In February 1845 Karl Marx was deported from France at the behest of minister of foreign affairs François Guizot.[1] Marx found sanctuary in Brussels, where he was joined for a number of months by his political compatriot Frederick Engels beginning in April of that same year.[1] It was in Brussels that Marx first began to shape the concept of historical materialism[1] — the idea that underlying fundamental changes in political history was a corresponding economic struggle between ruling and oppressed classes which was at root of these structural transformations.