The history of all hitherto existing society is the history of class struggles. Freeman and slave, patrician and plebeian, lord and serf, guild-master and journeyman, in a word, oppressor and oppressed, stood in constant opposition to one another, carried on an uninterrupted, now hidden, now open fight, that each time ended, either in a revolutionary reconstitution of society at large, or in the common ruin of the contending classes. [...] The modern bourgeois society that has sprouted from the ruins of feudal society, has not done away with class antagonisms. It has but established new classes, new conditions of oppression, new forms of struggle in place of the old ones. The author of the statement above most closely believes that world events are mainly influenced by: a. pure chance. b. the will of God. c. economic conflict. d. brilliant individuals. The author of this document believed that: a. only a strong leader can show the way through challenging times. b. the wealthiest people are best able to make financial decisions for the greater good. c. a communist society would evolve in which each person would have his or her needs met. d. disease and starvation would eventually reduce the population and wages would rise again.