Dictionary Definition
imperialist adj : of or relating to imperialism;
"imperialistic wars" [syn: imperialistic] n : a
believer in imperialism
User Contributed Dictionary
English
Adjective
imperialist- of, or relating to imperialism
Noun
- An advocate of imperialism.
Extensive Definition
- For the computer game, see Imperialism (computer game).
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. In its second meaning the term describes the imperialistic
attitude of superiority, subordination and dominion over foreign
people. Imperialism is often autocratic, e.g. in early
20th century Japan, and sometimes
monolithic in
character. While the term imperialism often refers to a political
or geographical domain such as the Ottoman
Empire the British
Empire, or the Russian
Empire, etc, the term can equally be applied to domains of
knowledge, beliefs, values and expertise, such as the empires of
Christianity
(see Christendom) or
Islam (see
Caliphate).
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. 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. The term 'Imperialism' was coined in the sixteenth century, reflecting the imperial policies of Portugal, Spain, Britain, France, and the Netherlands into Africa, Asia, and the Americas.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.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 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) and liberal philosopher Hannah Arendt. Since then, Marxist scholars extended Lenin's theory to be synonymous with capitalist international trade and banking.Although Karl Marx did
not publish a theory of imperialism, he identified colonialism (cf. Das Kapital)
as an aspect of the prehistory of the
capitalist mode of production. 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. Thus, imperialism is not necessarily direct formal
control of one country by another, but the economic exploitation of one by
another. This Marxism contrasts with the popular conception of
imperialism, as directly-controlled colonial and neocolonial
empires.
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. 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.
(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.
(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
while simultaneously dominating Eastern
Europe and Central
Asia. Marxists and Maoists to the left of Trotsky, such as
Tony
Cliff, claim the Soviet Union was imperialist. Maoists claim it
occurred after Khrushchev's
ascension in 1956; Cliff says it occurred under Stalin in the 1940s
(see Soviet
occupations). Harry
Magdoff's Age of Imperialism (1954) discusses Marxism and
imperialism.
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.
See also
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. ISBN 0-674-00671-2
- Guy Ankerl: Coexisting Contemporary Civilizations: Arabo-Muslim, Bharatai, Chinese, and Western., Geneva, INU PRESS,
External links
J.A
Hobson, Imperialism a Study 1902
- The Paradox of Imperialism by Hans-Hermann Hoppe. 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.
imperialist in Arabic: إمبريالية
imperialist in Aragonese: Imperialismo
imperialist in Bosnian: Imperijalizam
imperialist in Bulgarian: Империализъм
imperialist in Catalan: Imperialisme
imperialist in Czech: Imperialismus
imperialist in Welsh: Imperialaeth
imperialist in Danish: Imperialisme
imperialist in German: Imperialismus
imperialist in Modern Greek (1453-):
Ιμπεριαλισμός
imperialist in Spanish: Imperialismo
imperialist in Esperanto: Imperialismo
imperialist in Basque: Inperialismo
imperialist in Persian: امپریالیسم
imperialist in French: Impérialisme
imperialist in Galician: Imperialismo
imperialist in Korean: 제국주의
imperialist in Croatian: Imperijalizam
imperialist in Indonesian: Imperialisme
imperialist in Icelandic: Heimsvaldastefna
imperialist in Italian: Imperialismo
imperialist in Hebrew: אימפריאליזם
imperialist in Georgian: იმპერიალიზმი
imperialist in Lithuanian: Imperializmas
imperialist in Hungarian: Imperializmus
imperialist in Macedonian: Империјализам
imperialist in Malay (macrolanguage):
Imperialisme
imperialist in Dutch: Imperialisme
imperialist in Japanese: 帝国主義
imperialist in Norwegian: Imperialisme
imperialist in Norwegian Nynorsk:
Imperialisme
imperialist in Narom: Împérialisme
imperialist in Polish: Imperializm
imperialist in Portuguese: Imperialismo
imperialist in Romanian: Imperialism
imperialist in Russian: Империализм
imperialist in Sicilian: Mpirialismu
imperialist in Simple English: Imperialism
imperialist in Slovak: Imperializmus
imperialist in Slovenian: Imperializem
imperialist in Serbian: Империјализам
imperialist in Serbo-Croatian:
Imperijalizam
imperialist in Finnish: Imperialismi
imperialist in Swedish: Imperialism
imperialist in Tamil: பேரரசுவாதம்
imperialist in Thai: ลัทธิจักรวรรดินิยม
imperialist in Turkish: Emperyalizm
imperialist in Ukrainian: Імперіалізм
imperialist in Chinese: 帝国主义
Synonyms, Antonyms and Related Words
Bircher, Bourbon, Tory, conservatist, conservative, diehard, extreme right-winger,
hard hat, monarchist,
radical right, reactionarist, reactionary, reactionist, right, right wing, right-winger,
rightist, royalist, social Darwinist,
standpat, standpatter, ultraconservative