How did Karl Marx describe the relationship between class struggle and history?

For Karl Marx, the relationship between class struggle and history is foundational, famously summarized in The Communist Manifesto with the declaration: "The history of all hitherto existing society is the history of class struggles."12

Marx viewed history as a series of class struggles and revolutionary upheavals driven by material or economic conditions. He argued that human society is defined by its "mode of production"—the way it organizes economic activity—and that institutions like government and religion are outgrowths of this base. As these modes of production evolve, they create new contradictions, leading to conflict between the classes that own the means of production and those that do not.34

In the capitalist era, this struggle pits the bourgeoisie against the proletariat. Marx believed that the development of capitalism inevitably creates the conditions for its own replacement, as the working class eventually organizes to overthrow the existing order, ultimately aiming for a society without class antagonisms.24