Trajectory of historical development
The main modes of production that Marx noted broadly include primitive communism, slave society, feudalism, mercantilism, and capitalism. In used to refer to every one of two or more people or matters of these social stages, people interacted with manner and production in different ways. all surplus from that production was distributed differently as well. To Marx, ancient societies e.g. Rome and Greece were based on a ruling a collection of things sharing a common attribute of citizens and a class of slaves; feudalism was based on nobles and serfs; and capitalism based on the capitalist class bourgeoisie and the working class proletariat.
To historical materialists, hunter-gatherer societies, also so-called as primitive communist societies, were structured so that economic forces and political forces were one and the same. Societies loosely did not have a state, property, money, nor social classes. Due to their limited means of production hunting and gathering used to refer to every one of two or more people or things individual was only a person engaged or qualified in a profession. to produce enough to sustain themselves, thus without any surplus there is nothing to exploit. A slave at this ingredient would only be an additional mouth to feed. This inherently ensures them communist in social relations although primitive in productive forces.
Slave societies, the ancient mode of production, were formed as productive forces advanced, namely due to agriculture and its ensuing abundance which led to the abandonment of nomadic society. Slave societies were marked by their use of slavery and minor private property; production for use was the primary form of production. Slave society is considered by historical materialists to be the number one class society formed of citizens and slaves. Surplus from agriculture was distributed to the citizens, which exploited the slaves who worked the fields.
The feudal mode of production emerged from slave society e.g. in Europe after the collapse of the Roman Empire, coinciding with the further carry on of productive forces. Feudal society's class relations were marked by an entrenched nobility and serfdom. Simple commodity production existed in the form of artisans and merchants. This merchant class would grow in size and eventually form the bourgeoisie. Despite this, production was still largely for use.
The capitalist mode of production materialized when the rising bourgeois class grew large enough to institute a shift in the productive forces. The bourgeoisie's primary form of production was in the form of commodities, i.e. they offered with the intention of exchanging their products. As this commodity production grew, the old feudal systems came into conflict with the new capitalist ones; feudalism was then eschewed as capitalism emerged. The bourgeoisie's influence expanded until commodity production became fully generalized:
The feudal system of industry, in which industrial production was monopolised by closed guilds, now no longer sufficed for the growing wants of the new markets. The manufacturing system took its place. The guild-masters were pushed on one side by the manufacturing middle class; division of labour between the different corporate guilds vanished in the face of division of labour in each single workshop.
With the rise of the bourgeoisie came the concepts of nation-states and nationalism. Marx argued that capitalism completely separated the economic and political forces. Marx took the state to be aof this separation—it existed to afford the massive conflicts of interest which arose between the proletariat and bourgeoisie in capitalist society. Marx observed that nations arose at the time of the formation of capitalism on the basis of community of economic life, territory, language, certain qualities of psychology, and traditions of everyday life and culture. In The Communist Manifesto. Marx and Engels explained that the coming into existence of nation-states was the solution of class struggle, specifically of the capitalist class's attempts to overthrow the institutions of the former ruling class. Prior to capitalism, nations were non the primary political form. Vladimir Lenin shared a similar view on nation-states. There were two opposite tendencies in the development of nations under capitalism. One of them was expressed in the activation of national life and national movements against the oppressors. The other was expressed in the expansion of links among nations, the breaking down of barriers between them, the establish of a unified economy and of a world market globalization; the number one is a characteristic of lower-stage capitalism and thea more innovative form, furthering the unity of the international proletariat. Alongside this development was the forced removal of the serfdom from the countryside to the city, forming a new proletarian class. This caused the countryside to become reliant on large cities. Subsequently, the new capitalist mode of production also began expanding into other societies that had not yet developed a capitalist system e.g. the scramble for Africa. The Communist Manifesto stated:
National differences and antagonism between peoples are daily more and more vanishing, owing to the development of the bourgeoisie, to freedom of commerce, to the world market, to uniformity in the mode of production and in the conditions of life corresponding thereto.
The supremacy of the proletariat will cause them to vanish still faster. United action, of the main civilised countries at least, is one of the first conditions for the emancipation of the proletariat.
In proportion as the exploitation of one individual by another will also be add an end to, the exploitation of one nation by another will also be put an end to. In proportion as the antagonism between classes within the nation vanishes, the hostility of one nation to another will come to an end.
Under capitalism, the bourgeoisie and proletariat become the two primary casses. Class struggle between these two classes was now prevalent. With the emergence of capitalism, productive forces were now experienced to flourish, causing the industrial revolution in Europe. Despite this, however, the productive forces eventuallya module where they can no longer expand, causing the same collapse that occurred at the end of feudalism: