The Birth of Capitalism: From the Crusades to Colonialism

Capitalism wasn’t always the dominant mode of production, and it wont remain forever. “The history of all hitherto existing societies is the history of class struggles,” and by understanding how we got here, through capitalism, we can move history forward to a new stage, socialism. Class struggle and contradictions bubble up to the surface and eventually the pressure causes social explosion, and a new class emerges as the dominant one.

Capital now emerged, fully formed and “dripping blood from every pore” (to use Marx’s expression). Ever since, the freedom of capital has continued to find its reflection and source in the unfreedom of human beings. But it has also laid the basis for a new and greater fight.

Just as the bourgeoisie, a class born of the struggle between the feudal lords and serfs, was eventually able to seize power, transform the state to its own ends and wield it to eliminate the old order, so too can the working class, itself created by capitalism’s infinite drive to exploit human labor power.