What is Imperialism? | Understanding Lethal History and Impact!

If we look at the flow of history objectively, we will see that this flow is full of combats. These combats had various definitions for those who look at it from different perspectives. For example, if you look at history through the perspective of nations, history is a fight between nations. For those who look at it through the perspective of religion or class, this fight is a combat of religion or classes. However, no matter which way you look at history, the fact that “the powerful take advantage of the other” will not change.

Now let’s go back to the present and think about this; whenever two different groups try to mutually accuse each other, generally one of the adjectives used is imperialist. Unfortunately, even if people are unable to answer the question of “what is imperialism?” they do not refrain from using this magical (!) word.

Before moving on to the subject, it should be noted that; your ideology changes depending on the perspective from which you look at history. In other words, if history is a class struggle for you, communism, if it is a capital struggle, liberalism together with capitalism, and if it is a struggle of nations, nationalism will be the closest ideology to you. That is why it is very important to know these definitions and to place them in your mind.

Defining Imperialism: What Does It Mean?

By the way, although we will give more details below, let us point out that these two phenomena have a slight difference from each other. In this context, if we do not know the difference between these two concepts, we are likely to confuse them. As you can imagine, we will reach very wrong conclusions. After all, in order to understand the politics and trajectory of today’s world, we need to know such concepts theoretically.

In other words, while colonialism is a term that has existed since the beginning of history, imperialism is mostly the subject of the last four centuries. Essentially, while colonialism is a definition based more on geographically or soil occupation, when we say what is imperial movement we should understand a more comprehensive and dimensional system of exploitation. At this point, if we accept that history is a set of fight and combats, the words exploitation and colonialism have not lost their popularity in these fights since the 1800s. Even though there are no officially (!) traditional colonial countries in our era, this concept still maintains its currency in this new era which we also call “the modern or neo-colonial age”.

New Era of Global World!

At this stage, in terms of personal development, it is important to know political history and master basic terms. In other words, understanding the spirit of the period we are in, observing the moves of the dominant powers in international relations and foreseeing the future in this direction will add important competencies to us.

In this regard, it would be appropriate to talk about this modern colonialism which is described as neo-colonialism, in response to those who claim that imperialism is an old term that is no longer on the agenda. Additionally, although it is said that the era of wars and land occupation is over, it should be noted that the era of exploiting countries by recruiting political governments has begun.

The Origins of Imperialism: How It Began

The word which literally means “imperium” in Latin, meaning “power” and “to rule” in English. It means the stronger party taking advantage of and exploiting the weaker one in its simplest sense today. It is necessary to give attention to the words exploitation and imperialism here. Although scientists or academics claim that it does not mean the same as colonialism, for us, the ordinary people, these words are almost the same. In other words, in the prehistoric period, when a powerful group or clan developed and exploited a relatively less powerful neighbouring clan, this was colonialism. In our modern age, when a powerful country exploits another without using soldiers or weapons, this means same thing also.

It should be noted at this point that; if we leave scientific or technical discussions aside, when asked what is imperialism , our answer will be colonialism. When we go into detail, while colonialism is a definition dating back to prehistoric times, it is its much more comprehensive version of it.

If we go a little further into the history of the matter, the word imperialism was used as a complement to capitalism after it was born. To give an example to consider the existence of these concepts even in the prehistoric period, let’s take the hunter-gatherer society or the societies that have just adopted a settled life after the agricultural revolution. As the villages, groups or clans whose population increases rapidly and who know how to use weapons become stronger, it will become more difficult to feed the increasing population.

History of Colonialism

On the other hand, with the increasing population, the cultivated area will be insufficient and the community, which is becoming stronger, will want to increase its land. At this point, the relevant community will either occupy the nearest villages or obtain financial income from them in the form of taxes or tribute. When we say that the history of colonialism is as old as the history of humanity, we should bring such examples to mind.

Although some know-it-all experts say that the era of colonialism is over in the global world, the world is still a cruel place. In other words, today, just like in the past, the strong oppress the weak under different names. This historical fact has not changed and does not seem likely to change in the near future.

Capitalism Ties with Imperialism!

