Marx argued that human society had progressed through different stages. These were : primitive communism, slavery, feudalism and capitalism. He believed capitalism would give way to socialism. • Capitalist society was marked by an ever intensifying process of alienation operating at several levels. • But he believed that capitalism was nevertheless a necessary and progressive stage of human history because it created the preconditions for an egalitarian future free from both exploitation, and poverty. • Historical materialism is a theory of history out lined by Marx and Friedrich Engels. It focuses on human societies and their development through history, arguing that history is the result of material conditions rather than ideas.