Marx and Engels judged the German national movement’s anti-French instinct correct.

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 (#expands, via linked claim)

Categorization

• XREF: connects to: Bismarck detached German nationalism from its liberal revolutionary roots.; Marx and Engels judged nationalism by its service to industrial capital — Cedric J. Robinson, Black Marxism_ The Making of the Black…, 353

Related

• Marx and Engels judged nationalism by its service to industrial capital (similarity 0.92)
• Marx and Engels judged other national movements by German national interests (similarity 0.89)
• Marx and Engels’ German nationalism skewed their judgment of Slavic liberation movements. (similarity 0.88)
• Bismarck detached German nationalism from its liberal revolutionary roots. (similarity 0.88)
• Engels held that capitalism favored some nations’ boundaries and not others’. (similarity 0.86)
• Marx treated nationalism’s historical role as ambiguous while Engels saw it as threatening (similarity 0.85)
• Marx and Engels’ German nationalism was distorted by exile and ideology (similarity 0.83)
• Marx and Engels supported German nationalism against French encroachment in 1859. (similarity 0.83)
• Political economy blinded Marx and Engels to industrial movements’ ideological nature. (similarity 0.83)
• German nationalism worked against revolutionary consciousness in 1860s (similarity 0.82)
• Marxist theory viewed nations as instruments of the bourgeoisie. (similarity 0.81)
• Engels regarded national states as necessary prerequisites for proletarian rule (similarity 0.81)
• Bismarck weaponized nationalism by separating it from its liberal grounding (similarity 0.81)
• Marx distinguished nations from nationalities by economic independence capacity (similarity 0.80)
• Bismarck severed German nationalism from its liberal-reformist origins (similarity 0.80)

Broader Connections

• Marx and Engels judged nationalism by its service to industrial capital #expands (0.70) — Cedric J. Robinson, Black Marxism_ The Making of the Black…, 353