Tradition

Imperialism

Overview

Imperialism is the maintaining and extending of power over foreign nations, particularly through expansionism, employing both hard power (military and economic power) and soft power (diplomatic power and cultural imperialism). Imperialism focuses on establishing or maintaining hegemony and a more formal empire.

While related to the concept of colonialism, imperialism is a distinct concept that can apply to other forms of expansion and many forms of government.

Kenneth Waltz suggests that the root cause of imperialism is great power. He explains that "[w]here one finds empires, one notices that they are built by those who have organized themselves and exploited their resources most effectively," adding that "[w]eakness invites control; strength tempts one to exercise it, even if only for the 'good' of other people." According to Vladimir Lenin, imperialist wars are inevitable due to uneven development under capitalism.

Overview adapted from Wikipedia (CC BY-SA 4.0; see the article history for authors).

In the original texts

Passages from public-domain books where Imperialism is discussed.

And the reason is the so-called minimal programme which fashioned its policy upon the framework of the national state. When its main concern is for tariff treaties and social legislation, the proletariat is incapable of expending the same energy in fighting imperialism that it did in fighting feudalism. By applying its old methods of the class struggle--the constant adaptation to the movements of the markets--to the…
Leon Trotsky, The Bolsheviki and World Peace
names the idea; a chapter is titled for it; states what it is
Read the chapter · Open in the reader
"Imperialism," wrote Marx of the Empire of Napoleon III, "is the most prostituted, and, at the same time, perfected form of the state which the bourgeoisie, having attained its fullest development, transforms into a weapon for the enslavement of labor by capital." This definition has a wider significance than for the French Empire alone, and includes the latest form of imperialism, born of the world conflict between…
Leon Trotsky, Dictatorship vs. Democracy
names the idea; a chapter is titled for it; opens on it
Read the chapter · Open in the reader
This Assembly has hardly a year's prescription. We have their own word for it that they have made a revolution. To make a revolution is a measure which, _primâ fronte_, requires an apology. To make a revolution is to subvert the ancient state of our country; and no common reasons are called for to justify so violent a proceeding. The sense of mankind authorizes us to examine into the mode of acquiring new power, and…
Edmund Burke, The Works of the Right Honourable Edmund Burke, Vol. 03
states what it is; author linked in the graph
Read the chapter · Open in the reader
The ignorance of the people is a bottom but for a temporary system; the interest of active men in the state is a foundation perpetual and infallible.
Edmund Burke, Selections from the Speeches and Writings of Edmund Burke
author linked in the graph
Read the chapter · Open in the reader
For the sake of "their" cause, that is for the conquest of world-power, the imperialists of England and Germany have not hesitated to ruin a whole of row of nations, from Belgium and Servia to Palestine and Mesopotamia. Shall we then hesitate to act in the name of the liberation of the workers of the world from the yoke of capitalism, in the name of a general honorable peace; shall we wait until we can find a way…
Vladimir Il'ich Lenin, A Letter to American Workingmen, from the Socialist Soviet Republic of Russia
names the idea; opens on it
Read the chapter · Open in the reader

Imperialism

Overview

In the original texts

Philosophers who discussed Imperialism

Related ideas

Place in the tradition