Imperialism Reference library
Jeremy H. NEILL
Berkshire Encyclopedia of World History (2 ed.)
...Imperialism At its core the term imperialism is defined by power relationships and the ability of one group to assert some form of power or control over another. Historians who examine imperialism tend to study either one aspect of this power or one concrete example, such as a particular empire or the spread of a particular system. Most commonly, imperialism refers to the particular type of political organization that emerged during the nineteenth century, the “New Imperialism” by which Europe established empires in Africa, Asia, and Oceania (islands of...
Anti-Imperialism Reference library
Robert David Johnson
The Oxford Encyclopedia of the History of American Foreign Relations
...North to link imperialism with the expansion of slavery. 14 Imperialism and Anti-Imperialism in the 1850s The intersection between competing ideological conceptions of whether the United States should assume an imperial role and dueling constitutional interpretations of which branch should control the making of US foreign policy intensified during the 1850s. As occurred during the Polk administration, executive aggressiveness in advancing an imperialist agenda triggered a strong backlash from congressional anti-imperialists. Debate over imperialism peaked in...
Ecological Imperialism Reference library
Alfred W. CROSBY
Berkshire Encyclopedia of World History (2 ed.)
...Ecological Imperialism Imperialism is usually considered to be a political and sometimes an economic or religious phenomenon. But it also has an ecological side: imperialists have intentionally, more often unintentionally, and always inevitably carried with them plants, animals, and microlife from their lands of origin to their new lands. Where imperialists have been successful not simply in conquest but also in settlement, they have done so with the indispensable assistance of the life forms they brought with them. The most successful imperialists have...
Imperialism and Gender Reference library
Heather STREETS
Berkshire Encyclopedia of World History (2 ed.)
...Imperialism and Gender From the late nineteenth century until the end of World War II, all of the most powerful nations on Earth (along with others that aspired to great power) pursued the strategy of imperialism in an attempt to achieve national political and economic goals. Although imperialism was not new (Great Britain and Spain are notable examples of a countries whose pursuit of empire began centuries earlier), this period is historically unique because so many nations became involved in imperial ventures and because the territories they claimed were...
US Imperialism, 1898–1914 Reference library
Robert McGreevey
The Oxford Encyclopedia of the History of American Foreign Relations
...of the United States. Dissenting judges wrote eloquently of America’s new imperialism and the threat it posed to the republic. 13 Informal Imperialism Alongside American efforts to manage formal colonies in Puerto Rico and the Philippines, the United States also engaged in what historians call “informal” imperialism, or control over foreign territory that stopped short of establishing a complete colonial government. Whereas formal imperialism resulted in colonies, informal imperialism yielded what contemporaries termed “protectorates.” In the Dominican...
imperialism Reference library
The Oxford Essential Dictionary of the U.S. Military
... n. a policy of extending a country's power and influence through diplomacy or military force: the struggle against Western imperialism. imperialistic adj. imperialistically ...
imperialism Quick reference
A Dictionary of World History (3 ed.)
... The policy of extending a country’s influence over less powerful states. Historically imperialism has existed in all periods: Greece, Rome, Ottoman Turkey, Spain, and Britain have all extended their respective domains by imperial rule. The Industrial Revolution introduced a new form of imperialism as European countries competed throughout the world both for raw materials and for markets. In the late 19th century imperial ambitions were motivated in part by the need for commercial expansion, the desire for military glory, and diplomatic advantage....
imperialism Quick reference
World Encyclopedia
... Domination of one people or state by another. Imperialism can be economic, cultural, political or religious. From the 16th century, trading empires were set up by major European powers such as the British, Spanish, French, Portuguese and Dutch. They penetrated Africa, Asia and n America, their colonies serving as a source of raw materials and a market for manufactured goods. Imperialism often imposed alien cultures on native societies. See also ...
imperialism Quick reference
Peter Burnell
A Concise Oxford Dictionary of Politics and International Relations (4 ed.)
...intervention) and the collaboration of indigenous elites. Imperialism becomes a matter of accident as well as design. ‘Informal imperialism’ is said to render direct political control unnecessary, in the presence of other ways of exercising domination, for example through technological superiority or the free trade imperialism of a leading economic power, and cultural imperialism. Therefore, for modern neo‐Marxists, capitalism in the West has been able to survive the process of decolonization; imperialism outlives the age of territorial annexation. Economic,...
imperialism Quick reference
A Dictionary of Human Geography
...left, imperialism continues in various ways. The term ‘neo-imperialism’ is often used loosely to describe systems of economic domination, chiefly ascribed to the USA. David Harvey writes of the New Imperialism exercised by the USA after the first Iraq War in the 1990s, centred on the control of oil and pursued through economic, political, and military means. Other authors argue that the successful spread of Western and again notably US cultural and consumer products, such as Hollywood films or Coca Cola, constitute a kind of ‘cultural imperialism’. David...
imperialism Reference library
David McLellan
The Oxford Companion to Philosophy (2 ed.)