We will not discuss in detail the content of capitalism here which has such a deep history and importance that it will be the subject of another article. On the other hand, in order to look at what is imperialism and the modern history of colonialism, we need to talk about “capital” and its basic economic understanding. As it is known, the industrial revolution which started with the invention of steam engines in the mid-1800s, brought with it the concept of mass production. In this context, factories were rapidly opened, mainly in Western Europe, together with England, the center of the revolution, and later France. As a result of these developments, a bourgeois class and a working class emerged.

Naturally, in parallel with these developments, the industrialized countries that carried out this mass production collected the capital and money in their hands by selling these products. In other words, although the birth of capitalism is based on geographical discoveries in the 16th century, the realistic strengthening of capitalism took place with the industrial revolution. As you can see from here, capitalism and imperial movement are much intertwined concepts. If we briefly summarize this bilateral relationship; just as capitalism is defined as an economic system in which the means of production are privately owned and advocates production for the purpose of achieving maximum profit, its political system and tool is imperialists.

Moreover, capitalism which emerged as a result of the geographical discoveries made in the 16th century and the European states’ exploitation of the American continent and later Africa, started a period of traditional imperialism that lasted almost until after the Second World War. In this period they exploited poor countries with imperialist aims such as searching for new markets, accessing raw materials and cheap labour.

The Religion and Exploiters

So, when we briefly consider what imperialism is, we can say that it is the political system or an instrument of the capitalist economic system. At this point, we should point out that the Berlin Conference (1884) was a meeting held by the western states to decide how to share the native Americans and Africa among themselves.

At that time, Darwin’s views were widespread in Europe. According to these views, it was for the benefit of humanity that the white man, the superior race, exploited the Indians and Africans, who were inferior to them (!)  These imperialist powers which claimed to be conservative themselves, gave religious legitimacy to their oppression and exploitation.

Types of Imperialism: Political, Economic and Cultural

After touching upon its mutual relationship with capitalism in the context of what is imperialism , it should also be noted that colonialism varies between countries and times.

In this context, that system also has its types.

The most well-known types of imperialism are:

• Traditional imperialism: It is a type of imperial movement based on land conquest and occupation of other countries which is better known as colonialism and does not exist much today. What happened to Native Americans and the natives of the African continent after geographical discoveries could be given as examples of this type.
• Cultural imperialism: It refers to the efforts of countries such as the USA, France and England to spread their lifestyles by imposing on other countries or by encouraging them through advertisements. The most well-known examples are fast food eating culture and foreign TV series.
• Commercial imperialism: Strong and capitalist countries sell the technological products they produce to countries with relatively weak economies due to their competitive advantage. Sales of branded mobile phones or technological products to relatively less developed countries can be given as examples. On the other hand, exploiting other countries’ natural resources by using them is also an example of commercial and traditional imperial movement.
• Linguistic imperialism: Linguistic imperialism which is a cultural thing, is sometimes could be accepted as a type in itself. An example of this is as hegemonic languages such as English or French over time by giving many words to the national languages of other countries to degenerate them. When we consider the importance of national languages in the national identities of countries, we understand the power of language imperial movement. This concept can explain the fact that there are so many people in the African continent who speak French today, even though it is geographically very distant.

Historical Examples of Imperialism: Colonization

It is very obvious that Colonialism which dates back to the 16th century and later became imperialism, continues in our age by changing its form. Considering that world and human history is a history of fight and wars, it would not surprise us that imperial actions continues in the modern age as modern slavery or colonialism. Of course, the big countries that rule the world will claim that the era of exploitation is over, citing valuable concepts such as human rights and information society. On the other hand, let’s look objectively at the order and system that continues in the world in the modern era.

Be sure; we see that, under the name of globalism, the great powers that want to create a uniform type of people still continue to exploit developing countries with abundant natural resources and cheap labour. Moreover, we witness that this is achieved by using technology and security words to bring the politicians to power who work for them. Producing the most expensive phones in one country, preventing competitors from China by putting pressure on software companies or invading countries with major natural resources are different types of imperialist practices of the modern age.

In this context, it is clear that in the modern age, imperialism and colonialism continue at full speed. In line with these facts, the responsibility of developing countries is to rise to the level of developed countries by taking steps towards technological development, especially in education.