imperialism

(20th century)

Economic explanation of overseas expansion of European nations.

Originally developed by the maverick British economist John Atkinson Hobson (1858-1940) and the Russian Marxist Vladimir I. Lenin (1870-1924).

Imperial expansion resulted from the exhaustion of domestic markets, industrial nations propping up their economies at the expense of those parts of the world which, through military domination, they subjected to economic exploitation.

Also see: colonialism

Source:
David Miller et al., eds, The Blackwell Encyclopaedia of Political Thought (Oxford, 1987)


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