For the computer game, see Imperialism (computer game). Imperialism is a Turn-based strategy game for Microsoft Windows and Apple Macintosh computers developed by Frog City Software

Cecil Rhodes: Cape-Cairo railway project. Cecil John Rhodes, PC DCL (5 July 1853 &ndash 26 March 1902 was an English -born Businessman mining Magnate, and Politician Founded the De Beers Mining Company and owned the British South Africa Company, which established Rhodesia for itself. De Beers and the various companies within the De Beers Family of Companies engage in exploration for diamonds, diamond mining diamond trading and industrial diamond manufacture The British South Africa Company (BSAC was established by Cecil Rhodes through the amalgamation of the Central Search Association and the Exploring Company Ltd Rhodesia was the name adopted when the formerly British colony of Southern Rhodesia declared itself independent ( Unilateral Declaration of Independence He liked to "paint the map British red", and declared: "all of these stars . The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, commonly known as the United Kingdom, the UK or Britain,is a Sovereign state located . . these vast worlds that remain out of reach. If I could, I would annex other planets". ^[1]

Imperialism has two meanings, one describing an action and the other describing an attitude. Most commonly it is understood in relation to Empire building, as the forceful extension of a nation's authority by territorial conquest establishing economic and political domination of other nations. An empire (from the Latin " Imperium " denoting military Command within the ancient Roman government) is a State that Types of administrative and/or political territories include Many types of legally administered territories, each of which is a non-sovereign geographic area An economy is the realized social system of production exchange distribution and consumption of goods and services of a country or other area Politics Politics is the process by which groups of people make decisions In its second meaning the term describes the imperialistic attitude of superiority, subordination and dominion over foreign people. Imperialism is often autocratic, e. An autocracy is a Form of government in which the Political power is held by a single self-appointed ruler g. in early 20th century Japan,^[2] and sometimes monolithic ^[3] in character. For a topic outline on this subject see List of basic Japan topics. While the term imperialism often refers to a political or geographical domain such as the Ottoman Empire^[4] the British Empire,^[5] or the Russian Empire,^[6] etc, the term can equally be applied to domains of knowledge, beliefs, values and expertise, such as the empires of Christianity (see Christendom)^[7] or Islam (see Caliphate). The Ottoman Empire (1299–1923 ( Old Ottoman Turkish: دولتْ علیّه عثمانیّه Devlet-i Âliye-yi Osmâniyye, Late Ottoman and Modern Turkish The British Empire was the largest empire in history and for over a century was the foremost global power. The Russian Empire ( Pre-reform Russian: Pоссійская Имперія Modern Russian: Российская Империя translit: Rossiyskaya Christianity ( Greek Χριστιανισμός from the word Xριστός ( Christ)is a monotheistic Religion centered on the life and teachings Christendom usually refers to Christianity as a territorial phenomenon For other meanings including people named 'Islam' see Islam (disambiguation. A caliphate (from the Arabic خلافة or khilāfa) is the political leadership of the Muslim community in classical and medieval Islamic history ^[8]

Overview

Imperialism is found in the ancient histories of Roman Empire, Greece, the Persian Empire, China (see Ten Great Campaigns), the Ottoman Empire (see Ottoman wars in Europe), the Islamic Caliphate, India, Egypt, Africa, the Aztec empire, and many other areas. The Roman Empire was the post-Republican phase of the ancient Roman civilization, characterised by an autocratic form of government and large territorial The term ancient Greece refers to the period of Greek history lasting from the Greek Dark Ages ca The Persian Empire was a series of Iranian empires that ruled over the Iranian plateau, the original Persian homeland and beyond in Western Asia China ( Wade-Giles ( Mandarin) Chung¹kuo² is a cultural region, an ancient Civilization, and depending on perspective a National The Ten Great Campaigns ( were a series of wars fought during the reign of the Qianlong Emperor, much celebrated in the official Qing Dynasty annals The Ottoman Empire (1299–1923 ( Old Ottoman Turkish: دولتْ علیّه عثمانیّه Devlet-i Âliye-yi Osmâniyye, Late Ottoman and Modern Turkish The wars of the Ottoman Empire in Europe are also sometimes referred to as the Ottoman Wars or as Turkish Wars, particularly in older European A caliphate (from the Arabic خلافة or khilāfa) is the political leadership of the Muslim community in classical and medieval Islamic history India, officially the Republic of India (भारत गणराज्य inc-Latn Bhārat Gaṇarājya; see also other Indian languages) is a country This article is about the country of Egypt For a topic outline on this subject see List of basic Egypt topics. Aztec is a term used to refer to certain ethnic groups of central Mexico, particularly those groups who spoke the Nahuatl language and who achieved political Although the practice has existed for thousands of years, the term "Age of Imperialism" refers to the Scramble for Africa, along with the Scramble for India. Imperialism has two meanings one describing an action and the other describing an attitude The Scramble for Africa, also known as the Race for Africa, was the proliferation of conflicting European claims to African territory during the New The term 'Imperialism' was coined in the sixteenth century, ^[9] reflecting the imperial policies of Portugal, Spain, Britain, France, and the Netherlands into Africa, Asia, and the Americas. Portugal, officially the Portuguese Republic (República Portuguesa is a country on the Iberian Peninsula. Spain () or the Kingdom of Spain (Reino de España is a country located mostly in southwestern Europe on the Iberian Peninsula. The Americas are the lands of the Western hemisphere or New World, consisting of the Continents of North America and South America

