What started to give the pigs power over the other animals?

I would say it was their superior intellect and their ability to fashion the commandments, as well as their leadership skills.

It was due to Old Major. The first pig. The one who died early on in chapter two, well actually the first sentence. The pigs were thought to be the most outstanding and smart. Since of course Old Major was a pig. Its honestly your thought on it though because in english when we discussed it, all my peers had different views.... Hope this helped??

because the pigs had the knowledge of reading they were easily able to alter the commandments without really any of the animals noticing that they changed, Muriel sometimes vagualy remembered what they were and Benjiman the donkey knew how to read but just managed to do his work and have a cyncial attitude