Communism and capitalism are opposing economic systems that emerged as dominant ideologies during the Cold War. Communism is defined as a classless, stateless social organization based on common ownership, while capitalism is based on mostly private ownership and investment for profit. Key figures that influenced these systems include Adam Smith, who advocated for natural liberty and laissez-faire economics, and Karl Marx, who predicted that capitalism would be overthrown through proletariat revolution and communism would emerge. The Cold War was characterized by tensions between capitalist United States and communist Soviet Union, and nearly escalated to nuclear war during the Cuban Missile Crisis. Criticisms of communism include that it led to over 50 million deaths and failed to account for human

1. What is
Communism?
{ Supplemental

2. What is Communism?
 This is the symbol of
Communism – The
Hammer and the
Sickle
Hammer
for the
Sickle for
Workers
the
Peasants – Who are
the farm these
labourers dudes?

3. ‘Those dudes’ wrote the ‘Communist Manifesto’
in 1847. It’s a short book – but billions of
people have read it….
What is Communism?
This is Karl Marx, the ‘Father of This is his good friend,
Communism’. People who believe Frederick Engels.
in his ideas are called ‘Marxists’

4.  Marx and Engels studied the history of the world’s
economies.
 This means the way that power, industry and finance are
controlled.
 They saw the way countries developed in stages.
Communism
Socialism
Capitalism
Feudalism Explain these please!
Primitive
Communism What is Communism?

5. What is Communism?
This is how humans first lived together – in small
tribes. Primitive means ‘not very advanced’ e.g.
hunting and gathering. Communism means that
everything was shared amongst the tribe – food,
Primitive jobs, belongings. No-one owned land. Eventually a
Communism group comes to power – this leads to Feudalism…

6. What is Communism?
Under feudalism, a
He gives land
king or emperor or
and privileges
chief becomes the
to ‘nobles’ who
ruler over all the
rule the people
people.
for him.
The people
are kept
uneducated
Feudalism and told that As trade develops,
god chose some people get
the king to richer. This leads to
rule. The Capitalism…..
Primitive church helps
Communism the king this
way.

7. What is Communism?
The
capitalists
get more
power to
serve
The business
their own
owners or
interests.
capitalists get Capitalism
richer while
the workers do
all the hard
Feudalism Capitalism creates a huge working-
work.
class of people who soon get angry
at the way they are treated. They
organise in unions and demand
changes. This will lead to a
revolution and Socialism…

8. What is Communism?
The workers Because nothing is
take control of made for profit, all
the country to people benefit from
produce things education and health.
for everyone.
Socialism These ideas
spread across
the world to
create
Capitalism Communism….
In the Socialist
revolution all the rulers –
kings, churches,
capitalists are got rid of.

9. What is Communism?
The remaining capitalists
put up a bitter fight, but Communism
the will of the people will
always win.
Socialism
As everyone now works together, All human activity
war is a thing of the past – goes towards
armies are not needed. Sharing benefiting each
means no police are needed. other – allowing all
Everything is provided by the to live their lives to
people – so money becomes a the full.

10. Capitalism vs.
Communism
{ An inside look on the differences

11.  The Cold War was the protracted geopolitical,
ideological, and economic struggle that emerged after
World War II between capitalism and communism,
centering around the global superpowers of the United
States and the Soviet Union.
 It lasted from about 1947 to the period leading to the
collapse of the Soviet Union on December 25, 1991
The Cold War

12. Cuban Missile Crisis
 A confrontation between the Soviet Union and the United
States regarding the Soviet deployment of nuclear missiles in
Cuba. The missiles were ostensibly placed to protect Cuba
from attack by the United States, and were rationalized by
the Soviets as retaliation for the U.S. placing deployable
nuclear warheads in Turkey.

13.  The crisis started on October 16, 1962,
when U.S. reconnaissance data revealing
Soviet nuclear missile installations on the
island was shown to U.S. President John
F. Kennedy, and ended twelve days later
on October 28, 1962, when Soviet leader
Nikita Khrushchev announced that the
installations would be dismantled.
 The Cuban Missile Crisis is regarded as
the moment when the Cold War came
closest to escalating into a nuclear war.
Cuban Missile Crisis

14.  How would you define “capitalism”?
 What other words come to mind when you
think of the word “capitalism”?
 Are these associations positive or negative?
Capitalism

15.  An economic system in which the means of production are
owned mostly privately.
 Capital is invested in the production of goods for profit in a
competitive free market.
Capitalism

16.  Latin, caput, “head”
 The term “capitalism” was first used in English
in 1854.
 Marxist writers originally popularized the
term.
Etymology

17.  The classical tradition in economic thought
emerged in Britain in the late 18th century.
 The classical economists included Adam Smith,
David Ricardo, and John Stuart Mill.
Classical Economics

19.  A Scottish political economist and moral
philosopher (1723-1790).
 His Inquiry into the Nature and Causes of the
Wealth of Nations (1776) founded the modern
discipline of economics and provided the
rationale for free trade, capitalism and
libertarianism.
Adam Smith