Currently, there is an effort to broaden the definition of "imperialism" so it applies to any instance of a greater power acting or being perceived to act at the expense of a lesser power. Including 'perception' in the definition makes it circular, solipsistic, and subjective. Under this broader definition, 'imperialism' not only describes colonial, territorial policies;but also describes economic dominance and influence.

European dominance of the east through economic exploitation and political rule, (as distinct from the word colonialism, which usually implied establishment of settler colonies often with slavery as the labor system), the word was coined in the mid-nineteenth century.

Lenin's theory of imperialism

European intellectuals have contributed to formal theories of imperialism. In Imperialism, the Highest Stage of Capitalism (1916), V. Imperialism the Highest Stage of Capitalism (1916 by Vladimir Lenin is a classic Marxist theoretical treatise on the relationship between Capitalism I. Lenin said capitalism necessarily induced monopoly capitalism as imperialism to find new business and resources, representing the last and highest stage of capitalism. The theory of state monopoly capitalism ("Stamocap" or "Stamokap" theory was initially a Marxist doctrine popularised after World War II ^[10] The necessary expansion of capitalism beyond the boundaries of nation-states — a foundation of Leninism — was shared by Rosa Luxemburg (The Accumulation of Capital: A Contribution to an Economic Explanation of Imperialism^[11]) and liberal philosopher Hannah Arendt. Capitalism is the Economic system in which the Means of production are owned by private Persons and operated for Profit and where For the online game see Jennifer Government NationStates. The nation-state is a certain form of State that derives its legitimacy Leninism refers to various related political and economic theories elaborated by Bolshevik revolutionary leader Vladimir Lenin. Rosa Luxemburg (Róża Luksemburg 5 March 1870 or 1871 15 January 1919 was a Polish-born Jewish German Marxist theorist, socialist The Accumulation of Capital (full title: The Accumulation of Capital A Contribution to an Economic Explanation of Imperialism, Die Akkumulation des ^[12] Since then, Marxist scholars extended Lenin's theory to be synonymous with capitalist international trade and banking. Capitalism is the Economic system in which the Means of production are owned by private Persons and operated for Profit and where Free trade is a system in which the trade of goods and services between or within countries flows unhindered by government-imposed restrictions The field of finance refers to the concepts of Time, Money and Risk and how they are interrelated ^[13]

Although Karl Marx did not publish a theory of imperialism, he identified colonialism (cf. See Colony and Colonization for examples of colonialism which do not refer to Western colonialism Das Kapital) as an aspect of the prehistory of the capitalist mode of production. In Marxian economic discourse the capitalist mode of production refers to the socio-economic base of capitalist society which began to grow rapidly in Western Europe from the Lenin's definition: "the highest stage of capitalism" addressed the time when monopoly finance capital was dominant, forcing nations and private corporations to compete to control the world's natural resources and markets.

