Editing Imperialism

{{Short description|Extension of rule over foreign nations}}
{{Other uses}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=October 2023}}
[[File:Punch Rhodes Colossus.png|thumb|[[The Rhodes Colossus|Illustration]] representing [[Cecil Rhodes]]' plan of [[Cape to Cairo Railway|building railways across Africa]], connecting [[Cape Town]] and [[Cairo]], aimed at extending the [[British Empire]]<ref>[[S. Gertrude Millin]], ''Rhodes'', London: 1933, p. 138</ref>]]

'''Imperialism''' is the maintaining and extending of [[Power (international relations)|power]] over foreign nations, particularly through [[expansionism]], employing both [[hard power]] (military and economic power) and [[soft power]] ([[diplomatic power]] and [[cultural imperialism]]). Imperialism focuses on establishing or maintaining [[hegemony]] and a more or less formal [[empire]].<ref name="Britannica">{{cite web | url=https://www.britannica.com/topic/imperialism | title=Imperialism |access-date=2023-03-20 |website=www.britannica.com |language=en |quote=state policy, practice, or advocacy of extending power and dominion, especially by direct territorial acquisition or by gaining political and economic control of other areas. Because it always involves the use of power, whether military or economic or some subtler form, imperialism has often been considered morally reprehensible, and the term is frequently employed in international propaganda to denounce and discredit an opponent's foreign policy.}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web |title=imperialism |url=https://www.dictionary.com/browse/imperialism |access-date=22 February 2019 |quote=... the policy of extending the rule or authority of an empire or nation over foreign countries, or of acquiring and holding colonies and dependencies ...}}</ref><ref name="Ashcroft Griffiths Tiffin Ashcroft 2007 p.">{{cite book | last1=Ashcroft | first1=Bill | last2=Griffiths | first2=Gareth | last3=Tiffin | first3=Helen | last4=Ashcroft | first4=Bill | title=Post-colonial studies : the key concepts | publisher=Routledge | publication-place=London | date=2007 | isbn=978-0-203-93347-3 | oclc=244320058 | page=111 | quote=In its most general sense, imperialism refers to the formation of an empire, and, as such, has been an aspect of all periods of history in which one nation has extended its domination over one or several neighbouring nations.}}</ref> 

While related to the concept of [[colonialism]], imperialism is a distinct concept that can apply to other forms of expansion and many forms of government.<ref>{{Cite web |date=2023-07-04 |title=Imperialism {{!}} Definition, History, Examples, & Facts {{!}} Britannica |url=https://www.britannica.com/topic/imperialism |access-date=2023-08-25 |website=Britannica.com |language=en}}</ref>

== Etymology and usage ==
The word ''imperialism'' was derived from the Latin word {{lang|la|[[imperium]]}},<ref>{{Cite dictionary |first=Charlton T. |last=Lewis |title=Charlton T. Lewis, an Elementary Latin Dictionary, imperium (Inp-) |dictionary=An Elementary Latin Dictionary |entry=imperium (inp-) |url=https://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=Perseus%3Atext%3A1999.04.0060%3Aentry%3Dimperium |access-date=11 September 2016 |publisher=Tufts University}}</ref> which means 'to command', 'to be [[sovereign]]', or simply 'to rule'.<ref>Howe, 13</ref> It was coined in the 19th century to decry [[Napoleon III]]'s despotic militarism and his attempts at obtaining political support through foreign military interventions.<ref name="Magnusson">{{Cite book |last=Magnusson |first=Lars |title=Teorier om imperialism |year=1991 |isbn=978-91-550-3830-4 |page=19 |publisher=Tidens Förl. |language=sv}}</ref><ref>Steinmetz, George, (2014). "Empires, Imperial States, and Colonial Societies," ''Concise Encyclopedia of Comparative Sociology'', ed. Sasaki, Masamichi, (Leiden & Boston: Brill), p 59, http://www-personal.umich.edu/~geostein/docs/Steinmetz%202014%20Empires%20imperial%20states%20and%20colonies.pdf</ref> The term became common in the current sense in Great Britain during the 1870s; by the 1880s it was used with a positive connotation.<ref>Kumar, Krishan (2017). ''Visions of Empire: How Five Imperial Regimes Shaped the World'', (New Jersey: Princeton University Press), p 16, EISBN 978-1-4008-8491-9 https://assets.press.princeton.edu/chapters/s10967.pdf</ref> By the end of the 19th century, the term was used to describe the behavior of empires at all times and places.<ref>Sasaki 2014, p 59.</ref> [[Hannah Arendt]] and [[Joseph Schumpeter]] defined imperialism as expansion for the sake of expansion.<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Knorr |first=Klaus |date=1952 |editor-last=Schumpeter |editor-first=Joseph A. |editor2-last=Arendt |editor2-first=Hannah |title=Theories of Imperialism |journal=World Politics |volume=4 |issue=3 |pages=402–431 |doi=10.2307/2009130 |jstor=2009130 |s2cid=145320143 |issn=0043-8871}}</ref>

"Imperialism" was and is mainly used to refer to Western and Japanese political and economic dominance, especially in Asia and Africa, [[New Imperialism|in the 19th and 20th centuries]]. Its precise meaning continues to be debated by scholars. Some writers, such as [[Edward Said]], use the term more broadly to describe any system of domination and subordination organized around an imperial [[Core countries|core]] and a [[Periphery countries|periphery]].<ref name="Edward Said 1994. P. 9">Edward W. Said. Culture and Imperialism. Vintage Publishers, 1994. p. 9.</ref> This definition encompasses both nominal empires and [[neocolonialism]].

==Versus colonialism==
[[File:Colonisation 1800.png|thumb|upright=1.35|Imperial powers in 1800<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Clapp |first=C H |date=1912 |title=Southern Vancouver Island |series=Canada. Geological Survey. Memoirno. 13 |publisher=Ottawa |doi=10.4095/100487 |hdl-access=free |hdl=2027/nyp.33433090753066}}</ref>]]
[[File:Colonialism in 1945 updated legend.png|thumb|upright=1.35|Imperial powers in 1945]]
The term "imperialism" is often conflated with "[[colonialism]]"; however, many scholars have argued that each has its own distinct definition. Imperialism and colonialism have been used in order to describe one's influence upon a person or group of people. [[Robert J. C. Young|Robert Young]] writes that imperialism operates from the centre as a state policy and is developed for ideological as well as financial reasons, while colonialism is simply the development for settlement or commercial intentions; however, colonialism still includes invasion.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Young |first=Robert |title=Empire, colony, postcolony |year=2015 |isbn=978-1-4051-9355-9 |page=54 |publisher=John Wiley & Sons |oclc=907133189}}</ref> Colonialism in modern usage also tends to imply a degree of geographic separation between the colony and the imperial power. Particularly, Edward Said distinguishes between imperialism and colonialism by stating: "imperialism involved 'the practice, the theory and the attitudes of a dominating metropolitan center ruling a distant territory', while colonialism refers to the 'implanting of settlements on a distant territory.'<ref name=Gilmartin2009/> Contiguous land empires such as the Russian, Chinese or Ottoman have traditionally been excluded from discussions of colonialism, though this is beginning to change, since it is accepted that they also sent populations into the territories they ruled.<ref name="Gilmartin2009">{{Cite book |last=Gilmartin |first=Mary |title=Key Concepts in Political Geography |year=2009 |isbn=9781412946728 |editor-last=Gallaher |editor-first=Carolyn |pages=115–123 |chapter=Colonialism/Imperialism |doi=10.4135/9781446279496.n13 |editor-last2=Dahlman |editor-first2=Carl |editor-last3=Gilmartin |editor-first3=Mary |editor-last4=Mountz |editor-first4=Alison |editor-last5=Shirlow |editor-first5=Peter |chapter-url=https://books.google.com/books?id=XpBJclVnVdQC&pg=PA115}}</ref>{{Rp|116}}

Imperialism and colonialism both dictate the political and economic advantage over a land and the indigenous populations they control, yet scholars sometimes find it difficult to illustrate the difference between the two.<ref name="Painter & Jeffrey">{{Cite book |last1=Painter |first1=Joe |title=Political Geography |last2=Jeffrey |first2=Alex |year=2009 |isbn=978-1-4462-4435-7 |edition=2nd}}</ref>{{Rp|107}} Although imperialism and colonialism focus on the suppression of ''another'', if colonialism refers to the process of a country taking physical control of another, imperialism refers to the political and monetary dominance, either formally or informally. Colonialism is seen to be the architect deciding how to start dominating areas and then imperialism can be seen as creating the idea behind conquest cooperating with colonialism. Colonialism is when the imperial nation begins a conquest over an area and then eventually is able to rule over the areas the previous nation had controlled. Colonialism's core meaning is the exploitation of the valuable assets and supplies of the nation that was conquered and the conquering nation then gaining the benefits from the spoils of the war.<ref name="Painter & Jeffrey"/>{{Rp|170–75}} The meaning of imperialism is to create an empire, by conquering the other state's lands and therefore increasing its own dominance. Colonialism is the builder and preserver of the colonial possessions in an area by a population coming from a foreign region.<ref name="Painter & Jeffrey"/>{{Rp|173–76}} Colonialism can completely change the existing social structure, physical structure, and economics of an area; it is not unusual that the characteristics of the conquering peoples are inherited by the conquered indigenous populations.<ref name="Painter & Jeffrey"/>{{Rp|41}} Few colonies remain remote from their mother country. Thus, most will eventually establish a separate nationality or remain under complete control of their mother colony.<ref>{{Cite web |title=Imperialism: A Study – Online Library of Liberty |url=http://oll.libertyfund.org/titles/hobson-imperialism-a-study}}</ref>

The Soviet leader [[Vladimir Lenin]] suggested that "imperialism was the highest form of capitalism", claiming that "imperialism developed after colonialism, and was distinguished from colonialism by monopoly capitalism".<ref name=Gilmartin2009/>{{Rp|116}}

==Age of Imperialism==
{{redirect|Imperial Age|the symphonic metal band|Imperial Age (band)}}
{{Main|International relations (1648–1814)|International relations (1814–1919)|New Imperialism}}
The Age of Imperialism, a time period beginning around 1760, saw European industrializing nations, engaging in the process of colonizing, influencing, and annexing other parts of the world.<ref>{{cite web| url = https://archive.org/search.php?query=atlas%20world%20history%20haywood| title = John Haywood, ''Atlas of world history'' (1997)}}</ref> 19th century episodes included the "[[Scramble for Africa]]."<ref>See Stephen Howe, ed., ''The New Imperial Histories Reader'' (2009) [https://h-net.org/reviews/showrev.php?id=32358 online review].</ref>

[[File:Africa map 1914.svg|thumb|upright=1.3|[[Scramble for Africa|Africa]], divided into colonies under multiple European empires, {{Circa|1914}} {{Legend|#ffcc00|Belgium}}{{Legend|#ba8ed9|France}}{{Legend|#0000ff|Germany}}{{Legend|#99ff55|Italy}}{{Legend|#008000|Portugal}}{{Legend|#ffe502|Spain}}{{Legend|#ffb5b7|United Kingdom}}]]
In the 1970s British historians [[John Andrew Gallagher|John Gallagher]] (1919–1980) and [[Ronald Robinson]] (1920–1999) argued that European leaders rejected the notion that "imperialism" required formal, legal control by one government over a colonial region. Much more important was informal control of independent areas.<ref>R.E. Robinson and John Gallagher, '' Africa and the Victorians: The official mind of imperialism'' (1966).</ref> According to Wm. Roger Louis, "In their view, historians have been mesmerized by formal empire and maps of the world with regions colored red. The bulk of British emigration, trade, and capital went to areas outside the formal British Empire. Key to their thinking is the idea of empire 'informally if possible and formally if necessary.'"<ref>Wm. Roger Louis, ''Imperialism'' (1976) p. 4.</ref> Oron Hale says that Gallagher and Robinson looked at the British involvement in Africa where they "found few capitalists, less capital, and not much pressure from the alleged traditional promoters of colonial expansion. Cabinet decisions to annex or not to annex were made, usually on the basis of political or geopolitical considerations."<ref name="Hale">{{Cite book |last=Hale |first=Oron J. |title=The great illusion: 1900–14 |publisher=Harper & Row |year=1971}}</ref>{{Rp|6}}

