Episode 1 of 3

Writing the Manifesto

When: December 1847 to January 1848
Where: London
Part of: Marx and Engels publish The Communist Manifesto in London

Marx and Engels wrote the programme for the Communist League from December 1847 to January 1848, shifting from a catechism format to a manifesto.

Engels proposed the manifesto format to include historical context. The final text was written primarily by Marx but drew heavily on Engels's drafts and their shared outlook from The German Ideology. They met in London to attend the Congress of the Communist League.

Sources

Karl Marx Wikipedia, revision of 2026-10-05
The Communist Manifesto Wikipedia, revision of 2026-09-29
Friedrich Engels Wikipedia, revision of 2026-10-06

Machine-drafted from the cited Wikipedia passages and checked by a reviewing model, not by a human editor. Every passage cites the revision it was written from; dates and places follow those passages.