Marxist imperialism theory, and the related dependency theory, emphasise the economic relationships among countries (and within countries), rather than formal political and military relationships. Marxism is the political philosophy and practice derived from the work of Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels. Dependency theory is a body of Social science theories both from developed and Developing nations which are predicated on the notion that resources An economy is the realized social system of production exchange distribution and consumption of goods and services of a country or other area Politics Politics is the process by which groups of people make decisions Thus, imperialism is not necessarily direct formal control of one country by another, but the economic exploitation of one by another. The term " exploitation " may carry two distinct meanings The act of utilizing something for any purpose This Marxism contrasts with the popular conception of imperialism, as directly-controlled colonial and neocolonial empires. See Colony and Colonization for examples of colonialism which do not refer to Western colonialism Neocolonialism is a term used by post-colonial critics of Developed countries ' involvement in the developing world

Per Lenin, Imperialism is Capitalism, with five simultaneous features:

(1) Concentration of production and capital led to the creation of national and multinational monopolies — not as in liberal economics, but as de facto power over their markets — while "free competition" remains the domain of local and niche markets:

Free competition is the basic feature of capitalism, and of commodity production generally; monopoly is the exact opposite of free competition, but we have seen the latter being transformed into monopoly before our eyes, creating large-scale industry and forcing out small industry, replacing large-scale by still larger-scale industry, and carrying concentration of production and capital to the point where out of it has grown and is growing monopoly: cartels, syndicates and trusts, and merging with them, the capital of a dozen or so banks, which manipulate thousands of millions. At the same time the monopolies, which have grown out of free competition, do not eliminate the latter, but exist above it and alongside it, and thereby give rise to a number of very acute, intense antagonisms, frictions and conflicts. Monopoly is the transition from capitalism to a higher system. (Ch. VII)

[Following Marx's value theory, Lenin saw monopoly capitalism limited by the law of falling profit, as the ratio of constant capital to variable capital increased. Value theory encompasses a range of approaches to understanding how why and to what degree humans should or do value things whether the thing is a person idea object or anything else Per Marx, only living labour (variable capital) creates profit in the form of surplus-value. As the ratio of surplus value to the sum of constant and variable capital falls, so does the rate of profit on invested capital. ]

(2) Finance capital replaces industrial capital (the dominant capital), (reiterating Rudolf Hilferding's point in Finance Capital), as industrial capitalists rely more upon bank-generated finance capital. Finance capitalism is a term in Marxian Political economics defined as the subordination of processes of Production to the accumulation of Money Rudolf Hilferding ( 10 August 1877 &ndash February 11, 1941) was an Austrian-born Marxist Economist, leading Socialist

(3) Finance capital exportation replaces the exportation of goods (though they continue in production);

(4) The economic division of the world, by multi-national enterprises via international cartels; and

(5) The political division of the world by the great powers, wherein exporting finance capital to their colonies allows their exploitation for resources and continued investment. This superexploitation of poor countries allows the capitalist industrial nations to keep some of their own workers content with slightly higher living standards. Superprofit (or surplus profit or extra surplus-value; in German extra-Mehrwert) is a concept in Karl Marx 's critique of political economy (cf. labor aristocracy; globalization)

Claiming to be Leninist, the U.S.S.R. proclaimed itself foremost enemy of imperialism, supporting armed, national independence or communist movements in the Third World ^[14][15] while simultaneously dominating Eastern Europe and Central Asia. " Labor aristocracy " (or " aristocracy of labor " has three meanings as a term with Marxist theoretical underpinnings as a specific type of trade Globalization (or globalisation) in its literal sense is the process of transformation of local or regional phenomena into global ones The Union of Soviet Socialist Republics (USSR was a constitutionally Socialist state that existed in Eurasia from 1922 to 1991 Anti-imperialism, strictly speaking is a term that may be applied to or movement opposed to some form of Imperialism. Third World is a name given to nations that are generally considered to be underdeveloped economically During the Cold War, the term Communist Bloc (or Soviet Bloc) was used to refer to the Soviet Union and countries it either controlled or that were Soviet Central Asia refers to the section of Central Asia formerly controlled by the Soviet Union, as well as the time period of Soviet control (1918-1991 Marxists and Maoists to the left of Trotsky, such as Tony Cliff, claim the Soviet Union was imperialist. Tony Cliff ( May 20, 1917 – May 9, 2000) was a Trotskyist Revolutionary Activist. Maoists claim it occurred after Khrushchev's ascension in 1956; Cliff says it occurred under Stalin in the 1940s (see Soviet occupations). Nikita Sergeyevich Khrushchev (April 17 1894 – September 11 1971 served as First Secretary of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union from 1953 to 1964 following Soviet occupations is a term used for Military occupations by the Soviet Union since the prelude to World War II. ^[16] Harry Magdoff's Age of Imperialism (1954) discusses Marxism and imperialism. Henry Samuel Magdoff ( August 21, 1913 – January 1, 2006) was a prominent American socialist commentator