Looking at the main empires from 1875 to 1914, there was a mixed record in terms of profitability. At first, planners expected that colonies would provide an excellent captive market for manufactured items. Apart from the Indian subcontinent, this was seldom true. By the 1890s, imperialists saw the economic benefit primarily in the production of inexpensive raw materials to feed the domestic manufacturing sector. Overall, Great Britain did very well in terms of profits from India, especially [[Mughal Bengal]], but not from most of the rest of its empire. According to Indian Economist [[Utsa Patnaik]], the scale of the wealth transfer out of India, between 1765 and 1938, was an estimated $45 Trillion.<ref>{{Cite book| edition = 1st| publisher = Columbia University Press| isbn = 9788193732915| others = Utsa Patnaik, Arindam Banerjee, C. P. Chandrasekhar (eds.)| title = Dispossession deprivation and development: essays for Utsa Patnaik| location = New York, NY| date = 2018}}</ref> The Netherlands did very well in the East Indies. Germany and Italy got very little trade or raw materials from their empires. France did slightly better. The Belgian Congo was notoriously profitable when it was a capitalistic rubber plantation owned and operated by King Leopold II as a private enterprise. However, scandal after scandal regarding [[atrocities in the Congo Free State]] led the international community to force the government of Belgium to take it over in 1908, and it became much less profitable. The Philippines cost the United States much more than expected because of military action against rebels.<ref name="Hale"/>{{Rp|7–10}}

Because of the resources made available by imperialism, the world's economy grew significantly and became much more interconnected in the decades before World War I, making the many imperial powers rich and prosperous.<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Christopher |first=A.J. |year=1985 |title=Patterns of British Overseas Investment in Land |journal=Transactions of the Institute of British Geographers |series=New Series |volume=10 |issue=4 |pages=452–66 |doi=10.2307/621891 |jstor=621891|issn=0020-2754 }}<!--|access-date= November 14, 2012--></ref>

Europe's expansion into territorial imperialism was largely focused on economic growth by collecting resources from colonies, in combination with assuming political control by military and political means. The colonization of India in the mid-18th century offers an example of this focus: there, the "British exploited the political weakness of the [[Mughal Empire|Mughal]] state, and, while military activity was important at various times, the economic and administrative incorporation of local elites was also of crucial significance" for the establishment of control over the subcontinent's resources, markets, and manpower.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Joe Painter |url=https://archive.org/details/politicsgeograph00pain |title=Politics, Geography and Political Geography: A Critical Perspective |year=1995 |isbn=978-0-470-23544-7 |page=[https://archive.org/details/politicsgeograph00pain/page/114 114] |publisher=E. Arnold |url-access=registration}}</ref> Although a substantial number of colonies had been designed to provide economic profit and to ship resources to home ports in the 17th and 18th centuries, D. K. Fieldhouse suggests that in the 19th and 20th centuries in places such as Africa and Asia, this idea is not necessarily valid:<ref>D. K. Fieldhouse, “'Imperialism': An Historiographical Revision.” ''Economic History Review'' 14#2 1961, pp. 187–209 [https://www.jstor.org/stable/2593218 online]</ref>

{{Blockquote|
Modern empires were not artificially constructed economic machines. The second expansion of Europe was a complex historical process in which political, social and emotional forces in Europe and on the periphery were more influential than calculated imperialism. Individual colonies might serve an economic purpose; collectively no empire had any definable function, economic or otherwise. Empires represented only a particular phase in the ever-changing relationship of Europe with the rest of the world: analogies with industrial systems or investment in real estate were simply misleading.<ref name="Painter & Jeffrey"/>{{Rp|184}}
}}

During this time, European merchants had the ability to "roam the high seas and appropriate surpluses from around the world (sometimes peaceably, sometimes violently) and to concentrate them in Europe".<ref>David Harvey, ''Spaces of Global Capitalism: A Theory of Uneven Geographical Development'' (Verso, 2006) p. 91</ref>

[[File: British ships in Canton.jpg|thumb|British assault on [[Guangzhou|Canton]] during the [[First Opium War]], May 1841]]

European expansion greatly accelerated in the 19th century. To obtain raw materials, Europe expanded imports from other countries and from the colonies. European industrialists sought raw materials such as dyes, cotton, vegetable oils, and metal ores from overseas. Concurrently, industrialization was quickly making Europe the centre of manufacturing and economic growth, driving resource needs.<ref name="Adas 2008 54-58">{{Cite book |last1=Adas |first1=Michael |title=Turbulent Passage A Global History of the Twentieth Century |first2=Peter N. |last2=Stearns |year=2008 |isbn=978-0-205-64571-8 |edition=4th |pages=54–58|publisher=Pearson/Longman }}</ref>

Communication became much more advanced during European expansion. With the invention of railroads and telegraphs, it became easier to communicate with other countries and to extend the administrative control of a home nation over its colonies. Steam railroads and steam-driven ocean shipping made possible the fast, cheap transport of massive amounts of goods to and from colonies.<ref name="Adas 2008 54-58"/>

Along with advancements in communication, Europe also continued to advance in military technology. European chemists made new explosives that made artillery much more deadly. By the 1880s, the machine gun had become a reliable battlefield weapon. This technology gave European armies an advantage over their opponents, as armies in less-developed countries were still fighting with arrows, swords, and leather shields (e.g. the Zulus in Southern Africa during the [[Anglo-Zulu War]] of 1879).<ref name="Adas 2008 54-58"/> Some exceptions of armies that managed to get nearly on par with the European expeditions and standards include the Ethiopian armies at the [[Battle of Adwa]], and the Japanese [[Imperial Army of Japan]], but these still relied heavily on weapons imported from Europe and often on European military advisors.

[[File:Victor Gillam A Thing Well Begun Is Half Done 1899 Cornell CUL PJM 1136 01.jpg|upright=1|thumb|This cartoon reflects the view of [[Judge (magazine)|Judge magazine]] regarding [[American imperialism|America's imperial ambitions]] following McKinley's quick victory in the [[Spanish–American War]] of 1898.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://digital.library.cornell.edu/catalog/ss:3293822|title=A Thing Well Begun Is Half Done|work=Persuasive Maps: PJ Mode Collection|publisher=Cornell University}}</ref>]]

==Theories of imperialism==
{{Main|Theories of imperialism}}
Anglophone academic studies often base their theories regarding imperialism on the British experience of Empire. The term ''imperialism'' was originally introduced into English in its present sense in the late 1870s by opponents of the allegedly aggressive and ostentatious imperial policies of British Prime Minister [[Benjamin Disraeli]]. Supporters of "imperialism" such as [[Joseph Chamberlain]] quickly appropriated the concept. For some, imperialism designated a policy of idealism and philanthropy; others alleged that it was characterized by political self-interest, and a growing number associated it with capitalist greed.

Historians and political theorists have long debated the correlation between capitalism, class, and imperialism. Much of the debate was pioneered by such theorists as [[J. A. Hobson|John A. Hobson]] (1858–1940), [[Joseph Schumpeter]] (1883–1950), [[Thorstein Veblen]] (1857–1929), and [[Norman Angell]] (1872–1967). While these non-Marxist writers were at their most prolific before World War I, they remained active in the [[Interwar period|interwar years]]. Their combined work informed the study of imperialism and its impact on Europe, as well as contributing to reflections on the rise of the military-political complex in the United States from the 1950s. 

In ''[[Imperialism (Hobson book)|Imperialism: A Study]]'' (1902), Hobson developed a highly influential interpretation of imperialism that expanded on his belief that free-enterprise capitalism had a harmful effect on the majority of the population. In ''Imperialism'' he argued that the financing of overseas empires drained money that was needed at home. It was invested abroad because lower wages paid to workers overseas made for higher profits and higher rates of return, compared to domestic wages. So, although domestic wages remained higher, they did not grow nearly as fast as they might otherwise have. Exporting capital, he concluded, put a lid on the growth of domestic wages and the domestic standard of living. Hobson theorized that domestic social reforms could cure the international disease of imperialism by removing its economic foundation, while state intervention through taxation could boost broader consumption, create wealth, and encourage a peaceful, tolerant, multipolar world order.<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Cain |first=P. J. |year=2007 |title=Capitalism, Aristocracy and Empire: Some 'Classical' Theories of Imperialism Revisited |journal=The Journal of Imperial and Commonwealth History |volume=35 |pages=25–47 |doi=10.1080/03086530601143388 |s2cid=159660602}}</ref><ref>{{Cite journal |last=Peatling |first=G. K. |year=2004 |title=Globalism, Hegemonism and British Power: J. A. Hobson and Alfred Zimmern Reconsidered |journal=History |volume=89 |issue=295 |pages=381–398 |doi=10.1111/j.1468-229X.2004.00305.x}}</ref> 

By the 1970s, historians such as [[David Fieldhouse|David K. Fieldhouse]]<ref name="Fieldhouse1961">{{Cite journal |last=Fieldhouse |first=D. K. |year=1961 |title='Imperialism': An Historiographical Revision |journal=The Economic History Review |volume=14 |issue=2 |pages=187–209 |doi=10.1111/j.1468-0289.1961.tb00045.x |jstor=2593218}}</ref> and Oron Hale could argue that "the Hobsonian foundation has been almost completely demolished."<ref name="Hale"/>{{Rp|5–6}} It was not businessmen and bankers but politicians who went with the stream of the masses. The modern imperialism was primarily a political product caused by the national mass hysteria rather than by the much-abused capitalists.<ref>[[Wolfgang Mommsen| Mommsen, Wolfgang]] (1982). ''Theories of Imperialism'', (tr. Falla, P. S. Chicago: University of Chicago Press), p 72, https://archive.org/details/theoriesofimperi0000momm/page/72/mode/2up?view=theater</ref> The British experience failed to support it. Similarly, American Historian [[David Landes]] claims that businessmen were less enthusiastic about colonialism than statesmen and adventurers.<ref>[[Wolfgang Mommsen| Mommsen, Wolfgang]] (1982). ''Theories of Imperialism'', (tr. Falla, P. S. Chicago: University of Chicago Press), p 79, https://archive.org/details/theoriesofimperi0000momm/page/78/mode/2up?view=theater</ref>

However, European Marxists picked up Hobson's ideas wholeheartedly and made it into their own theory of imperialism, most notably in [[Vladimir Lenin]]'s ''[[Imperialism, the Highest Stage of Capitalism]]'' (1916). Lenin portrayed [[Theory of Imperialism|imperialism as the closure of the world market and the end of capitalist free-competition]] that arose from the need for capitalist economies to constantly expand investment, material resources and manpower in such a way that necessitated colonial expansion. Later Marxist theoreticians echo this conception of imperialism as a structural feature of capitalism, which explained the World War as the battle between imperialists for control of external markets. Lenin's treatise became a standard textbook that flourished until the collapse of communism in 1989–91.<ref>Tony Brewer, ''Marxist theories of imperialism: a critical survey'' (2002)</ref>

[[File: Roubaud. Russian troops entering Tiflis in 1799.JPG|thumb|''Entrance of the Russian troops in Tiflis, 26 November 1799'', by [[Franz Roubaud]], 1886]]
[[File:CaptureOfLang-Son.jpg|thumb|The capture of [[Lạng Sơn]] during the [[French conquest of Vietnam]] in 1885]]
Some theoreticians on the non-Communist left have emphasized the structural or systemic character of "imperialism". Such writers have expanded the period associated with the term so that it now designates neither a policy, nor a short space of decades in the late 19th century, but a world system extending over a period of centuries, often going back to [[Colonization]] and, in some accounts, to the [[Crusades]]. As the application of the term has expanded, its meaning has shifted along five distinct but often parallel axes: the moral, the economic, the systemic, the cultural, and the temporal. Those changes reflect—among other shifts in sensibility—a growing unease, even great distaste, with the pervasiveness of such power, specifically, Western power.<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Proudman |first=Mark F. |year=2008 |title=Words for Scholars: The Semantics of "Imperialism" |journal=Journal of the Historical Society |volume=8 |issue=3 |pages=395–433 |doi=10.1111/j.1540-5923.2008.00252.x}}</ref><ref name=Fieldhouse1961/>

