Marx’s world-historical vision of the bourgeoisie contradicted its national-territorial development

Evidence

Marx had initially presumed (with an enthusiasm of youth, according to Lichtheim) that the bourgeoisie would reproduce itself everywhere, “In one word, it creates a world after its own image.” However, while Marx clearly envisioned the historical role of the bourgeoisie in world-historical terms, he also maintained the contradictory view of its historical development as occurring in national terms. The expansion of the bourgeoisie meant the extension of the nation-state: The bourgeoisie keeps more and more doing away with the scattered state of the population, of the means of production, and of property. — Cedric J. Robinson, Black Marxism_ The Making of the Black…, 347

Categorization

• XREF: This national-versus-world-historical contradiction in Marx feeds directly into Robinson’s later argument that Marxism failed to grasp non-European histories — a core thread for the reader’s arc on the Black radical tradition’s origin.
• QUESTION: Robinson flags this as a contradiction internal to Marx — worth watching whether he attributes it to a gap in Marx or a deeper Eurocentrism as the book proceeds.