Lenin's theory of imperialism has been critiqued by many scholars. One problem with Lenin's theory concerns the measured volumes of trade and capital flow among European capitalist societies and between European capitalist societies and poor Third World societies. European capitalist systems since the nineteenth century have always done the vast bulk of their trading among themselves, with a relative sliver of trade and capital flow going out to non-developed societies in comparison with trade and capital flow within the great European systems.

Lenin's theory also contradicts Marx's doctrine of the reserved army of the unemployed (i. e. the lumpen proletariat), which holds that capitalism, for systemic reasons, cannot generate enough capital to employ all those who want to work. Lenin failed to see the contradiction, between the claim that capitalism builds up so much capital that it must send the excess overseas to "exploit" less developed societies, and the claim that capitalism cannot generate enough capital to sustain full employment.

The aforementioned contradiction can be seen as a distortion of Marxist-Leninist Theory. It is true that Marx uncovered systematic failures inherent to capitalism such as the inability of capitalism to provide work for all people. For instance, many modern Nations have an unemployment rate significantly greater than zero. The United States is one particular example. However, Marx attributed such a failure to the dynamics of capitalist production. Capitalists, in general, own the means of production (e. g. factories) and make profit. What is important here is how the profit is re-invested into the capitalist system. Rather than pay their workers higher wages or hire a larger work force, capitalists spend a significant portion of their profits on technological development. For example, the modern assembly line relies heavily on machinery. These machines take away the jobs of human workers. At the same time, capitalists are able to churn out more products using such machinery. Capital, then, can be increased (at least for a short time). In terms of imperialism, Lenin's theory does not contradict Marx's analysis of capitalism. Both men believed in and witnessed the formation of monopolies. Both men also stressed the insatiable appetite of capitalism to search for new markets that can increase profit. Since the bottom line for monopolies is to increase profit, Lenin was right insofar as imperialism is caused by the search for new markets.

Currently, Marxists view globalization as imperialism's latest incarnation. Globalization (or globalisation) in its literal sense is the process of transformation of local or regional phenomena into global ones

See also

• John A. Hobson
• Vladimir Lenin
• Colonialism
• Neocolonialism
• New Imperialism
• Theories of New Imperialism
• Ultra-imperialism
• Cultural imperialism
• Islamic imperialism
• Scientific imperialism
• Empire
• List of empires
• The Imperial Presidency
• Feudalism
• Oil imperialism

References

Further reading

• Robert Bickers/Christian Henriot (Hg. ): New frontiers : imperialism's new communities in East Asia, 1842-1953, Manchester [u. a. ] : Manchester University Press 2000, ISBN 0-7190-5604-7
• Empire, by Michael Hardt and Toni Negri, Harvard University Press, 2000. Empire is a text written by Marxist philosophers Antonio Negri and Michael Hardt. Harvard University Press ( HUP) is a Publishing house, a division of Harvard University, that is highly respected in Academic publishing. ISBN 0-674-00671-2
• Guy Ankerl: Coexisting Contemporary Civilizations: Arabo-Muslim, Bharatai, Chinese, and Western. , Geneva, INU PRESS,

2000, ISBN2-88155-004-5.

External links

• [http://www.marxists.org/archive/hobson/1902/imperialism/index.htm

J. A Hobson, Imperialism a Study 1902]

• The Paradox of Imperialism by Hans-Hermann Hoppe. Hans-Hermann Hoppe (born September 2, 1949) is an Austrian school Economist of the anarcho-capitalist tradition and a former economics November 2006.
• Imperialism Quotations
• State, Imperialism and Capitalism by Joseph Schumpeter
• Economic Imperialism by A. J. P. Taylor
• Imperialism Entry in the Columbia Encyclopedia (Bartleby)
• The Nation-State, Core and Periphery: A Brief sketch of Imperialism in the 20th century.