[[Walter Rodney]], in his 1972 [[How Europe Underdeveloped Africa]], proposes the idea that imperialism is a phase of capitalism "in which Western European capitalist countries, the US, and Japan established political, economic, military and cultural hegemony over other parts of the world which were initially at a lower level and therefore could not resist domination."<ref name=":4"/> As a result, Imperialism "for many years embraced the whole world – one part being the exploiters and the other the exploited, one part being dominated and the other acting as overlords, one part making policy and the other being dependent."<ref name=":4">{{Cite book |last=Walter. |first=Rodney |title=How Europe underdeveloped Africa. |date=1972 |publisher=Howard University Press |isbn=978-0-9501546-4-0 |oclc=589558}}</ref>

Imperialism has also been identified in newer phenomena like [[space colonization#Colonialism|space development]] and its governing context.<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Alan Marshall |date=February 1995 |title=Development and imperialism in space |url=https://www.researchgate.net/publication/222641231 |journal=Space Policy |volume=11 |issue=1 |pages=41–52 |bibcode=1995SpPol..11...41M |doi=10.1016/0265-9646(95)93233-B |access-date=2020-06-28}}</ref>

==Justification and issues==
===Orientalism and imaginative geography===
[[File:Antoine-Jean Gros - Bonaparte visitant les pestiférés de Jaffa.jpg|thumb|[[Bonaparte Visiting the Plague Victims of Jaffa|''Napoleon visiting the plague victims of Jaffa'']], by [[Antoine-Jean Gros]]]]
Imperial control, territorial and [[Cultural imperialism|cultural]], is justified through [[discourse]]s about the imperialists' understanding of different spaces.<ref name="Hubbard, P. 2010 p. 239">Hubbard, P., & Kitchin, R. Eds. ''Key Thinkers on Space and Place'', 2nd. Ed. Los Angeles, Calif:Sage Publications. 2010. p. 239.</ref> Conceptually, [[imagined geographies]] explain the limitations of the imperialist understanding of the societies of the different spaces inhabited by the non–European Other.<ref name="Hubbard, P. 2010 p. 239"/>

In ''[[Orientalism (book)|Orientalism]]'' (1978), [[Edward Said]] said that the West developed the concept of [[The Orient]]—an imagined geography of the [[Eastern world]]—which functions as an [[Essentialism|essentializing]] discourse that represents neither the ethnic diversity nor the social reality of the Eastern world.<ref>Sharp, J. (2008). Geographies of Postcolonialism. Los Angeles:London:Sage Publications. pp. 16, 17.</ref> That by reducing the East into cultural essences, the imperial discourse uses place-based identities to create [[Difference (philosophy)|cultural difference]] and psychologic distance between "We, the West" and "They, the East" and between "Here, in the West" and "There, in the East".<ref name="Said, Edward 1979 p.357">Said, Edward. "Imaginative Geography and its Representations: Orientalizing the Oriental", ''Orientalism''. New York:Vintage. p. 357.</ref>

That cultural differentiation was especially noticeable in the books and paintings of early [[Oriental studies]], the European examinations of the Orient, which misrepresented the East as irrational and backward, the opposite of the rational and progressive West.<ref name="Hubbard, P. 2010 p. 239"/><ref>Sharp, J. ''Geographies of Postcolonialism''. Los Angeles: London: Sage Publications. 2008. p. 22.</ref> Defining the East as a negative vision of the Western world, as its inferior, not only increased the sense-of-self of the West, but also was a way of ordering the East, and making it known to the West, so that it could be dominated and controlled.<ref>Sharp, J. (2008). Geographies of Postcolonialism. Los Angeles:London: Sage Publications. p. 18.</ref><ref>Said, Edward.(1979) "Imaginative Geography and its Representations: Orientalizing the Oriental", ''Orientalism''. New York: Vintage. p. 361</ref> Therefore, Orientalism was the ideological justification of early Western imperialism—a body of knowledge and ideas that rationalized social, cultural, political, and economic control of other, non-white peoples.<ref name="Said, Edward 1979 p.357"/><ref name=Gilmartin2009/>{{Rp|116}}

===Cartography===
{{See also|Cartographic propaganda}}
[[File:Arthur Mees Flags of A Free Empire 1910 Cornell CUL PJM 1167 01.jpg|thumbnail|By displaying oversized flags of [[British possessions]], this map artificially increases the apparent influence and presence of the [[British Empire]].]]
One of the main tools used by imperialists was cartography. [[Cartography]] is "the art, science and technology of making maps"<ref name="Harley, J.B. 1989">{{Cite journal |last=Harley |first=J. B. |year=1989 |title=Deconstructing the Map |url=http://www.comitepp.sp.gov.br/MESTRADO/files/Texto%2001%20-%20Harley%20A.pdf |journal=Cartographica: The International Journal for Geographic Information and Geovisualization |volume=26 |issue=2 |pages=1–20 |doi=10.3138/E635-7827-1757-9T53 |s2cid=145766679}} p. 2</ref> but this definition is problematic. It implies that maps are objective representations of the world when in reality they serve very political means.<ref name="Harley, J.B. 1989"/> For Harley, maps serve as an example of [[Michel Foucault|Foucault's]] [[Power (social and political)|power]] and [[knowledge]] concept.

To better illustrate this idea, Bassett focuses his analysis of the role of 19th-century maps during the "[[Scramble for Africa]]".<ref name="Bassett, Thomas J. 1994">{{Cite journal |last=Bassett |first=Thomas J. |year=1994 |title=Cartography and Empire Building in Nineteenth-Century West Africa |journal=Geographical Review |volume=84 |issue=3 |pages=316–335 |doi=10.2307/215456 |jstor=215456 |bibcode=1994GeoRv..84..316B |s2cid=161167051}} p. 316</ref> He states that maps "contributed to empire by promoting, assisting, and legitimizing the extension of French and British power into West Africa".<ref name="Bassett, Thomas J. 1994"/> During his analysis of 19th-century cartographic techniques, he highlights the use of blank space to denote unknown or unexplored territory.<ref name="Bassett, Thomas J. 1994"/> This provided incentives for imperial and colonial powers to obtain "information to fill in blank spaces on contemporary maps".<ref name="Bassett, Thomas J. 1994"/>

Although cartographic processes advanced through imperialism, further analysis of their progress reveals many biases linked to [[eurocentrism]]. According to Bassett, "[n]ineteenth-century explorers commonly requested Africans to sketch maps of unknown areas on the ground. Many of those maps were highly regarded for their accuracy"<ref name="Bassett, Thomas J. 1994"/> but were not printed in Europe unless Europeans verified them.

===Expansionism===
[[File:Siege of Belgrade (Nándorfehérvár) 1456.jpg|thumb|upright=0.75|[[Ottoman wars in Europe]]]]
Imperialism in pre-modern times was common in the form of [[expansionism]] through [[vassalage]] and [[conquest]].{{citation needed|reason=dubious|date=November 2021}}

===Cultural imperialism===
The concept of [[cultural imperialism]] refers to the cultural influence of one dominant culture over others, i.e. a form of [[soft power]], which changes the moral, cultural, and societal [[worldview]] of the subordinate culture. This means more than just "foreign" music, television or film becoming popular with young people; rather that a populace changes its own expectations of life, desiring for their own country to become more like the foreign country depicted. For example, depictions of opulent American lifestyles in the soap opera [[Dallas (TV series)#Dallas and the Cold War|''Dallas'' during the Cold War]] changed the expectations of Romanians; a more recent example is the influence of smuggled South Korean drama-series in [[North Korea]]. The importance of soft power is not lost on authoritarian regimes, which may oppose such influence with bans on foreign popular culture, control of the internet and of unauthorized satellite dishes, etc. Nor is such a usage of culture recent – as part of Roman imperialism, local elites would be exposed to the benefits and luxuries of Roman culture and lifestyle, with the aim that they would then become willing participants.

Imperialism has been subject to moral or immoral censure by its critics{{Which|date=December 2014}}, and thus the term "imperialism" is frequently used in international propaganda as a pejorative for expansionist and aggressive foreign policy.<ref name="IESS">"Imperialism." ''International Encyclopedia of the Social Sciences'', 2nd edition.</ref>

=== Religious imperialism===
Aspects of imperialism motivated by [[Supremacism#Religious|religious supremacism]] can be described as religious imperialism.<ref name="c737">{{cite journal | last=Cramer | first=Frederick H. | title=The Arab Empire: A Religious Imperialism | journal=Current History | publisher=University of California Press | volume=22 | issue=130 | year=1952 | issn=0011-3530 | jstor=45308160 | pages=340–347 | doi=10.1525/curh.1952.22.130.340 | url=http://www.jstor.org/stable/45308160 | access-date=6 October 2024}}</ref>

=== Psychological imperialism ===
An empire [[mindset|mentality]] may build on and bolster views contrasting "primitive" and "advanced" peoples and cultures, thus justifying and encouraging imperialist practices among participants.<ref>
For example:
{{cite book
 |last1                = Linstrum
 |first1               = Erik
 |date                 = 2016-04-01
 |chapter              = The Laboratory in the Field: Inventing Imperial Psychology
 |title                = Ruling Minds: Psychology in the British Empire
 |url                  = https://books.google.com/books?id=BCtUCwAAQBAJ
 |location             = Cambridge, Massachusetts
 |publisher            = Harvard University Press
 |page                 = 36
 |isbn                 = 9780674088665
 |access-date          = 30 September 2022
 |quote                = As late as 1935, a district officer in Northern Rhodesia asserted that 'the idea of the western mind, that can conceive of an individual personality having an independent existence ... is still beyond the scope of savage mentality.'
}} 
</ref>
Associated psychological tropes include the [[White Man's Burden]] and the idea of [[civilizing mission]] ({{langx |fr| mission civilatrice}}).

===Social imperialism===
The political concept [[social imperialism]] is a Marxist expression first used in the early 20th century by [[Vladimir Lenin|Lenin]] as "socialist in words, imperialist in deeds" describing the [[Fabian Society]] and other socialist organizations.<ref>{{cite book
 |last=Lenin
 |first=Vladimir
 |author-link=Vladimir Lenin
 |date=1987
 |title=Essential Works of Lenin
 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=Qk_A74ZnjNMC
 |location=Mineola, New York
 |publisher=Dover Publications
 |page= 254
 |isbn=9780486253336
}}</ref>
Later, in a split with the [[Soviet Union]], [[Mao Zedong]] criticized its leaders as social imperialists.<ref>''Chambers Dictionary of World History'', B.P.Lenman, T. Anderson, Editors, Chambers: Edinburgh. 2000. p. 769.</ref>

===Social Darvinism===
[[File:China imperialism cartoon.jpg|upright|thumb|A French [[political cartoon]] depicting a shocked [[Mandarin (bureaucrat)|mandarin]] in [[Manchu people|Manchu]] robe in the back, with [[Queen Victoria]] ([[British Empire]]), [[Wilhelm II of Germany|Wilhelm II]] ([[German Empire]]), [[Nicholas II of Russia|Nicholas II]] ([[Russian Empire]]), [[Marianne]] ([[French Third Republic]]), and a [[samurai]] ([[Empire of Japan]]) stabbing into a [[king cake]] with {{Lang|fr|Chine}} ("China" in French) written on it. A portrayal of New Imperialism and its effects on [[Qing Empire|China]].]]

Stephen Howe has summarized his view on the beneficial effects of the colonial empires:

{{Blockquote|At least some of the great modern empires—the British, French, Austro-Hungarian, Russian, and even the Ottoman—have virtues that have been too readily forgotten. They provided stability, security, and legal order for their subjects. They constrained, and at their best, tried to transcend, the potentially savage ethnic or religious antagonisms among the peoples. And the aristocracies which ruled most of them were often far more liberal, humane, and cosmopolitan than their supposedly ever more democratic successors.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Stephen Howe |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=04lJ4TshmxcC&pg=PT164 |title=Empire: A Very Short Introduction |year=2002 |isbn=978-0-19-160444-7 |page=164| publisher=OUP Oxford }}</ref><ref>{{Cite book |last=Krishan Kumar |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=iupuDQAAQBAJ |title=Visions of Empire: How Five Imperial Regimes Shaped the World |year=2017 |isbn=978-1-4008-8491-9 |page=4| publisher=Princeton University Press }}</ref>}}

A controversial aspect of imperialism is the defense and justification of empire-building based on seemingly rational grounds. In [[ancient China]], [[Tianxia]] denoted the lands, space, and area divinely appointed to the Emperor by universal and well-defined principles of order. The center of this land was directly apportioned to the Imperial court, forming the center of a world view that centered on the Imperial court and went concentrically outward to major and minor officials and then the common citizens, [[tributary states]], and finally ending with the fringe "[[barbarians]]". Tianxia's idea of hierarchy gave Chinese a privileged position and was justified through the promise of order and peace.