20.  In his mid-20s he began expounding “the
obvious and simple system of natural liberty.”
Natural Liberty

21.  Smith criticized mercantilism, the theory that large reserves of
bullion are essential for economic success.
 The British government acquired colonies in order to acquire
natural resources for its factories and markets for its finished
goods.
 Mercantilism required that colonies not be allowed to
industrialize or trade with countries other than the mother
country.
Mercantilism

22.  Smith criticized physiocracy, which taught that wealth originated
in land.
 Smith argued that labor was the major source of wealth and that
the division of labor was the key to economic growth.
 As productivity rises, wages will rise.
Physiocracy

23.  The free market appears chaotic and
unrestrained.
 Actually, it is guided by “an invisible hand” to
produce the right amount and variety of goods.
 If a product shortage occurs, the price rises,
establishing a profit margin that provides an
incentive for others to enter production.
The Invisible Hand

24.  While human motives are selfish and greedy,
the competition in the free market tends to
benefit society as a whole by keeping prices
law, while still building in an incentive for a
wide variety of goods and services.
 He argued against the formation of
monopolies.
Social Benefit

25.  Smith attacked most forms of government
interference in the economic process, including
tariffs on imported goods.
 Government restrictions on trade cause
inefficiency and high prices.
 “Laissez-faire” means “let them do.”
Laissez-faire

26.  It is not from the benevolence of the butcher, the
brewer, or the baker that we expect our dinner, but
from their regard to their own interest.
 We address ourselves, not to their humanity but to
their self-love, and never talk to them of our own
necessities but of their advantages.
Self-Interest

27.  As every individual, therefore, endeavours as much as he can both to
employ his capital in the support of domestic industry, and so to direct
that industry that its produce may be of the greatest value; every
individual necessarily labours to render the annual value of society as
great as he can.
National Wealth

28.  How would you define “communism”?
 What other words come to mind when you
think of the word “communism”?
 Are these associations positive or negative?
Communism

29.  An ideology that seeks to establish a future
classless, stateless social organization, based
upon common ownership of the means of
production and the absence of private
property.
Communism

31.  Karl Marx (1818-1883) was an immensely
influential German philosopher, political
economist, and socialist revolutionary.
 He is most famous for his analysis of history in
terms of class struggles.
Karl Marx

32.  The history of all hitherto existing society is the
history of class struggles.
Communist Manifesto
(1848)

33. Bolshevism
 Marx’s ideas were adopted by French
revolutionaries who founded the Paris
Commune in 1871, the Russian Bolsheviks who
overthrew the government in the 1917 October
Revolution and the Chinese Communist Party
which came to power in 1949.

34.  Marx was an atheist.
 He believed that religion was “the opiate of the
people.”
 The owners of capital used religion to keep the
peasants and workers subjugated by leading
them to think, not of their present misery, of
future happiness in heaven.
Atheism

35.  Marx taught that paradise would appear on earth, following the
destruction of capitalism and the state.
 Under capitalism, labor is alienated.
 In a communist society, human beings freely develop their nature
in cooperative production.
 Under communism, there is no government and, accordingly,
perfect freedom.
Communist Paradise

36.  The nature of individuals depends on the material
conditions determining their production.
Human Nature Changes

37.  Marx traced the history of the various modes of
production and predicted the collapse of the
present one—industrial capitalism—and its
replacement by communism, just as capitalism
had replaced feudalism.
 The appearance of communism would
represent the end of history.
Determinism

38.  Marx’s moral teaching was that the leaders of the Communist
Party, which he termed “the vanguard of the proletariat,” were
free to commit any crime as long as it served the end—the
destruction of capitalism and the ushering in of communism.
 This historical process, he said, was inevitable.
The End Justifies the
Means

39.  Those who must sell their labor power are
“proletarians.”
 The person who buys the labor power someone
who owns the land and technology to produce,
is a “capitalist” or “bourgeoise.”
 The proletarians inevitably outnumber the
capitalists.
Class Struggle

40.  Profit is “theft.”
 It is the difference between the value of a good
produced by a worker and the wages paid to
the worker by the owner.
 Due to competition among workers for
employment, wages will decline, leading to
poverty, misery and rebellion.
Profit

41.  The state is “a committee of the bourgeoisie”
and laws support the capitalists, the ruling
class.
 Class conflict between the proletariat and the
capitalists can only be resolved by violent
revolution.
 A dictatorship of the working class is a
temporary necessity before communism is
possible.
Revolution

42. The principle of distribution in communism, is
“From each according to ability, to each
according to need.”
Justice

43.  Why do you think the United States won the
Cold War?
 Why has capitalism proven much more
durable and attractive than communism?
The Failure of
Communism

44.  In the 20th century, it is estimated that 50
million people were killed in the name of
communism.
 Most of Marx’s predictions were wrong, such
as that communist revolutions would occur
only in industrial societies.
 It is inconsistent with human nature.
 It ignores the appeal of religion.
Criticism of Communism