Marx and Engels judged nationalism by its service to industrial capital

Evidence

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

Categorization

• XREF: This is a core ground-clearing move in Robinson’s larger argument that Marxism’s Eurocentric frame failed non-European peoples. — connects to: Engels held that capitalism favored some nations’ boundaries and not others’.; Political economy blinded Marx and Engels to industrial movements’ ideological nature.; Marx and Engels judged the German national movement’s anti-French instinct correct. (+4 more)
• corroborated: 2 independent passages support this claim — Cedric J. Robinson, Black Marxism_ The Making of the Black…, 353

Broader Connections

• Capitalism’s global spread spawned nationalism as its historical cost #expands (0.60) — Cedric J. Robinson, Black Marxism_ The Making of the Black…, 370
• Marx held contradictory world-historical and national views of bourgeois development #expands (0.55)
• Engels regarded national states as necessary prerequisites for proletarian rule #expands (0.50) — Cedric J. Robinson, Black Marxism_ The Making of the Black…, 1661
• Industrial capital weaponized racism to fragment the labor movement #exemplifies (0.45)