...Explanations of imperialism are as varied as theories of human nature; and several versions of imperialism, including Lenin's and dependency theory, found it difficult to incorporate recent phenomena such as the newly industrializing countries. But it remained the concept around which thinking about international relations in the twentieth century revolved. Prof. David McLellan See also international relations, philosophy of . Anthony Brewer , Marxist Theories of Imperialism: A Critical Survey (London, 1980). George Lichtheim , Imperialism (London,...
imperialism Quick reference
A Dictionary of Geography (6 ed.)
... An economic, cultural, and territorial relationship based on domination and subordination. Imperialism dominates the external trade of a subordinate nation, taking raw materials from the ‘colony’ and in return selling it finished goods, thus depressing manufacturing industry in the ‘colony’; see Zanias (2005) J. Dev. Econ. 78, 1 . It can exist without the creation of formal colonies. The imperialist gaze saw landscapes of subsistence farming as empty, despite the presence of indigenous people. Colonized spaces were ‘stripped of preceding...
imperialism Quick reference
A Dictionary of Sociology (4 ed.)
...counter-productive. It analyses imperialism as a reflection of the existence of a pre-industrial and precapitalist social stratum within the imperial countries, a landed and military aristocracy, whose atavistic ideals and social position impel them towards something that is not in the interests of modern capitalist society. Marxist and more broadly economic theories see imperialism as a necessary product of capitalist industrialization and the limits which this has reached in the more developed countries. Here, imperialism represents either the search for...
Imperialism Reference library
Pablo Gonzáles Casanova
The Oxford Companion to International Relations
... In Imperialism, the Highest Stage of Capitalism , Lenin began his discussion of imperialism by asking what he called “the main question”: “whether it is possible to reform the basis of imperialism, whether to go forward to the accentuation and deepening of the antagonisms which it engenders, or backwards toward allaying these antagonisms.” He rejected the possibility of reforming capitalism of its imperialist tendencies, insisting that imperialism is the inevitable “highest stage” of capitalism, which could only be defeated by revolution. “Imperialism,”...
Imperialism Reference library
The Oxford Companion to Politics of the World (2 ed.)
...In Imperialism, the Highest Stage of Capitalism , Lenin began his discussion of imperialism by asking what he called “the main question”: “whether it is possible to reform the basis of imperialism, whether to go forward to the accentuation and deepening of the antagonisms which it engenders, or backwards towards allaying these antagonisms.” He rejected the possibility of reforming capitalism of its imperialist tendencies, insisting that imperialism was the inevitable “highest stage” of capitalism, which could only be defeated by revolution . “Imperialism,”...
imperialism Reference library
Bernard Porter
The Oxford Companion to British History (2 ed.)
...fell short of that. ‘Economic imperialism’, for example, means the process by which an economy extends its financial control over others. missionary endeavours have been labelled ‘cultural imperialism’. Sometimes all these different kinds of British expansion in the world are lumped together as ‘informal imperialism’. It has been explained in various ways. Missionaries used to attribute Britain’s imperial successes to the will of God. ‘Social Darwinists’ thought they proved the British race was ‘fittest’ to survive. An Austrian sociologist called Joseph...
Imperialism Reference library
Warren Carter
The Oxford Encyclopedia of the Bible and Ethics
... Definitions and explanations of imperialism, and related notions of empire and colonialism, are contentious. Various explanations have been offered for the emergence and character of imperialistic actions: superior technologies, economic drives for land, markets, resources, labor, investment, and commerce, commitments to civilizing cultural and Christian proselytizing missions, affirmations of racial superiority and inferiority, and the “will to war” that manifested the atavistic character of imperialism. At heart imperialism violates the...
imperialism Quick reference
A Dictionary of Contemporary World History (6 ed.)
...imperialism The tendency to strive for control of other countries or regions as colonies or dependencies. Imperialism reached a peak in 1914 , when 79 per cent of the world's land surface was under the control of a few colonial powers (mostly European, but also states such as Japan and the USA). Even though the underlying motives of imperialism are still unclear, there are three major theories of imperialism. 1 The first notes the economic interests of European capitalists in an expansion of their markets, a view taken by many Marxists. For example, the...
Imperialism Reference library
Margarita Díaz-Andreu
The Oxford Companion To Archaeology (2 ed.)
... This article focuses on the relationship of archaeology and imperialism and an associated concept, colonialism. Imperialism is defined as “the policy or practice of extending a state’s rule over other territories.” As such, it is a millennia-long practice, but this article will center on its influence on the practice of archaeology over the last two hundred and fifty years. It is through imperialism that the principles of nationalism were propagated throughout the world. This was first apparent from the Napoleonic period and especially important from...