The purportedly scientific nature of "[[Social Darwinism]]" and a theory of races formed a supposedly rational justification for imperialism. Under this doctrine, the French politician [[Jules Ferry]] could declare in 1883 that "Superior races have a right, because they have a duty. They have the duty to civilize the inferior races."<ref>{{Cite book |title=Modern Imperialism |publisher=D.C. Heath |year=1969 |editor-last=Austen |editor-first=Ralph |location=Lexington, Massachusetts |pages=70–73}}</ref> [[J. A. Hobson]] identifies this justification on general grounds as: "It is desirable that the earth should be peopled, governed, and developed, as far as possible, by the races which can do this work best, i.e. by the races of highest 'social efficiency'".<ref>Hobson, J.A. ''Imperialism: A Study.'' Cosimo, Inc., 2005. p. 154, https://archive.org/details/in.ernet.dli.2015.121968/page/n183/mode/2up?view=theater</ref> The [[Royal Geographical Society|Royal Geographical Society of London]] and other geographical societies in Europe had great influence and were able to fund travelers who would come back with tales of their discoveries. These societies also served as a space for travellers to share these stories.<ref name=Gilmartin2009/>{{Rp|117}} Political geographers such as [[Friedrich Ratzel]] of Germany and [[Halford Mackinder]] of Britain also supported imperialism.<ref name=Gilmartin2009/>{{Rp|117}} Ratzel believed expansion was necessary for a state's survival and this argument dominated the discipline of [[geopolitics]] for decades.<ref name=Gilmartin2009/>{{Rp|117}} British imperialism in some sparsely-inhabited regions applied a principle now termed [[Terra nullius]] (Latin expression which stems from [[Roman law]] meaning 'no man's land'). The British settlement in Australia in the 18th century was arguably premised on ''terra nullius'', as its settlers considered it unused by its original inhabitants. The rhetoric of colonizers being racially superior appears still to have its impact. For example, throughout Latin America "whiteness" is still prized today and various forms of [[blanqueamiento]] (whitening) are common.

Imperial peripheries benefited from [[economic efficiency]] improved through the building of roads, other infrastructure and introduction of new technologies. [[Herbert Lüthy]] notes that ex-colonial peoples themselves show no desire to undo the basic effects of this process. Hence moral self-criticism in respect of the colonial past is out of place.<ref>[[Wolfgang Mommsen| Mommsen, Wolfgang]] (1982). ''Theories of Imperialism'', (tr. Falla, P. S. Chicago: University of Chicago Press), p 76-77, https://archive.org/details/theoriesofimperi0000momm/page/76/mode/2up?view=theater</ref>

===Environmental determinism===
The concept of [[environmental determinism]] served as a moral justification for the domination of certain territories and peoples. The environmental determinist school of thought held that the environment in which certain people lived determined those persons' behaviours; and thus validated their domination. Some geographic scholars under colonizing empires divided the world into [[climate zone|climatic zones]]. These scholars believed that Northern Europe and the Mid-Atlantic [[temperate climate]] produced a hard-working, moral, and upstanding human being. In contrast, tropical climates allegedly yielded lazy attitudes, sexual promiscuity, exotic culture, and moral degeneracy. The tropical peoples were believed to be "less civilized" and in need of European guidance,<ref name=Gilmartin2009/>{{Rp|117}} therefore justifying colonial control as a [[civilizing mission]]. For instance, American geographer [[Ellen Churchill Semple]] argued that even though human beings originated in the tropics they were only able to become fully human in the [[Temperate climate|temperate]] zone.<ref name="Arnold2000">{{Cite journal |last=Arnold |first=David |year=2000 |title="Illusory Riches": Representations of the Tropical World, 1840–1950 |journal=Singapore Journal of Tropical Geography |volume=21 |issue=1 |pages=6–18 |doi=10.1111/1467-9493.00060|bibcode=2000SJTG...21....6A }}</ref>{{Rp|11}} Across the three major waves of [[European colonialism]] (the first in the Americas, the second in Asia and the last in Africa), [[environmental determinism]] served to place categorically indigenous people in a racial hierarchy. Tropicality can be paralleled with Edward Said's [[Orientalism]] as the west's construction of the east as the "other".<ref name=Arnold2000/>{{Rp|7}} According to Said, orientalism allowed Europe to establish itself as the superior and the norm, which justified its dominance over the essentialized Orient.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Mountz |first=Alison |title=Key Concepts in Political Geography |year=2009 |isbn=9781412946728 |editor-last=Gallaher |editor-first=Carolyn |pages=328–338 |chapter=The other |doi=10.4135/9781446279496.n35 |editor-last2=Dahlman |editor-first2=Carl |editor-last3=Gilmartin |editor-first3=Mary |editor-last4=Mountz |editor-first4=Alison |editor-last5=Shirlow |editor-first5=Peter |chapter-url=https://books.google.com/books?id=XpBJclVnVdQC&pg=PA328}}</ref>{{Rp|329}} Orientalism is a view of a people based on their geographical location.<ref>Compare: {{Harvard citation no brackets|Gilmartin|2009}}, "...&nbsp;the practice of colonialism was legitimized by geographical theories such as environmental determinism."</ref>

==Western imperialism by country==
[[File:Modern Empires - en.svg|thumb|upright=1.2|Diachronic map of the main empires of the modern era (1492–1945)]]
{{See also|Western world}}
===Rome===
{{Main|Roman Empire}}
{{Expand section|date=April 2021}}
[[Image:Roman Empire Map.png|thumb|250px|Provinces of the [[Roman Empire]] around 117 AD]]
The Roman Empire was the post-[[Roman Republic|Republican]] period of [[ancient Rome]]. As a polity, it included large territorial holdings around the [[Mediterranean Sea]] in Europe, North Africa, and Western Asia, ruled by [[Roman emperor|emperors]].

===Belgium===
{{Main|Belgian Empire}}
{{Expand section|date=April 2020}}

=== United Kingdom ===
{{Main|Historiography of the British Empire|British Empire}}
[[File:Henry Singleton - The Last Effort and Fall of Tippoo Sultan - WGA21457.jpg|thumb|''[[The Last Effort and Fall of Tippoo Sultaun]]'' by [[Henry Singleton (painter)|Henry Singleton]], c.1800. [[Tipu Sultan|Tipu]], [[Kingdom of Mysore|Sultan of Mysore]], an ally of [[Napoleone Bonaparte]], confronted [[Presidency armies|British East India Company forces]] at the [[Siege of Seringapatam (1799)|Siege of Srirangapatna]], where he was killed.]]
[[File:Resa del bacino del Brandewater.jpg|thumb|The result of the [[Boer Wars]] was the annexation of the [[Boer Republics]] to the British Empire in 1902.]]

==== England ====

England's imperialist ambitions can be seen as early as the 16th century as the [[Tudor conquest of Ireland]] began in the 1530s. In 1599 the British [[East India Company]] was established and was chartered by Queen Elizabeth in the following year.<ref name="Painter & Jeffrey"/>{{Rp|174}} With the establishment of trading posts in India, the British were able to maintain strength relative to other empires such as the Portuguese who already had set up trading posts in India.<ref name="Painter & Jeffrey"/>{{Rp|174}}

==== Scotland ====

Between 1621 and 1699, the [[Kingdom of Scotland]] authorised [[Scottish colonization of the Americas|several colonies in the Americas]]. Most of these colonies were either closed down or collapsed quickly for various reasons.

==== United Kingdom ====

Under the [[Acts of Union 1707]], the English and Scottish kingdoms were merged, and their colonies collectively became subject to [[Kingdom of Great Britain|Great Britain]] (also known as the United Kingdom). The empire Great Britain would go on to found was the largest empire that the world has ever seen both in terms of landmass and population. Its power, both military and economic, remained unmatched for a few decades.

In 1767, the [[Anglo-Mysore Wars]] and other political activity caused exploitation of the East India Company causing the plundering of the local economy, almost bringing the company into bankruptcy.<ref name="ReferenceC">"British Empire" British Empire | historical state, United Kingdom | Encyclopædia Britannica Online</ref> By the year 1670 Britain's imperialist ambitions were well off as she had colonies in Virginia, Massachusetts, Bermuda, [[Honduras]], [[Antigua]], [[Barbados]], [[Jamaica]] and [[Nova Scotia]].<ref name="ReferenceC"/>
Due to the vast imperialist ambitions of European countries, Britain had several clashes with France. This competition was evident in the colonization of what is now known as Canada. [[John Cabot]] claimed Newfoundland for the British while the French established colonies along the St. Lawrence River and claiming it as "New France".<ref>{{Cite web |title=New France (1608–1763) |url=http://www.canadiana.ca/citm/themes/pioneers/pioneers3_e.html |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20141008091712/http://www.canadiana.ca/citm/themes/pioneers/pioneers3_e.html |archive-date=October 8, 2014 |access-date=February 3, 2015 |website=Canada in the Making}}</ref> Britain continued to expand by colonizing countries such as New Zealand and Australia, both of which were not empty land as they had their own locals and cultures.<ref name="Painter & Jeffrey"/>{{Rp|175}} Britain's nationalistic movements were evident with the creation of the commonwealth countries where there was a shared nature of national identity.<ref name="Painter & Jeffrey"/>{{Rp|147}}

Following the [[proto-industrialization]], the "First" [[British Empire#"First" British Empire (1707–1783)|British Empire]] was based on [[mercantilism]], and involved colonies and holdings primarily in North America, the Caribbean, and India. Its growth was reversed by the loss of the American colonies in 1776. Britain made compensating gains in India, Australia, and in constructing an informal economic empire through control of trade and finance in Latin America after the independence of Spanish and Portuguese colonies in about 1820.<ref>Piers Brendon, ''The Decline and Fall of the British Empire, 1781–1997'' (2008) p. 61</ref> By the 1840s, the United Kingdom had adopted a highly successful policy of [[Economic history of the United Kingdom#19th century|free trade]] that gave it dominance in the trade of much of the world.<ref>Lawrence James, ''The Rise and Fall of the British Empire'' (1997) pp. 169–83</ref> After losing its first Empire to the Americans, Britain then turned its attention towards Asia, Africa, and the Pacific. Following the defeat of Napoleonic France in 1815, the United Kingdom enjoyed a century of almost unchallenged dominance and expanded its imperial holdings around the globe. [[Royal Navy#1815–1914|Unchallenged at sea]], British dominance was later described as ''[[Pax Britannica]]'' ("British Peace"), a period of relative peace in Europe and the world (1815–1914) during which the British Empire became the global [[hegemon]] and adopted the role of global policeman. However, this peace was mostly a perceived one from Europe, and the period was still an almost uninterrupted series of colonial wars and disputes. The [[British Raj|British Conquest of India]], its intervention against [[Mehemet Ali]], the [[Anglo-Burmese Wars]], the [[Crimean War]], the [[Opium Wars]] and the [[Scramble for Africa]] to name the most notable conflicts mobilised ample military means to press Britain's lead in the global conquest Europe led across the century.<ref>{{Cite book |last1=Johnston |first1=Douglas M. |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=dVuwCQAAQBAJ&pg=PA508 |title=The Historical Foundations of World Order |last2=Reisman |first2=W. Michael |date=2008 |isbn=978-9047423935 |pages=508–510|publisher=BRILL }}</ref><ref name="ReferenceB">[[#refOHBEv3|Porter]], p.&nbsp;332.</ref><ref>Sondhaus, L. (2004). ''Navies in Modern World History''. London: Reaktion Books. p. 9. {{ISBN|1-86189-202-0}}.</ref><ref>{{Cite book |last=Porter |first=Andrew |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=oo3F2X8IDeEC |title=The Nineteenth Century, The Oxford History of the British Empire Volume III |year=1998 |isbn=978-0-19-924678-6 |page=332 |publisher=Oxford University Press |ref=refOHBEv3}}</ref>

