Everything that Karl Marx (1818-83) wrote and thought stemmed from his conviction that all human activity was economically determined. Marx believed that political activity - just like religion, culture and morality - took its form from the economic system that gave it birth. And through all the centuries of human history - especially under the economic system of Western Capitalism as it operated when he was writing, in the middle decades of the 19th century - one theme stood out: class warfare and the exploitation of one class by another.

He advocated three classes: the landed aristocracy; the bourgeoisie (capitalist employing class); and the proletariat (wage earning, employed class). Because each class held a unique position in the economic system this implied their respective religion, culture and morality differed accordingly.