Who are the bourgeoisie and proletariat in The Communist Manifesto?

The bourgeoisie are owners of the means of social production and employers of wage labor — the class that rose with commerce, manufacture, and the world market. The proletariat are modern wage workers who live by selling labor power, own no capital, and are gathered into cooperative factories where discipline and shared grievance teach unity.

Marx and Engels stress dynamism: the bourgeoisie constantly revolutionizes instruments and relations, dissolving older identities; the proletariat grows in number and organization as capital concentrates. Neither term is moral praise or insult — they name positions in production. Classroom work should tie definitions to Section I’s narrative of enclosure, industrial cities, and crisis, so students see classes as processes, not fixed labels on individuals.