had been expelled from numerous countries in Europe, Karl Marx wrote two works that subsequently formed the basis of socialist thought, the Communist Manifesto and Das Kapital. He stated that the history of society could be considered as a history of class struggles as opposed to the conflict between states or individuals. The workers would finally rise up against the business owners, or bourgeoisie, and end the era of class struggles. ‘The proletarians have nothing to lose but their chains. They have a world to win. Working men of all countries, unite!’ Industrial capitalism would collapse and be replaced by a communist society, in which different social classes would not exist. Largely unread until the 1870s, his work became the main inspiration for communist regimes in the 20th century.