The Industrial Revolution was a time of change for Europe; not only economically, but socially also. The world saw the advent of new technologies like the steam engine, railroads, factories, and textile mills. These new technologies created a new source of wealth and a new social class, the middle class or bourgeoisie. Unfortunately, this wealth was built on the backs of the working class or proletarians. The disparity between the workers and the bourgeoisie quickly widened; this environment was the perfect catalyst for driving the proletariat toward communism. If I was a member of the working class in 1848 there are several reasons "The Communist Manifesto" would be appealing.

Frederick Engels, one of the founders of "The Communist Manifesto," stated that "the middle-classes intend in reality nothing else but to enrich themselves by your labour while they can sell its produce, and abandon you to starvation as soon as...