Question

What does "Material forces drive history" mean?

Answer 1

Break it up. You have three things: material forces, drive, and history.

I'll give you a clue though: material forces is from Karl Marx.

Answer 2

You can see the term applied a number of ways here:

http://www.marxists.org/archive/marx/works/1843/critique-hpr/intro.htm
http://www.marxists.org/archive/marx/works/1845/german-ideology/ch01b.htm

Answer 3

In Marxist theory, it means that history is created by man's need for material goods or satisfaction, rather than stemming from any sort of non-material or spiritualistic source. Hope that helps!