Imperialism
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And so, without forgetting the conditional and relative value of all definitions in general, which can never embrace all the concatenations of a phenomenon in its complete development, we must give a definition of imperialism that will include the following five of its basic features: 1) the concentration of production and capital has developed to such a high stage that it has created monopolies which play a decisive role in economic life; 2) the merging of bank capital with industrial capital, and the creation, on the basis of this ‘finance capital,’ of a financial oligarchy; 3) the export of capital as distinguished from the export of commodities acquires exceptional importance; 4) the formation of international monopolist capitalist combines which share the world among themselves, and 5) the territorial division of the whole world among the biggest capitalist powers is completed. Imperialism is capitalism in the stage of development in which the dominance of monopolies and finance capital has established itself; in which the export of capital has acquired pronounced importance; in which the division of the world among the international trusts has begun; in which the division of all territories of the globe among the biggest capitalist powers has been completed.” —Vladimir Lenin, Imperialism, the Highest Stage of Capitalism: A Popular Outline
Imperialism, also known as capitalist imperialism or advanced monopoly capitalism, is the ultimate stage of the capitalist mode of production which involves the centralization and merging of large bourgeois entities, the creation of a financial oligarchy, and the exportation of capital to other, less developed countries. Imperialism results in massive conflicts and strife between rival imperialist powers as they fight to divide and re-divide the imperialized countries among themselves. Imperialism itself takes on different forms based on the ebbs and flows of the capitalist system, including neo-colonalism. Imperialism conducted by revisionist states is known as social-imperialism. The most prominent imperialist powers in the present day include the United States, the European Union, United Kingdom, Russia, and China.[1]