Karl Marx was born in Trier, Germany. He studied law in Bonn and Berlin but later developed a great interest in history and philosophy. In the city of Cologne, he edited Rheinische Zeitung, a radical newspaper. After German officials shut down the paper, Marx moved to Paris. In 1845 he moved to Brussels. With Friedrich Engels, Marx published the Communist Manifesto in 1848. This book attacked capitalist governments, saying that they used religion and culture to keep the privileged classes in power. In 1849 Marx settled in London, where he studied economics and devoted himself to the development of his particular theory of socialism, which later became known as Marxism. The first volume of Das Kapital was published in 1867. Engels added two additional volumes in 1884 and 1894. Marx was a leading figure in the First International, an organization dedicated to helping workers and bringing about socialist revolution, from 1864 until it disbanded in 1872. The last decade of his life was spent in ill health, and he died in London in 1883.
