The Communist Manifesto was published just before the European Revolutions of 1848. It was meant as a statement of purpose for Marx's newly formed Communist League and its straightforward, even prophetic, tone is that of a man confidently explaining to a confused world the reasons for a tumult which had not yet begun. Why is he so sure of himself? The answer to this depends on Marx's deterministic view of history.

Marx inherited from his philosophical father, Hegel, the idea of historical progress (.http://www.gradesaver.com/ClassicNotes/Authors/about_karl_marx.html). Both believed that human history unfolds according to a distinct series of historical stages, each following the other. These stages ultimately lead to a prearranged Utopian endpoint, after which there will be no more change and an end to history. Unlike Hegel, though, Marx thought that these stages can be predicted, because there are scientific laws...