In the early 19th century, the [[Industrial Revolution]] began to transform Britain; by the time of [[the Great Exhibition]] in 1851 the country was described as the "workshop of the world".<ref>{{Cite magazine |title=The Workshop of the World |url=https://www.bbc.co.uk/history/british/victorians/workshop_of_the_world_01.shtml |magazine=BBC History |access-date=28 April 2013}}</ref> The British Empire expanded to include [[British Raj|India]], large [[British Empire#Cape to Cairo|parts of Africa]] and many other territories throughout the world. Alongside the formal control it exerted over its own colonies, British dominance of much of world trade meant that it effectively [[Informal Empire|controlled the economies of many regions]], such as Asia and Latin America.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Porter |first=Andrew |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=oo3F2X8IDeEC |title=The Nineteenth Century, The Oxford History of the British Empire Volume III |year=1998 |isbn=978-0-19-924678-6 |page=8 |publisher=Oxford University Press |ref=refOHBEv3}}</ref><ref>{{Cite book |last=Marshall |first=P.J. |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=S2EXN8JTwAEC |title=The Cambridge Illustrated History of the British Empire |year=1996 |isbn=978-0-521-00254-7 |pages=156–57 |publisher=Cambridge University Press |ref=refMarshall}}</ref> Domestically, political attitudes favoured free trade and laissez-faire policies and a gradual widening of the voting franchise. During this century, the population increased at a dramatic rate, accompanied by rapid urbanisation, causing significant social and economic stresses.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Tompson |first=Richard S. |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=H5kcJqmXk2oC&pg=PA63 |title=Great Britain: a reference guide from the Renaissance to the present |year=2003 |isbn=978-0-8160-4474-0 |page=63|publisher=Infobase }}</ref> To seek new markets and sources of raw materials, the [[Conservative Party (UK)|Conservative Party]] under [[Disraeli]] launched a period of imperialist expansion in Egypt, South Africa, and elsewhere. Canada, Australia, and New Zealand became self-governing dominions.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Hosch, William L. |title=World War I: People, Politics, and Power |year=2009 |isbn=978-1-61530-048-8 |series=America at War |page=21}}</ref><ref>James, ''The Rise and Fall of the British Empire'' (1997) pp. 307–18</ref>
[[File:British Empire 1921.png|thumb|upright=1.5|Map of the British Empire at its territorial peak in 1921]]
A resurgence came in the late 19th century with the [[Scramble for Africa]] and major additions in Asia and the Middle East. The British spirit of imperialism was expressed by [[Joseph Chamberlain]] and [[Archibald Primrose, 5th Earl of Rosebery|Lord Rosebury]], and implemented in Africa by [[Cecil Rhodes]]. The pseudo-sciences of Social Darwinism and theories of race formed an ideological underpinning and legitimation during this time. Other influential spokesmen included [[Evelyn Baring, 1st Earl of Cromer|Lord Cromer]], [[George Curzon, 1st Marquess Curzon of Kedleston|Lord Curzon]], [[Herbert Kitchener, 1st Earl Kitchener|General Kitchener]], [[Alfred Milner, 1st Viscount Milner|Lord Milner]], and the writer [[Rudyard Kipling]].<ref>William L. Langer, ''The Diplomacy of Imperialism: 1890–1902'' (2nd ed. 1950) pp. 67–100</ref> After the [[First Boer War]], the [[South African Republic]] and [[Orange Free State]] were recognised by the United Kingdom but eventually re-annexed after the [[Second Boer War]]. But British power was fading, as the reunited [[Germany|German state founded by the Kingdom of Prussia]] posed a growing threat to Britain's dominance. As of 1913, the United Kingdom was the world's fourth economy, behind the U.S., Russia and Germany.

[[Irish War of Independence]] in 1919–1921 led to the сreation of the Irish Free State. But the United Kingdom gained control of former German and Ottoman colonies with the [[League of Nations mandate]]. The United Kingdom now had a practically continuous line of controlled territories from Egypt to Burma and another one from Cairo to Cape Town. However, this period was also one of emergence of independence movements based on nationalism and new experiences the colonists had gained in the war.

[[World War II]] decisively weakened Britain's position in the world, especially financially. [[Decolonization]] movements arose nearly everywhere in the Empire, resulting in [[Indian independence movement|Indian independence and partition]] in 1947, the self-governing dominions break away from the empire in 1949, and the establishment of independent states in the 1950s. British imperialism showed its frailty in Egypt during the [[Suez Crisis]] in 1956. However, with the United States and Soviet Union emerging from World War II as the sole superpowers, Britain's role as a worldwide power declined significantly and rapidly.<ref>{{Cite web |last=Darwin |first=John |title=Britain, the Commonwealth and the End of Empire |url=https://www.bbc.co.uk/history/british/modern/endofempire_overview_01.shtml |access-date=13 April 2017 |publisher=BBC}}</ref>

=== Canada ===
In Canada, the "imperialism" (and the related term "colonialism") has had a variety of contradictory meanings since the 19th century. In the late 19th and early 20th, to be an "imperialist" meant thinking of Canada as a part of the [[British national identity|British nation]] not a separate nation.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Berger |first=Carl |title=The Sense of Power: Studies in the Ideas of Canadian Imperialism, 1867–1914 |year=1970 |pages=passim |author-link=Carl Berger (historian)}}</ref> The older words for the same concepts were "[[loyalism]]" or "[[Unionism in the United Kingdom|unionism]]", which continued to be used as well. In mid-twentieth century Canada, the words "imperialism" and "colonialism" were used in English Canadian discourse to instead portray [[Victim mentality|Canada as a victim]] of [[Americanization|economic and cultural penetration by the United States]].<ref>{{Cite book |last=Granatstein |first=J. L. |title=Yankee Go Home?: Canadians and anti-Americanism |publisher=[[HarperCollins]] |year=1996 |pages=passim |author-link=J. L. Granatstein}}</ref> In twentieth century French-Canadian discourse the "imperialists" were all the [[Anglosphere|Anglo-Saxon countries]] including Canada who were oppressing [[Francophone Canadians|French-speakers]] and the [[Quebec|province of Quebec]]. By the early 21st century, "colonialism" was used to highlight supposed [[Anti-indigenous racism in Canada|anti-indigenous]] attitudes and actions of Canada inherited from the British period.

===Denmark===
{{Main|Danish overseas colonies}}
[[Denmark–Norway]] ([[Denmark]] after 1814) possessed overseas colonies from 1536 until 1953. At its apex there were colonies on four continents: Europe, North America, Africa and Asia. In the 17th century, following territorial losses on the [[Scandinavian Peninsula]], Denmark-Norway began to develop colonies, forts, and trading posts in West Africa, the [[Caribbean]], and the [[Indian subcontinent]]. [[Christian IV of Denmark|Christian IV]] first initiated the policy of expanding Denmark-Norway's overseas trade, as part of the [[mercantilist]] wave that was sweeping Europe. Denmark-Norway's first colony was established at [[Tranquebar]] on India's southern coast in 1620. Admiral [[Ove Gjedde]] led the expedition that established the colony. After 1814, when Norway was ceded to Sweden, Denmark retained what remained of Norway's [[Greater Norway|great medieval colonial holdings]]. One by one the smaller colonies were lost or sold. Tranquebar was sold to the British in 1845. The United States purchased the [[Danish West Indies]] in 1917. Iceland became independent in 1944. Today, the only remaining vestiges are two originally Norwegian colonies that are currently within the [[Danish Realm]], the [[Faroe Islands]] and [[Greenland]]; the Faroes were a Danish county until 1948, while Greenland's colonial status ceased in 1953. They are now autonomous territories.<ref>Prem Poddar and Lars Jensen, eds., ''A historical companion to postcolonial literatures'' (Edinburgh UP, 2008), "Denmark and its colonies" pp 58–105.
</ref>

===France===
{{Main|French colonial empire}}
[[File:French Empire 17th century-20th century.png|thumb|upright=1.5|Map of the first (light blue) and second (dark blue) French colonial empires]]
During the 16th century, the [[French colonization of the Americas]] began with the creation of [[New France]]. It was followed by [[French West India Company|French East India Company]]'s trading posts in Africa and Asia in the 17th century. France had its "First colonial empire" from 1534 until 1814, including [[New France]] ([[Canada (New France)|Canada]], [[Acadia]], [[Newfoundland]] and [[Louisiana (New France)|Louisiana]]), [[French West Indies]] ([[Saint-Domingue]], Guadeloupe, [[Martinique]]), [[French Guiana]], [[Senegal]] ([[Gorée]]), [[Mascarene Islands]] ([[Mauritius Island]], Réunion) and [[French India]].

Its "Second colonial empire" began with the seizure of [[Algiers]] in 1830 and came for the most part to an end with the granting of independence to [[Algeria]] in 1962.<ref>Robert Aldrich, ''Greater France: A History of French Overseas Expansion'' (1996)</ref> The French imperial history was marked by numerous wars, large and small, and also by significant help to France itself from the colonials in the world wars.<ref>Anthony Clayton, ''The Wars of French Decolonization'' (1995)</ref> France took control of Algeria in 1830 but began in earnest to rebuild its worldwide empire after 1850, concentrating chiefly in North and West Africa ([[French North Africa]], [[French West Africa]], [[French Equatorial Africa]]), as well as South-East Asia ([[French Indochina]]), with other conquests in the South Pacific ([[New Caledonia]], [[French Polynesia]]). France also twice attempted to make Mexico a colony in 1838–39 and in 1861–67 (see [[Pastry War]] and [[Second French intervention in Mexico]]).

[[File:LaGuerreAMadagascar.jpg|thumb|upright=1|French poster about the "[[Franco-Hova Wars|Madagascar War]]"]]

French Republicans, at first hostile to empire, only became supportive when Germany started to build her own colonial empire. As it developed, the new empire took on roles of trade with France, supplying raw materials and purchasing manufactured items, as well as lending prestige to the motherland and spreading French civilization and language as well as Catholicism. It also provided crucial manpower in both World Wars.<ref>[[Winfried Baumgart]], ''Imperialism: The Idea and Reality of British and French Colonial Expansion, 1880–1914'' (1982)</ref> It became a moral justification to lift the world up to French standards by bringing Christianity and French culture. In 1884 the leading exponent of colonialism, [[Jules Ferry]] declared France had a [[civilising mission]]: "The higher races have a right over the lower races, they have a duty to civilize the inferior".<ref>{{Cite book |last=Emmanuelle Jouannet |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=docaDtxWPK8C&pg=PA142 |title=The Liberal-Welfarist Law of Nations: A History of International Law |year=2012 |isbn=978-1-107-01894-5 |page=142| publisher=Cambridge University Press }}</ref> Full citizenship rights – ''assimilation'' – were offered, although in reality assimilation was always on the distant horizon.<ref>Raymond Betts, ''Assimilation and Association in French Colonial Theory, 1890–1914'' (2005)</ref> Contrasting from Britain, France sent small numbers of settlers to its colonies, with the only notable exception of Algeria, where French settlers nevertheless always remained a small minority.

