Capitalist Revolution

Thus, capitalism came into existence by revolution, in which the "bourgeoise" class displaced the land-lord class as the economically dominant class, with or against the national monarchs as the case might be. These capitalist revolutions began roughly in the 1600's, and in some parts of the world, they continue today. As Marx and Engels observed, this new capitalist system has often been very dynamic, increasing the productivity of labor at unprecedented rates. Yet the two most characteristic features of capitalism have also been sources of tension that sometimes seemed destined to replace capitalism with some other system, either gradually or in a further revolution. One of those features is the new division of society into two classes: employers and employees, or, in Marxist terms, capitalists and workers or "proletarians." The other is the key role of the national state, which has sometimes been the rival of the capitalist employer class as the directing force in the economy.