Till the eighties, only the left political parties raised slogans against imperialism. With the fall of the USSR and the unipolar world, all those theories and slogans that were arduous to understand became a stark reality. Today right-wing and status-co parties are raising similar slogans
Imperialism is the state policy, practice, or advocacy of extending power and dominion, especially by direct territorial acquisition or by gaining political and economic control of other areas, often through employing hard power, especially military force, but also soft power.
Hannah Arendt and Joseph Schumpeter defined imperialism as an expansion for the sake of expansion. Robert Young writes that imperialism is a state policy and is developed for ideological as well as financial reasons, it is simply development for settlement or commercial intentions.
The Soviet leader Vladimir Lenin suggested that imperialism was the highest form of capitalism, claiming that imperialism developed after colonialism, and was distinguished from colonialism by monopoly capitalism
Lenin portrayed Imperialism as the closure of the world market and the end of capitalist free competition that arose from the need for capitalist economies to constantly expand investment, material resources, and manpower in such a way that necessitated colonial expansion. Later Marxist theoreticians echo this conception of imperialism as a structural feature of capitalism, which explained the World Wars as the battle between imperialists for control of external markets.
Political Theories
Imperialism is simply a manifestation of the balance of power and is the process by which nations try to achieve a favorable change in the status quo. We have to consider, not what we want now, but what we shall want in the future. We have to consider what countries must be developed either by ourselves or some other nation
Conservative Theories
Imperialism is necessary to preserve the existing social order in more developed countries. It is necessary to secure trade and markets, maintain employment and capital exports, and channel the metropolitan population’s energies and social conflicts into foreign countries. This body of thought has a very strong ideological and racial assumption of Western superiority
Liberal Theories
Imperialism is a policy choice, not an inevitable consequence of capitalism. Increasing concentration of wealth within the richer countries leads to under-consumption for the mass of people. Overseas expansion is a way to reduce costs, increase or maintain profit levels, and secure new consumption.
Marxist Theories
Imperialism arises because the increased concentration of wealth leads to consumption However since the state represents the capitalist interest it is not possible to reduce under-consumption effectively through liberal strategies. Both strategies involve taking away money from the bourgeoisie and Marx and Lenin did not view this strategy as possible. Ultimately, according to Lenin, the world would be completely divided up and the rich countries would then fight over the division of the world. This analysis served as his explanation for World War I.
Social-Psychological Theories
Imperialism is objectless expansion, a pattern simply learned from other nations’ behavior and institutionalized into a state’s domestic political processes by a “warrior” class. This warrior class is created because of the need for defense, but, over time, the class will manufacture reasons to perpetuate its existence, usually through the manipulation of crises.
Most commonly this alliance is referred to as a “military-industrial complex” a phrase coined by US President Eisenhower in his Farewell Address to the American people
Is imperialism bad
Lenin said the First World War 1914–1918 was an annexationist, predatory, plunderous war among empires, whose historical and economic background must be studied to understand and appraise modern war and modern politics
In colonizing undeveloped countries, businesses and governments will engage in geopolitical conflict over the exploitation notion of labor of most of the population of the world. Therefore, imperialism is the highest advanced stage of capitalism, requiring monopolies to exploit labor and natural resources, and the exportation of finance capital, rather than manufactured goods, to sustain colonialism, which is an integral function of imperialism.
Imperialism affected societies in countless negative ways.
It led to the slave trade which then led to social discrimination around the world. It damaged the cultures and created disunity among the natives. Imperialism stripped countries of their natural resources and left nothing for the natives. It should be noted that the developed world benefits directly from the cheap labor of the developing world, where a majority of people earn between $1-$2 per day for their work.
Many conflicts in the 20th century are based on the imposition of imperialistic tendencies and a local rebellion against them. Even the United States became a nation because it rebelled against imperialism in the 18th century.
The United States focused on imperialism after World War II for some time, especially in the South Pacific. There is a network of about 800 military facilities around the world that support these efforts. The cost to U.S. taxpayers for this defensive network is more than $600 billion annually.
Numerous ethnic groups have become extinct over the centuries because of the actions of imperialism. The Guanche living on the Canary Islands, the Taino of the West Indies, and even the Aborigines in Tasmania were all victimized because the needs of the strong were perceived to be more important than their own cultural needs
Smallpox is believed to have arrived in the Americas in 1520 on a Spanish ship. As soon as the party landed in Mexico, the infection began its deadly voyage through the continent. Christopher Columbus enslaved the Native Americans and didn’t help the kind Natives when they got infected by diseases that the Spaniards had brought to America and killed off most of the Native American population. The tactics he chose to use were violent and destructive by the standards back then and now.
Berlin Conference 1884-1885 where Europeans met up to divide Africa and its resources. When Portugal went into Africa they enslaved a total of 12 million people. Of these fourteen nations at the Berlin Conference, France, Germany, Great Britain, and Portugal were the major players
British extended their power by taking control over India. Utsa Patnaik, in her article in Columbia University Press in 2018 categorically refuted British moral assertions. She concluded that Britain plundered almost $45 trillion from India between 1765 and o1938, based on nearly two centuries of precise tax and trade data. This amount is almost 17 times the current combined GDP of Britain and India.
Some countries may develop slower than others, but that doesn’t automatically mean they require assistance.
Mark Twain, once said, “It should, it seems to me, be our pleasure and duty to make those people free, and let them deal with their domestic questions in their way.”
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