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InternationalRelations-PSC
201
VU
LESSON
14
COLONIALISM,NEO-COLONIALISM
& IMPERIALISM
What
is Imperialism?
Imperialism
is the process of extending the rule of government beyond the
boundaries of its
originalstate.
Imperialismestablishes
a relationship, formal or informal, in
which one stateuses direct
military or
economicmeans,
to control the politicalsovereignty of
another politicalentity.
Imperialism
therefore implies the policy of extending the control
or authority over foreign entities as
a
means
of acquisition and/or maintenance of
empires, either through direct control of
territories or through
indirectmethods
of exerting control on the politics or
economies of othercountries.
The term is used by
some
to describe the policy of a country in
maintaining colonies and
dominanceover distant
lands,
regardless
of whether the country calls itself an
empire.
Imperialists
normally hold the beliefthat
the acquisition and maintenance of
empires is a positive good,
combined
with an assumption of cultural or
othersuch superiority inherent to
imperial power. However,
imperialismhas
often been considered to be an
exploitive evil.
Marxisitsuse
the term imperialismas
Lenin defined it:
"thehighest stage of
capitalism",specifically the era
in
whichmonopoly
finance capitalbecomes
dominant, forcing the empires to
compete
amongstthemselves
increasinglyfor
control over resourcesand
markets all over the world.
This control maytake the
form of
geopolitical
machinations, military adventures, or
financial maneuvers.
It
is worth noting that Marx
himself did not propound a
theory of imperialism, and in
contrast with later
Marxist
thinkers generally saw the colonialism of European
powers as having a progressive aspect,
rather
than
seeing it as the pillage of
thosecountries in favor of the European
centrecountries.
DistinguishingColonialism
fromImperialism
Many
writers have used the terms colonialism
and imperialism interchangeably, as if
there is little difference
betweenthese
two phenomena. Yet an
important difference between the
twophenomena is the presence
of
a
significant number of settlers from the
colonizing power in the colonized
state.
Whereassettlement
may be the mostimportant
feature of colonialism, it is generally
acknowledgedthat
colonialism
involves much more than the
immigration of people from one region to
another one.
According
to Michael Doyle, colonialism is one of
the possible outcomes of
imperialism,achieved either by
force,
by political collaboration, by
economic,social or cultural
dependence.
Objectives
of Imperialism
·
EconomicGain:
to
secure raw materials, or
gain access to trade routes
or to the sea
·
NationalPrestige:
imperialism
is often portrayed as `manifest destiny' or
intrinsic superiority
·
Military
or Defense Needs: to
gain control over
strategicareas
·
SurplusPopulation:
over-populatedstates
can find reliefthrough
migration to colonies
·
`WhileMan's
Burden': obligation
to civilize savages
·
Marxist-Leninist
View: imperialism
compelled by control
marketsfor surplus
productionand
investment,
Communists were imperialist
too
Examples
of Imperialism
US
Imperialism: under the guise of the
MonroeDoctrine (1823) the US
exertedcontrol over Latin
America
under
the guise of protecting interference of the European
powers in the affairs of independent
states of
the
New World.
Russian
Imperialism: initially the imperialistic
urgewas confined to contiguous
territories but with advent of
the
Cold War, Russianimperialism
spread to the Asian, Africanand
South American continents, filling
in
the
vacuum left by the decreasing influence
of colonial European powers.
Japanese
Imperialism: as Japan industrialized
andbecame increasingly
militarizedprior to WWII, it
annexed
parts
of Korea and China. Thereafter
Japanese imperialistic influence
hasprimarily
beeneconomic.
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InternationalRelations-PSC
201
VU
SuggestedReadings
Studentsare
advised to read the following
chapters to develop a better understanding of the
various
principals
highlighted in this hand-out:
Chapter
14 in `"A Study of International
Relations" by Dr.
SultanKhan.
Internet
Resources
In
addition to reading from the
textbook, please visit the
following web-pages for this
lecture, which
provideuseful
and interesting information:
Imperialism
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Imperialism