The extension of the power of the state through the acquisition, normally by force, of other territories, which are then subject to rule by the superior power; also called colonialism. Many suggest that the motivation behind imperialism is economic, through the exploitation of cheap labour and resources, and the opening up of new markets. Others suggest that non-economic factors are involved, including nationalism, racism and the pursuit of international power. The main era of imperialism was the 1880s to 1914, when many European powers sought to gain territories in Africa and Asia. Imperialism of the form associated with the establishment of European empires has in large measure disappeared, but the term is now often applied to any attempts by developed countries to interfere in underdeveloped countries. There is also increasing interest in the idea of neo-colonialism, where certain countries are subjugated by the economic power of developed countries, rather than through direct rule.
Imperialism is a policy of extending control or authority over foreign entities as a means of acquisition and/or maintenance of empires. The "Age of Imperialism" usually refers to the Old Imperialism period starting from 1860, when major European states started colonizing the other continents.The term 'Imperialism' was initially coined in the mid to late 1500s to reflect the policies of countries such as Britain and France's expansion into Africa, and the Americas. In Imperialism, the Highest Stage of Capitalism, Lenin argued that capitalism necessarily induced imperialism in order to find new markets and resources.
Since then, however, Lenin's theory has been extended by Marxist scholars to be a synonym of capitalistic international trade and banking .
Insofar as 'imperialism' in the non-Marxist sense might be used to refer to an intellectual position, it would imply the belief that the acquisition and maintenance of empires is a positive good, probably combined with an assumption of cultural or other such superiority inherent to imperial power (see The White Man's Burden).
Imperialism draws heavy criticism on the grounds that historically it has been frequently employed for economic exploitation in which the imperialist power makes use of other countries as sources of raw materials and cheap labor, shaping their economies to suit its own interests, and keeping their people in poverty. When imperialism is accompanied by overt military conquest of non-human rights abusing nations, it is also seen as a violation of freedom and human rights.
In recent years, there has also been a trend to view imperialism not at an economic or political level, but at a simply cultural level, particularly in regard to the widespread global influence of American culture (see "cultural imperialism").
Etymology
The Latin root is imperium In nineteenth century Britain the word "imperialism" came to be used in a polemical fashion to deride the foreign and domestic policies of the French emperor Napoleon III.
In the twentieth century the term "imperialism" also grew to apply to any historical or contemporary instance of a greater power acting, or being perceived to be acting, at the expense of a lesser power. Imperialism is therefore not only used to describe frank empire-building policies, such as those of the Romans, the Spanish or the British, but is also used controversially and/or disparagingly, for example by both sides in communist and anti-communist propaganda, or to describe actions of the United States since the American Presidency's acquisition of overseas territory during the Spanish-American War, or in relation to the United States' present-day position as the world's only "superpower."
Modern imperialism
US imperialism
A contemporary debate surrounds the United States, American Presidency, and whether the power they exert upon much of the world and its policy amounts to imperialism — the U.S. is therefore sometimes referred to as the "American Empire." This is because, with the collapse of the Soviet Union and the end of the Cold War, the United States is now the world's dominant economic and military power, with the largest economy, second-largest nuclear stockpile, and huge population of 300 million.
The United States has also only enjoyed its status as sole superpower for a relatively short period, without the Soviet Union as its dominant political, military, and ideological opponent.
Beginning at the end of World War II, the U.S. largely took over from the United Kingdom certain roles of influence in the Middle East.
Marxist theory of Imperialism
Karl Marx never published a theory of imperialism, although he referred to colonialism in Das Kapital as an aspect of the prehistory of the capitalist mode of production.
Marxists imperialism as Lenin defined it: "the highest stage of capitalism", specifically the era in which monopoly finance capital becomes dominant, forcing nations and corporations to compete amongst themselves increasingly for control over resources and markets all over the world.
The essential feature of the Marxist theories of imperialism, or related theories such as dependency theory, is their focus on the economic relation between countries, rather than the formal political relationship. Imperialism thus consists not necessarily in the direct control of one country by another, but in the economic exploitation of one region by another, or of a group by another. This Marxist usage contrasts with many people's understanding of the connotation of the word 'imperialism', which they think of as relating to the era when countries directly controlled vast empires, rather than the economic domination that some parts of the world have over others today - this popular view is a conflation of imperialism with colonialism, the establishment of overseas colonies.
As noted above, the Marxist theory of imperialism is not founded on the works of Karl Marx, but on those of Vladimir Lenin. Lenin held that imperialism was a stage of capitalist development signalled by the dominance of monopolies and of finance, or banking, capital. Following Marx's value theory, Lenin saw monopoly capital as plagued by the law of the tendency of profit to fall, as the ratio of constant capital to variable capital increases. Lenin stated that imperialism allows the capitalists from developed (rich) countries to extract a superprofit from the working class of undeveloped (poor) countries. In this way capitalists could circumvent the tendency of profit rates to fall by using more labor-intensive production in colonial, or zones controlled by imperialism.
The Soviet Union, which claimed to follow Leninism, proclaimed itself the foremost enemy of imperialism and supported many independence movements throughout the Third World.
New developments in the Marxist study of imperialism stem from the ground-breaking study The Age of Imperialism, written by Harry Magdoff in 1969. Globalization is generally viewed as the latest incarnation of imperialism among Marxists.
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