The French colonial empire of extended over {{convert|11,500,000|km2|sqmi|abbr=on}} at its height in the 1920s and had a population of 110 million people on the eve of World War II.<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Taagepera |first=R. |date=1997 |title=Expansion and Contraction Patterns of Large Polities: Context for Russia |url=https://escholarship.org/uc/item/3cn68807 |journal=International Studies Quarterly |language=en |volume=41 |issue=3 |pages=475–504 |doi=10.1111/0020-8833.00053 |issn=0020-8833}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web |title=Population en 2019 - Tableaux de séries longues − La situation démographique en 2019 {{!}} Insee |url=https://www.insee.fr/fr/statistiques/5390418?sommaire=5390468 |access-date=2022-05-11 |website=www.insee.fr}}</ref>

In World War II, [[Charles de Gaulle]] and the [[Free France|Free French]] used the overseas colonies as bases from which they fought to liberate France. However, after 1945 anti-colonial movements began to challenge the Empire. France fought and lost a bitter war in [[Vietnam]] in the 1950s. Whereas they won the war in Algeria, de Gaulle decided to grant Algeria independence anyway in 1962. French settlers and many local supporters relocated to France. Nearly all of France's colonies gained independence by 1960, but France retained great financial and diplomatic influence. It has repeatedly sent troops to assist its former colonies in Africa in suppressing insurrections and coups d'état.<ref>Tony Chafer, ''The End of Empire in French West Africa: France's Successful Decolonization?'' (2002)</ref>

====Education policy====
French colonial officials, influenced by the revolutionary ideal of equality, standardized schools, curricula, and teaching methods as much as possible. They did not establish colonial school systems with the idea of furthering the ambitions of the local people, but rather simply exported the systems and methods in vogue in the mother nation.<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Clignet |first=Remi |year=1970 |title=Inadequacies of the Notion of Assimilation in African Education |journal=The Journal of Modern African Studies |volume=8 |issue=3 |pages=425–444 |doi=10.1017/S0022278X00019935 |jstor=158852|s2cid=145692910 }}</ref> Having a moderately trained lower bureaucracy was of great use to colonial officials.<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Ọlọruntimẹhin |first=B. Ọlatunji |year=1974 |title=Education for Colonial Dominance in French West Africa from 1900 to the Second World War |journal=Journal of the Historical Society of Nigeria |volume=7 |issue=2 |pages=347–356 |jstor=41857017}}</ref> The emerging French-educated indigenous elite saw little value in educating rural peoples.<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Genova |first=James E. |year=2004 |title=Conflicted Missionaries: Power and Identity in French West Africa During the 1930s |journal=The Historian |volume=66 |pages=45–66 |doi=10.1111/j.0018-2370.2004.00063.x |s2cid=143384173}}</ref> After 1946 the policy was to bring the best students to Paris for advanced training. The result was to immerse the next generation of leaders in the growing anti-colonial diaspora centered in Paris. Impressionistic colonials could mingle with studious scholars or radical revolutionaries or so everything in between. [[Ho Chi Minh#Political education in France|Ho Chi Minh]] and other young radicals in Paris formed the French Communist party in 1920.<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Rice |first=Louisa |year=2013 |title=Between empire and nation: Francophone West African students and decolonization |journal=Atlantic Studies |volume=10 |pages=131–147 |doi=10.1080/14788810.2013.764106 |s2cid=144542200}}</ref>

Tunisia was exceptional. The colony was administered by [[Paul Cambon]], who built an educational system for colonists and indigenous people alike that was closely modeled on mainland France. He emphasized female and vocational education. By independence, the quality of Tunisian education nearly equalled that in France.<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Degorge |first=Barbara |year=2002 |title=The Modernization of Education: A Case Study of Tunisia and Morocco |url=https://www.academia.edu/33429271 |journal=The European Legacy |volume=7 |issue=5 |pages=579–596 |doi=10.1080/1084877022000006780 |s2cid=146190465}}</ref>

African nationalists rejected such a public education system, which they perceived as an attempt to retard African development and maintain colonial superiority. One of the first demands of the emerging nationalist movement after World War II was the introduction of full metropolitan-style education in French West Africa with its promise of equality with Europeans.<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Chafer |first=Tony |year=2001 |title=Teaching Africans to be French?: France's 'civilising mission' and the establishment of a public education system in French West Africa, 1903–30 |journal=Africa |volume=56 |issue=2 |pages=190–209 |jstor=40761537 |pmid=18254200}}</ref><ref>{{Cite journal |last=Gardinier |first=David E. |year=1974 |title=Schooling in the States of Equatorial Africa |journal=Canadian Journal of African Studies |volume=8 |issue=3 |pages=517–538 |doi=10.1080/00083968.1974.10804447}}</ref>

In Algeria, the debate was polarized. The French set up schools based on the scientific method and French culture. The [[Pied-Noir]] (Catholic migrants from Europe) welcomed this. Those goals were rejected by the Moslem Arabs, who prized mental agility and their distinctive religious tradition. The Arabs refused to become patriotic and cultured Frenchmen and a unified educational system was impossible until the Pied-Noir and their Arab allies went into exile after 1962.<ref>{{Cite journal |last1=Heggoy |first1=Alf Andrew |last2=Zingg |first2=Paul J. |year=1976 |title=French Education in Revolutionary North Africa |journal=International Journal of Middle East Studies |volume=7 |issue=4 |pages=571–578 |doi=10.1017/S0020743800024703 |jstor=162510|s2cid=161744830 }}</ref>

In South Vietnam from 1955 to 1975 there were two competing powers in education, as the French continued their work and the Americans moved in. They sharply disagreed on goals. The French educators sought to preserving French culture among the Vietnamese elites and relied on the Mission Culturelle – the heir of the colonial Direction of Education – and its prestigious high schools. The Americans looked at the great mass of people and sought to make South Vietnam a nation strong enough to stop communism. The Americans had far more money, as USAID coordinated and funded the activities of expert teams, and particularly of academic missions. The French deeply resented the American invasion of their historical zone of cultural imperialism.<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Nguyen |first=Thuy-Phuong |year=2014 |title=The rivalry of the French and American educational missions during the Vietnam War |url=https://www.academia.edu/31337115 |journal=Paedagogica Historica |volume=50 |issue=1–2 |pages=27–41 |doi=10.1080/00309230.2013.872683 |s2cid=144976778}}</ref>

===Germany===
{{Main|German colonial empire}}
[[File:German colonial.PNG|thumb|upright=1.25|German colonial empire, the third largest [[colonial empire]] during the 19th century after the [[British Empire|British]] and the [[Second French colonial empire|French]] ones<ref>[https://www.welt.de/kultur/article168705897/Diese-deutschen-Woerter-kennt-man-noch-in-der-Suedsee.html Diese deutschen Wörter kennt man noch in der Südsee, von Matthias Heine] "Einst hatten die Deutschen das drittgrößte Kolonialreich ... ."</ref>]]

German expansion into Slavic lands begins in the 12th–13th-century (see [[Drang Nach Osten]]). The concept of Drang Nach Osten was a core element of German nationalism and a major element of [[Nazi ideology]]. However, the German involvement in the seizure of overseas territories was negligible until the end of the 19th century. Prussia unified the other states into the [[second German Empire]] in 1871. Its Chancellor, [[Otto von Bismarck]] (1862–90), long opposed colonial acquisitions, arguing that the burden of obtaining, maintaining, and defending such possessions would outweigh any potential benefits. He felt that colonies did not pay for themselves, that the German bureaucratic system would not work well in the tropics and the diplomatic disputes over colonies would distract Germany from its central interest, Europe itself.<ref>Thomas Pakenham, ''The Scramble for Africa: White Man's Conquest of the Dark Continent from 1876 to 1912'' (1992) ch 12</ref>

However, public opinion and elite opinion in Germany demanded colonies for reasons of international prestige, so Bismarck was forced to oblige. In 1883–84 Germany began to build a colonial empire in Africa and the South Pacific.<ref>Paul M. Kennedy, ''The Rise of the Anglo-German Antagonism, 1860–1914'' (1988) pp. 167–83.</ref><ref>{{Citation |last=Wehler |first=Hans–Ulrich |title=Bismarck's Imperialism 1862–1890 |journal=Past and Present |issue=48 |pages=119–55 |year=1970 |doi=10.1093/past/48.1.119}}</ref> The establishment of the [[German colonial empire]] started with [[German New Guinea]] in 1884.<ref>{{Citation |last=von Strandmann |first=Hartmut Pogge |title=Domestic Origins of Germany's Colonial Expansion Under Bismarck |journal=Past and Present |issue=42 |pages=140–59 |year=1969 |doi=10.1093/past/42.1.140}}</ref> Within 25 years, [[German South West Africa]] had committed the [[Herero and Namaqua genocide]] in modern-day Namibia, the first genocide of the 20th century.

German colonies included the present territories of in Africa: [[Tanzania]], [[Rwanda]], [[Burundi]], [[Namibia]], [[Cameroon]], [[Ghana]] and [[Togo]]; in Oceania: [[New Guinea]], [[Solomon Islands]], [[Nauru]], [[Marshall Islands]], [[Mariana Islands]], [[Caroline Islands]] and [[Samoa]]; and in Asia: [[Qingdao]], [[Yantai]] and the [[Jiaozhou Bay Leased Territory|Jiaozhou Bay]]. The Treaty of Versailles made them mandates under the control the Allied victors.<ref>{{Cite journal <!-- so the bot doesn't erase the url -->| doi=10.2307/1943638 | jstor=1943638| title=Origin of the System of Mandates Under the League of Nations| journal=American Political Science Review| volume=16| issue=4| pages=563–583| year=1922| last1=Potter| first1=Pitman B.|url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/pdf/1943638.pdf}}</ref>
Germany also lost the portions of its Eastern territories that had Polish majorities to independent Poland as a result of the [[Treaty of Versailles]] in 1919. The Eastern territories inhabited by a German majority since the Middle Ages were torn from Germany and became part of both Poland and the USSR as a result of the territorial reorganization established by the [[Potsdam Conference]] of the Allied powers in 1945.

===Italy===
{{Main|Italian Empire}}
[[File:Italian empire 1940.PNG|thumb|250px|The Italian Empire in 1940]]
The '''Italian Empire''' (''Impero italiano'') comprised the overseas possessions of the [[Kingdom of Italy]] primarily in northeast Africa. It began with the purchase in 1869 of [[Assab|Assab Bay]] on the [[Red Sea]] by an Italian navigation company which intended to establish a coaling station at the time the [[Suez Canal]] was being opened to navigation.<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Fuller |first=Mia |year=2014 |title=Italian Colonial Rule |journal=Oxford Bibliographies in African Studies |doi=10.1093/OBO/9780199846733-0150}}</ref> This was taken over by the Italian government in 1882, becoming modern Italy's first overseas territory.<ref>Theodore M. Vestal, "Reflections on the Battle of Adwa and Its Significance for Today", in ''The Battle of Adwa: Reflections on Ethiopia's Historic Victory Against European Colonialism'' (Algora, 2005), p. 22.</ref> By the start of the [[First World War]] in 1914, Italy had acquired in Africa the colony of [[Italian Eritrea|Eritrea]] on the Red Sea coast, a large protectorate and later colony in [[Italian Somaliland|Somalia]], and authority in formerly Ottoman [[Italian Tripolitania|Tripolitania]] and [[Italian Cyrenaica|Cyrenaica]] (gained after the [[Italo-Turkish War]]) which were later unified in the colony of [[Italian Libya|Libya]].

Outside Africa, Italy possessed the [[Italian Aegean Islands|Dodecanese Islands]] off the coast of Turkey (following the Italo-Turkish War) and a [[concessions in Tianjin|small concession in Tianjin]] in China following the [[Boxer War]] of 1900. During the First World War, Italy occupied southern [[Principality of Albania|Albania]] to prevent it from falling to [[Austria-Hungary]]. In 1917, it established [[Italian protectorate over Albania|a protectorate over Albania]], which remained in place [[Vlora War|until 1920]].<ref name="Nigel Thomas 2001. Pp. 17">Nigel Thomas, ''Armies in the Balkans 1914–18'' (Osprey Publishing, 2001), p. 17.</ref> The [[National Fascist Party|Fascist government]] that came to power with [[Benito Mussolini]] in 1922 sought to increase the size of the Italian empire and to satisfy the claims of [[Italian irredentists]].

In its [[Second Italo-Ethiopian War|second invasion of Ethiopia]] in 1935–36, Italy was successful and it merged its [[Italian Ethiopia|new conquest]] with its older east African colonies to create [[Italian East Africa]]. In 1939, [[Italian invasion of Albania|Italy invaded Albania]] and [[Italian protectorate of Albania (1939–1943)|incorporated it]] into the [[Fascist Italy (1922–1943)|Fascist state]]. During the [[Second World War]] (1939–1945), Italy [[Italian conquest of British Somaliland|occupied British Somaliland]], [[Italian occupation of France|parts of south-eastern France]], western [[Kingdom of Egypt|Egypt]] and [[Axis occupation of Greece#The Italian occupation zone|most of Greece]], but then lost those conquests and its African colonies, including Ethiopia, to the invading [[Allies of World War II|allied forces]] by 1943. It was forced in the [[Treaty of Peace with Italy, 1947|peace treaty of 1947]] to relinquish sovereignty over all its colonies. It was granted a [[Trust Territory of Somaliland|trust to administer former Italian Somaliland]] under United Nations supervision in 1950. When [[Somalia]] became independent in 1960, Italy's eight-decade experiment with colonialism ended.<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Kelly |first=Saul |year=2000 |title=Britain, the United States, and the End of the Italian empire in Africa, 1940–52 |journal=The Journal of Imperial and Commonwealth History |volume=28 |issue=3 |pages=51–70 |doi=10.1080/03086530008583098 |s2cid=159656946}}</ref><ref>{{Cite book |last=Hofmann |first=Reto |title=The Fascist Effect |year=2015 |publisher=Cornell University Press |isbn=9780801456350 |jstor=10.7591/j.ctt20d88b6}}</ref>{{Page needed|date=July 2020}}

===Netherlands===
{{Main|Dutch Empire}}
{{Expand section|date=January 2025}}

The most notable example of Dutch imperialism is regarding [[Indonesia]].

