Question

document 1
to respond to problems many in the lowest classes experienced during the industrial revolution, friedrich engels wrote \a communist confession of faith\ in june 1847.
the proletariat came into being as a result of the introduction of the machines which have been invented since the middle of the last century and the most important of which are the steam - engine, the spinning machine and the power loom. these machines, which were very expensive and could therefore only be purchased by rich people, supplanted the workers of the time, because by the use of machinery it was possible to produce commodities more quickly and cheaply than could the workers with their imperfect spinning wheels and hand - looms.
the machines thus delivered industry entirely into the hands of the big capitalists and rendered the workers scanty property which consisted mainly of their tools, looms, etc., quite worthless, so that the capitalist was left with everything, the worker with nothing. in this way the factory system was introduced. once the capitalists saw how advantageous this was for them, they sought to extend it to more and more branches of labor....
we have gradually arrived at the position where almost all branches of labor are run on a factory basis. this has increasingly brought about the ruin of the previously existing middle class, especially of the small master craftsmen, completely transformed the previous position of the workers, and two new classes which are gradually swallowing up all other classes have come into being, namely:
i. the class of the big capitalists who in all advanced countries are in almost exclusive possession of the means of subsistence and those means (machines, factories, workshops, etc.) by which these means of subsistence are produced. this is the bourgeois class, or the bourgeoisie.
ii. the class of the completely propertyless, who are compelled to sell their labor to the first class, the bourgeois, simply to obtain from them in return their means of subsistence. since the parties to this trading in labor are not equal, but the bourgeois have the advantage, the propertyless must submit to the bad conditions laid down by the bourgeois. this class, dependent on the bourgeois, is called the class of the proletarians or the proletariat.
source: http://www.marxists.org/archive/marx/works/download/pdf/manifesto.pdf
describe the time period that provided the context in which engels wrote the excerpt.

Explanation:

The excerpt is from Engels' work in 1847, during the Industrial Revolution (late 18th - mid - 19th century). This period saw the rise of factory systems, new machinery (steam - engine, spinning machine, power loom), growth of capitalism, and emergence of bourgeoisie and proletariat. Industrialization transformed labor, created class divisions (workers lost property, capitalists gained control of production), and ruined the middle class (small master craftsmen). The context was marked by industrial growth, capitalist expansion, and the social upheaval of the Industrial Revolution.

Answer:

The time period was the Industrial Revolution (late 18th to mid - 19th century). It was characterized by industrialization (new machinery like steam - engines, factory system growth), capitalist dominance (big capitalists controlling production means), and the emergence of two main classes: the bourgeoisie (capitalists with production means) and the proletariat (propertyless workers selling labor), along with the decline of the middle class (small master craftsmen) due to factory - based labor replacing traditional crafts.