Engels held that capitalism favored some nations’ boundaries and not others’.

Evidence

“Capitalism was from the beginning an affair of the world economy and not of nation-states… . Capital has never allowed its aspirations to be determined by national boundaries.” Capitalism has been such a fundamental globalising influence precisely because it is an economic rather than a political order; it has been able to penetrate far-flung areas of the world which the states of its origin could not have brought wholly under their political sway. — Anthony Giddens, The Consequences of Modernity, 174 (#expands, via linked claim)

Nationalism was acceptable if its success resulted in the construction of a “viable” industrial nation. In the same vein, it was unacceptable (“nonsense,” “impracticable,” “fanatical”) for nationalist movements to threaten what Engels had termed “true [i.e. productive] national boundaries” in Po und Rhein. As late as 1888, Engels was still giving his blessing to German nationalism on this basis: One can see from all this that the desire for a united “Fatherland” had a very material foundation. — Cedric J. Robinson, Black Marxism_ The Making of the Black…, 353 (#expands, via linked claim)

Since the end of the Middle Ages, history had been moving towards a Europe made up of large, national states. Only such national states constitute the normal political framework for the dominant European bourgeois class …, and, in addition, they are the indispensable prerequisite for the establishment of the harmonious international collaboration of nations without which the rule of the proletariat cannot exist. — Cedric J. Robinson, Black Marxism_ The Making of the Black…, 1661 (#expands, via linked claim)

Categorization

• XREF: connects to: Marx and Engels judged nationalism by its service to industrial capital — Cedric J. Robinson, Black Marxism_ The Making of the Black…, 353; Engels regarded national states as necessary prerequisites for proletarian rule — Cedric J. Robinson, Black Marxism_ The Making of the Black…, 1661; Racism and nationalism predate capitalism and shaped its development. — Cedric J. Robinson, Black Marxism_ The Making of the Black…, 122 (+1 more)

Related

• Marx and Engels judged nationalism by its service to industrial capital (similarity 0.91)
• Engels regarded national states as necessary prerequisites for proletarian rule (similarity 0.89)
• Marx and Engels judged the German national movement’s anti-French instinct correct. (similarity 0.86)
• Political economy blinded Marx and Engels to industrial movements’ ideological nature. (similarity 0.84)
• Capitalism’s non-political nature enabled its global penetration beyond state reach (similarity 0.82)
• Marxist theory viewed nations as instruments of the bourgeoisie. (similarity 0.82)
• Nationalism subverted socialism and overtook capitalist development worldwide (similarity 0.81)
• Marx and Engels judged other national movements by German national interests (similarity 0.80)
• Marx and Engels’ German nationalism skewed their judgment of Slavic liberation movements. (similarity 0.80)
• Capitalism’s global spread spawned nationalism as its historical cost (similarity 0.80)
• Marx treated the national state as the decisive instrument of bourgeois class victory (similarity 0.79)
• Marx treated nationalism’s historical role as ambiguous while Engels saw it as threatening (similarity 0.79)
• Marx and Engels’ German nationalism was distorted by exile and ideology (similarity 0.79)
• Marx distinguished nations from nationalities by economic independence capacity (similarity 0.79)
• Racism and nationalism predate capitalism and shaped its development. (similarity 0.78)

Broader Connections

• Capitalism’s non-political nature enabled its global penetration beyond state reach #expands (0.82) — Anthony Giddens, The Consequences of Modernity, 174
• Marx and Engels judged nationalism by its service to industrial capital #expands (0.75) — Cedric J. Robinson, Black Marxism_ The Making of the Black…, 353
• Engels regarded national states as necessary prerequisites for proletarian rule #expands (0.60) — Cedric J. Robinson, Black Marxism_ The Making of the Black…, 1661
• Racism and nationalism predate capitalism and shaped its development. #qualifies (0.40) — Cedric J. Robinson, Black Marxism_ The Making of the Black…, 122