===Portugal===
{{Main|Second Portuguese Empire}}
[[File:All_areas_of_the_world_that_were_once_part_of_the_Portuguese_Empire.png|thumb|250px|Areas across the world that were, at one point in their history, part of the [[Portuguese Empire]]]]

=== Russia ===
{{main |Russian imperialism}}
====Russian Empire====
{{further |Territorial evolution of Russia }}
[[File:Russian expansion 1300-1914.png|thumb|Expansion of the Tsardom and Empire of Russia until 1914]]
By the 18th century, the [[Russian Empire]] extended its control to the Pacific, peacefully forming a common border with the [[Qing Empire]] and [[Empire of Japan]]. This took place in a large number of military invasions of the lands east, west, and south of it. The [[Polish–Russian War of 1792]] took place after Polish nobility from the [[Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth]] wrote the [[Constitution of 3 May 1791]]. The war resulted in eastern [[Poland]] being conquered by Imperial Russia as a colony until 1918. The southern campaigns involved a series of [[Russo-Persian Wars]], which began with the [[Persian Expedition of 1796]], resulting in the acquisition of [[Georgia (country)|Georgia]] as a protectorate. Between 1800 and 1864, Imperial armies invaded south in the [[Russian conquest of the Caucasus]], the [[Murid War]], and the [[Russo-Circassian War]]. This last conflict led to the [[ethnic cleansing of Circassians]] from their lands. The [[Russian conquest of Siberia]] over the [[Khanate of Sibir]] took place in the 16th and 17th centuries, and resulted in the slaughter of various indigenous tribes by Russians, including the [[Daur people|Daur]], the [[Koryaks]], the [[Itelmens]], [[Mansi people]] and the [[Chukchi people|Chukchi]]. The Russian colonization of Central and Eastern Europe and Siberia and treatment of the resident indigenous peoples has been compared to European colonization of the Americas, with similar negative impacts on the indigenous Siberians as upon the indigenous peoples of the Americas. The extermination of indigenous Siberian tribes was so complete that a relatively small population of only 180,000 are said to exist today. The Russian Empire exploited and suppressed [[Cossacks]] hosts during this period, before turning them into the special military estate [[Sosloviye]] in the late 18th century. Cossacks were then used in Imperial Russian campaigns against other tribes.<ref>Willard Sunderland, "An Empire of Peasants. Empire-Building, Interethnic Interaction, and Ethnic Stereotyping in the Rural World of the Russian Empire, 1800–1850s." ''Imperial Russia. New histories for the Empire'' (1998): 174–198.</ref>

The acquisition of Ukraine by Russia commenced in 1654 with the [[Pereiaslav Agreement]]. Georgia's accession to Russia in 1783 was marked by the [[Treaty of Georgievsk]].

====Soviet Union====
{{further|Soviet empire}}
[[File:Former Russia-controlled territories without Alaska.png|thumb|{{Legend2|#673334}}Soviet Union<br/>{{Legend2|#800000}}Soviet territories that were never part of Imperial Russia: [[Tuvan Autonomous Soviet Socialist Republic|Tuva]], [[Kaliningrad Oblast|East Prussia]], [[western Ukraine]], [[Kuril Islands dispute|Kuril Islands]]<br/>{{Legend2|#B31B1B}}Imperial territories that did not become part of the Soviet Union<br />{{Legend2|#FF0000}}Soviet sphere of influence: [[Warsaw Pact]], [[Mongolian People's Republic|Mongolia]]<br />{{Legend2|#FB607F}}Soviet military occupation: [[Anglo-Soviet invasion of Iran|northern Iran]], [[Soviet occupation of Manchuria|Manchuria]], [[Soviet Civil Administration|northern Korea]], [[Soviet invasion of Xinjiang|Xinjiang]], [[Democratic Republic of Afghanistan|Afghanistan]]]]
[[Bolshevik]] leaders had effectively reestablished a polity with roughly the same extent as that empire by 1921, however with an internationalist ideology: Lenin in particular asserted the right to limited self-determination for national minorities within the new territory.<ref>{{Cite book |last=V.I. Lenin |url=http://www.marxists.org/archive/lenin/works/1913/crnq/index.htm |title=Critical Remarks on the National Question |publisher=Prosveshcheniye |year=1913}}</ref> Beginning in 1923, the policy of "[[Indigenization]]" [korenizatsiya] was intended to support non-Russians develop their national cultures within a socialist framework. Never formally revoked, it stopped being implemented after 1932{{Citation needed|date=November 2023}}. After World War II, the [[Soviet Union]] installed socialist regimes modeled on those it had installed in 1919–20 in the old [[Russian Empire]], in areas its forces occupied in Eastern Europe.<ref>{{Cite web |title=The Soviet Union and Europe after 1945 |url=http://www.ushmm.org/wlc/en/article.php?ModuleId=10005506 |access-date=December 30, 2010 |publisher=The U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum}}</ref> The Soviet Union and later the People's Republic of China supported revolutionary and communist movements in foreign nations and colonies to advance their own interests, but were not always successful.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Melvin E. Page |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=qFTHBoRvQbsC&pg=PA138 |title=Colonialism: An International Social, Cultural, and Political Encyclopedia |year=2003 |isbn=978-1-57607-335-3 |page=138| publisher=Bloomsbury Academic }}</ref> The USSR provided great assistance to [[Kuomintang]] in 1926–1928 in the formation of a unified Chinese government (see [[Northern Expedition]]). Although then relations with the USSR deteriorated, but the USSR was the only world power that provided military assistance to China against Japanese aggression in 1937–1941 (see [[Sino-Soviet Non-Aggression Pact]]). The victory of the Chinese Communists in the civil war of 1946–1949 relied on the great help of the USSR (see [[Chinese Civil War]]).

Although the [[Soviet Union]] declared itself [[anti-imperialism|anti-imperialist]], critics argue that it exhibited traits common to historic empires.<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Beissinger |first=Mark R. |year=2006 |title=Soviet Empire as "Family Resemblance" |journal=Slavic Review |volume=65 |issue=2 |pages=294–303 |doi=10.2307/4148594 |jstor=4148594 |s2cid=156553569}}</ref><ref>Dave, Bhavna. 2007 Kazakhstan: Ethnicity, language and power. Abingdon, New York: Routledge.</ref><ref name="olaf">{{Cite journal |last=Caroe |first=Olaf |author-link=Olaf Caroe |date=1953 |title=Soviet Colonialism in Central Asia |journal=Foreign Affairs |volume=32 |issue=1 |pages=135–44 |doi=10.2307/20031013 |jstor=20031013}}</ref> Some scholars hold that the Soviet Union was a hybrid entity containing elements common to both multinational empires and nation-states. Some also argued that the USSR practiced colonialism as did other imperial powers and was carrying on the old Russian tradition of expansion and control.<ref name="olaf"/> [[Mao Zedong]] once argued that the Soviet Union had itself become an [[social imperialism|imperialist power]] while maintaining a socialist façade. Moreover, the ideas of imperialism were widely spread in action on the higher levels of government. [[Josip Broz Tito]] and [[Milovan Djilas]] have referred to the [[History of the Soviet Union (1927–1953)|Stalinist USSR]]'s foreign policies, such as the occupation and economic exploitations of [[Eastern Bloc|Eastern Europe]] and its aggressive and hostile policy towards [[Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia|Yugoslavia]] as Soviet imperialism.<ref>{{cite book|last=Djilas|first=Milovan|date=1957|url=https://archive.org/details/816ilasMilovanTheNewClassAnAnalysisOfTheCommunistSystemThamesAndHudson1957|title=The New Class: An Analysis of the Communist System|location=London|publisher=Thames & Hudson|access-date=9 October 2023|via=Internet Archive}}</ref><ref name="Perović, 2007">{{cite journal |title=The Tito–Stalin split: a reassessment in light of new evidence |first=Jeronim |last=Perović |journal=[[Journal of Cold War Studies]] |volume=9 |issue=2 |date=2007 |pages=32–63 |publisher=MIT Press |doi=10.1162/jcws.2007.9.2.32 |s2cid=57567168 |url=https://www.zora.uzh.ch/id/eprint/62735/1/Perovic_Tito.pdf}}</ref> Some Marxists within the Russian Empire and later the USSR, like [[Sultan Galiev]] and [[Vasyl Shakhrai]], considered the Soviet regime a renewed version of the Russian imperialism and colonialism.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Velychenko |first=Stephen |title=Painting Imperialism and Nationalism Red: The Ukrainian Marxist Critique of Russian Communist Rule in Ukraine, 1918–1925 |year=2015 |publisher=University of Toronto Press |isbn=9781442648517 |jstor=10.3138/j.ctv69tft2}}</ref> The crushing of the [[Hungarian Revolution of 1956]] and [[Soviet–Afghan War]] have been cited as examples.<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Arendt |first=Hannah |year=1958 |title=Totalitarian Imperialism: Reflections on the Hungarian Revolution |journal=The Journal of Politics |volume=20 |issue=1 |pages=5–43 |doi=10.2307/2127387 |jstor=2127387 |s2cid=154428972}}</ref><ref>{{Cite book |last1=Richard Smith |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=VfrIBQAAQBAJ&pg=PT520 |title=The Invasion of Afghanistan and UK-Soviet Relations, 1979-1982: Documents on British Policy Overseas, Series III |last2=Patrick Salmon |last3=Stephen Robert Twigge |year=2012 |isbn=9781136325489 |page=520| publisher=Routledge }}</ref><ref>Alvin Z. Rubinstein, "Soviet Imperialism in Afghanistan." ''Current History'' 79#459 (1980): 80-83.</ref>

