Karl Marx was a German philosopher, economist, historian, political theorist, sociologist, journalist and revolutionary socialist.
Born in Trier, Prussia (now Germany) on May 5, 1818, to a middle-class family, Marx studied law and Hegelian philosophy. Due to his socialist publications, Marx became stateless and lived in exile in London, where he continued to develop his thought in collaboration with German thinker Friedrich Engels. In 1848, they published The Communist Manifesto, one of his most popular publications and the most celebrated pamphlet in the history of the socialist movement.
Marx became increasingly focused on capitalism and economic theory, and in 1867, he published the first volume of Das Kapital. Marx did not live to publish the planned second and third parts, but they were both completed from his notes and published after his death by his colleague Friedrich Engels. Karl Marx died on 1883 (aged 64).
Marxism is the economic and political theory and practice originated by Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels that holds that actions and human institutions are economically determined, that the class struggle is the basic agency of historical change, and that capitalism will ultimately be superseded by communism.