Who was the first communist?
Karl Marx and his partner, Friedrich Engels, were among the most vocal detractors. In their renowned publication, The Communist Manifesto, Marx and Engels established a new concept of communism and popularized the word in 1848. According to them, communism would replace capitalism as the dominant economic system in industrialized countries. They argued that under capitalism, the rich get richer and the poor get poorer. Communism would eliminate this inequality by replacing private property ownership with a system of common ownership. They also proposed that the working class take control of the means of production so they can achieve economic independence. This would abolish the need for wages and allow workers to share in the wealth being created by the machines they were operating. Marx and Engels' ideas spread across Europe following the publication of their book, and many people believed that they would be able to implement them once the political situation allowed it. But despite having some influence during their lifetime, they never gained majority support. Today, most scholars agree that Marxism is a revolutionary ideology that calls for overthrowing the existing social order and building a new one from scratch. It includes both Marxist philosophy and various practices such as labor unions and parties based on Marxism-Leninism. Some historians have argued that Mao Zedong was the first communist because he set up a government based on these concepts.