The bourgeoisie were, in simple terms, the middle and upper-middle class people who gained wealth and influence through business, trade, and ownership of property rather than through noble titles or manual labor.

Basic definition

  • Historically, “bourgeoisie” referred to town-dwellers such as merchants, artisans, and professionals who lived in walled towns (bourgs) rather than in the countryside.
  • Over time it came to mean the social order dominated by the middle class, often associated with money, respectability, and conventional values.

In Marxist terms

  • In Marxist theory, the bourgeoisie are the capitalist class who own the means of production (factories, land, banks, businesses) and derive income from ownership, not wages.
  • They stand in opposition to the proletariat, the working class who must sell their labor to survive, creating a conflict of interests known as class struggle.

How they emerged historically

  • The group grew in medieval Europe as trade expanded and towns became economic centers; merchants and guild masters formed a distinct “in-between” class, neither peasants nor hereditary nobles.
  • By the 18th century, especially in France, this class of professionals, industrialists, and educated elites pushed for political power matching their economic strength, playing a key role in events like the French Revolution.

Modern usage

  • Today, “bourgeoisie” can simply mean the prosperous middle class, especially those seen as materialistic or obsessed with social status and comfort.
  • The word is also used critically in politics and culture to describe people whose lifestyle and attitudes align with capitalist, property-owning values, even if they are not extremely rich.

TL;DR: The bourgeoisie were (and are) the property-owning, business- running middle and upper-middle classes who rose to prominence in towns and cities and, in Marxist theory, form the ruling capitalist class opposed to the working-class proletariat.