While the peasants were pauperized and the working class suffered, the middle class became wealthy by investing capital in trade and industry. The governments of the day were influenced by them. All legislations safeguarded their interests. Labourers were not permitted to form trade unions. It was under these circumstances that Socialism as a new ideology was bom in Europe Karl Marx advocated scientific socialism for the protection of the working class from the exploitative policies of the capitalist class. By the latter half of the nineteenth century there were strong working class movements all over western. Europe which demanded economic as well as political rights.