====Russia under Putin====
{{further|Russian neo-imperialism|Ruscism}}
[[File:Putin (2022-03-08).jpg|thumb|Russia's president [[Vladimir Putin]] compared himself to Emperor [[Peter the Great]] in an effort to regain former Russian lands.<ref>{{cite news |title=Putin compares himself to Peter the Great over drive to 'take back Russian land' |url=https://www.euronews.com/my-europe/2022/06/10/putin-compares-himself-to-peter-the-great-over-drive-to-take-back-russian-land |work=Euronews |date=10 June 2022}}</ref>]]
Since the 2010s, [[Russia under Vladimir Putin]] has been described as [[Russian neo-imperialism|neo-imperialist]].<ref>
*{{cite web |last1=Kolesnikov |first1=Andrei |author1-link=Andrey Kolesnikov (journalist) |title=Blood and Iron: How Nationalist Imperialism Became Russia's State Ideology |url=https://carnegieendowment.org/research/2023/11/blood-and-iron-how-nationalist-imperialism-became-russias-state-ideology?lang=en |publisher=[[Carnegie Russia Eurasia Center]] |date=December 2023}}
*{{cite web |last1=Melvin |first1=Neil |author1-link=Neil Melvin |title=Nationalist and Imperial Thinking Define Putin's Vision for Russia |url=https://www.rusi.org/explore-our-research/publications/commentary/nationalist-and-imperial-thinking-define-putins-vision-russia |publisher=[[Royal United Services Institute]] |date=2 March 2022}}
*{{cite book |last1=Van Herpen |first1=Marcel |title=Putin's Wars: The Rise of Russia's New Imperialism |date=2015 |publisher=Rowman & Littlefield |page=61}}
*{{cite book |last1=McNabb |first1=David |title=Vladimir Putin and Russia's Imperial Revival |date=2017 |publisher=Routledge |page=58}}
*{{cite book |last1=Grigas |first1=Agnia |title=Beyond Crimea: The New Russian Empire |date=2016 |publisher=Yale University Press |pages=2–3, 9}}
*{{cite journal |last1=Mankoff |first1=Jeffrey |title=The War in Ukraine and Eurasia's New Imperial Moment |journal=[[The Washington Quarterly]] |date=2022 |volume=45 |issue=2 |pages=127–128 |doi=10.1080/0163660X.2022.2090761 |url=https://doi.org/10.1080/0163660X.2022.2090761}}
*{{cite journal |last1=Götz |first1=Elias |last2=Merlen |first2=Camille-Renaud |title=Russia and the question of world order |journal=[[European Politics and Society]] |date=2019 |volume=20 |issue=2 |pages=133–153 |doi=10.1080/23745118.2018.1545181 |url=https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/23745118.2018.1545181}}
*{{cite journal |last1=Mälksoo |first1=Maria |title=The Postcolonial Moment in Russia's War Against Ukraine |journal=[[Journal of Genocide Research]] |date=2023 |volume=25 |issue=3 |pages=471–481 |doi=10.1080/14623528.2022.2074947 |url=https://doi.org/10.1080/14623528.2022.2074947}}
*{{cite magazine |author1=Orlando Figes |author1-link=Orlando Figes |title=Putin Sees Himself as Part of the History of Russia's Tsars—Including Their Imperialism |url=https://time.com/6218211/vladimir-putin-russian-tsars-imperialism/ |magazine=[[Time (magazine)|Time]] |date=30 September 2022}}</ref> Russia [[Russian-occupied territories|occupies parts of neighboring countries]] and has engaged in [[Russian irredentism|expansionism]], most notably with the 2008 [[Russo-Georgian War|Russian invasion of Georgia]], the 2014 [[Annexation of Crimea by the Russian Federation|annexation of Crimea]], and the 2022 [[Russian invasion of Ukraine|invasion of Ukraine]] and [[Russian annexation of Donetsk, Kherson, Luhansk and Zaporizhzhia oblasts|annexation of its southeast]]. Russia has also established [[Union State|domination over Belarus]].<ref>{{cite journal |last1=Mankoff |first1=Jeffrey |title=The War in Ukraine and Eurasia's New Imperial Moment |journal=[[The Washington Quarterly]] |date=2022 |volume=45 |issue=2 |pages=127–128 |doi=10.1080/0163660X.2022.2090761 |url=https://doi.org/10.1080/0163660X.2022.2090761}}</ref> Four months into the invasion of Ukraine, Putin compared himself to Russian emperor [[Peter the Great]]. He said that [[Tsar]] Peter had [[Treaty of Nystad|returned "Russian land"]] to the empire, and that "it is now also our responsibility to return (Russian) land".<ref>{{cite web |last1=Dickinson |first1=Peter |title=Putin admits Ukraine invasion is an imperial war to "return" Russian land |url=https://www.atlanticcouncil.org/blogs/ukrainealert/putin-admits-ukraine-invasion-is-an-imperial-war-to-return-russian-land/ |publisher=[[Atlantic Council]] |date=10 June 2022}}</ref> Kseniya Oksamytna wrote that in Russia media, the invasion was accompanied by discourses of Russian "supremacy". She says that this likely fuelled [[War crimes in the Russian invasion of Ukraine|war crimes against Ukrainians]] and that "the behavior of Russian forces bore all hallmarks of imperial violence".<ref>{{cite journal |last1=Oksamytna |first1=Kseniya |title=Imperialism, supremacy, and the Russian invasion of Ukraine |journal=[[Contemporary Security Policy]] |date=October 2023 |volume=44 |issue=4 |pages=497–512 |doi=10.1080/13523260.2023.2259661 |url=https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/13523260.2023.2259661#abstract}}</ref> The Putin regime has revived imperial ideas such as the "[[Russian world]]"<ref>{{cite book |last1=Grigas |first1=Agnia |title=Beyond Crimea: The New Russian Empire |date=2016 |publisher=Yale University Press |pages=30–31}}</ref> and the ideology of [[Eurasianism]].<ref>"Hirsh Eurasianism">{{cite web |author1=Michael Hirsh |author1-link=Michael Hirsh (journalist) |title=Putin's Thousand-Year War |url=https://foreignpolicy.com/2022/03/12/putins-thousand-year-war/ |website=[[Foreign Policy]] |date=12 March 2022}}</ref> It has used [[Russian disinformation|disinformation]] and the [[Russian diaspora]] to undermine the sovereignty of other countries.<ref>{{cite book |last1=Grigas |first1=Agnia |title=Beyond Crimea: The New Russian Empire |date=2016 |publisher=Yale University Press |pages=2–3, 9}}</ref> Russia is also accused of [[Neocolonialism#Russia|neo-colonialism in Africa]], mainly through the [[Wagner Group activities in Africa|activities of the Wagner Group and Africa Corps]].<ref>{{cite journal |last1=Doboš |first1=Bohumil |last2=Purton |first2=Alexander |title=Proxy Neo-colonialism? The Case of Wagner Group in the Central African Republic |journal=[[Insight on Africa]] |date=2024 |volume=16 |issue=1 |pages=7–21 |doi=10.1177/09750878231209705 |doi-access=free }}</ref><ref>{{cite news |title=How Russia's Wagner Group funds its role in Putin's Ukraine war by plundering Africa's resources |url=https://www.cbsnews.com/news/russia-wagner-group-ukraine-war-putin-prigozhin-africa-plundering-resources/ |work=CBS News |date=16 May 2023 |access-date=25 August 2023 |archive-date=22 June 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230622145256/https://www.cbsnews.com/news/russia-wagner-group-ukraine-war-putin-prigozhin-africa-plundering-resources/ |url-status=live}}</ref>

===United States===
{{Main|American imperialism}}
[[File:Raising of American flag at Iolani Palace with US Marines in the foreground (detailed).jpg|thumb|Ceremonies during the [[Overthrow of the Kingdom of Hawaii#Annexation|annexation of the Republic of Hawaii]], 1898]]
[[File:Independence Seaport Museum 226.JPG|thumb|upright|Cartoon of belligerent [[Uncle Sam]] placing Spain on notice, {{Circa|1898}}]]
Made up of former colonies itself, the early United States expressed its opposition to imperialism, at least in a form distinct from its own [[Manifest Destiny]], through policies such as the [[Monroe Doctrine]]. However the US may have unsuccessfully attempted to capture Canada in the [[War of 1812]]. The United States achieved very significant territorial concessions from Mexico during the [[Mexican–American War]]. Beginning in the late 19th and early 20th century, policies such as [[Theodore Roosevelt]]'s interventionism in Central America and [[Presidency of Woodrow Wilson|Woodrow Wilson]]'s mission to "make the world safe for democracy"<ref name="mtholyoke">{{Cite web |title=Woodrow Wilson: War Message &#124; Text of Original address (mtholyoke.edu) |url=http://www.mtholyoke.edu/acad/intrel/ww18.htm |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/19970501050006/http://www.mtholyoke.edu/acad/intrel/ww18.htm |archive-date=May 1, 1997 |access-date=June 13, 2015}}</ref> changed all this. They were often backed by military force, but were more often affected from behind the scenes. This is consistent with the general notion of hegemony and imperium of historical empires.<ref>{{Cite web |last=Boot |first=Max |author-link=Max Boot |date=July 15, 2004 |title=In Modern Imperialism, U.S. Needs to Walk Softly |url=http://www.cfr.org/publication/7190/in_modern_imperialism_us_needs_to_walk_softly.html |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20060720214335/http://www.cfr.org/publication/7190/in_modern_imperialism_us_needs_to_walk_softly.html |archive-date=July 20, 2006 |publisher=Council on Foreign Relations}}</ref><ref>{{Cite news |last=Oliver Kamm |date=October 30, 2008 |title=America is still the world's policeman |work=The Times |url=http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/comment/specials/article5047143.ece|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20100602202401/http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/comment/specials/article5047143.ece|url-status=dead|archive-date=2 June 2010}}</ref> In 1898, Americans who opposed imperialism created the [[American Anti-Imperialist League|Anti-Imperialist League]] to oppose the [[US annexation of the Philippines]] and Cuba. One year later, a war erupted in the Philippines causing business, labor and government leaders in the US to condemn America's occupation in the Philippines as they also denounced them for causing the deaths of many Filipinos.<ref name="google">{{Cite book |last=Ooi, K.G. |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=QKgraWbb7yoC |title=Southeast Asia: A Historical Encyclopedia, from Angkor Wat to East Timor |date=2004 |isbn=978-1-57607-770-2 |volume=1 |page=1075 | publisher=Bloomsbury Academic |access-date=June 13, 2015}}</ref> American foreign policy was denounced as a "racket" by [[Smedley Butler]], a former American general who had become a spokesman for the far left.<ref name="federalobserver">{{Cite web |title=Moore: War is just a racket, said a General in 1933 |url=http://www.federalobserver.com/archive.php?aid=5776 |access-date=June 13, 2015 |publisher=federalobserver.com |archive-date=September 24, 2015 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150924011500/http://www.federalobserver.com/archive.php?aid=5776 |url-status=dead}}</ref>

At the start of World War II, President Franklin D. Roosevelt was opposed to European colonialism, especially in India. He pulled back when Britain's Winston Churchill demanded that victory in the war be the first priority. Roosevelt expected that the United Nations would take up the problem of decolonization.<ref>{{Cite book |last1=D. Ryan |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=8D6JDAAAQBAJ&pg=PA64 |title=The United States and Decolonization: Power and Freedom |last2=V. Pungong |year=2000 |isbn=978-0-333-97795-8 |pages=64–65| publisher=Springer }}</ref>

Some have described the internal strife between various people groups as a form of imperialism or colonialism. This internal form is distinct from informal U.S. imperialism in the form of political and financial hegemony.<ref name="Empire- A Very Short Introduction">{{Cite book |last=Howe |first=Stephen |title=Empire – A Very Short Introduction |date=2002 |publisher=Oxford University Press |page=57}}</ref> It also showed difference in the United States' formation of "colonies" abroad.<ref name="Empire- A Very Short Introduction"/> Through the treatment of its indigenous peoples during westward expansion, the United States took on the form of an imperial power prior to any attempts at external imperialism. This internal form of empire has been referred to as "internal colonialism".<ref>{{Cite book |last=Howe |first=Stephen |title=Empire – A Very Short Introduction |date=2002 |publisher=Oxford University Press |page=59}}</ref> Participation in the African slave trade and the subsequent treatment of its 12 to 15&nbsp;million Africans is viewed by some to be a more modern extension of America's "internal colonialism".<ref>{{Cite book |last=Howe |first=Stephen |title=Empire – A Very Short Introduction |date=2002 |publisher=Oxford University Press |page=67}}</ref> However, this internal colonialism faced resistance, as external colonialism did, but the anti-colonial presence was far less prominent due to the nearly complete dominance that the United States was able to assert over both indigenous peoples and African-Americans.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Howe |first=Stephen |title=Empire – A Very Short Introduction |date=2002 |publisher=Oxford University Press |page=97}}</ref> In a lecture on April 16, 2003, Edward Said described modern imperialism in the United States as an aggressive means of attack towards the contemporary Orient stating that "due to their backward living, lack of democracy and the violation of women's rights. The western world forgets during this process of converting the other that enlightenment and democracy are concepts that not all will agree upon".<ref>{{Cite news |last=Said |first=Edward |date=April 16, 2003 |title=orientalism |url=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JncXpQQoZAo | archive-url=https://ghostarchive.org/varchive/youtube/20211211/JncXpQQoZAo| archive-date=2021-12-11 | url-status=live|access-date=April 7, 2015 |ref=16 minute}}{{cbignore}}</ref>

=== Spain ===
[[File:Spanish Empire Anachronous en.svg|thumb|upright=1.5|The areas of the world that at one time were territories of the Spanish Empire]]
{{Main|Spanish Empire}}
Spanish imperialism in the colonial era corresponds with the rise and decline of the [[Spanish Empire]], conventionally recognized as emerging in 1402 with the conquest of the Canary Islands. Following the successes of exploratory maritime voyages conducted during the [[Age of Discovery]], Spain committed considerable financial and military resources towards developing a robust navy capable of conducting large-scale, transatlantic expeditionary operations in order to establish and solidify a firm imperial presence across large portions of North America, South America, and the geographic regions comprising the [[Caribbean basin]]. Concomitant with Spanish endorsement and sponsorship of transatlantic expeditionary voyages was the deployment of ''[[Conquistador]]s'', which further expanded Spanish imperial boundaries through the acquisition and development of territories and colonies.<ref>Roger Bigelow Merriman, ''The Rise of the Spanish Empire in the Old World and in the New'' (4 vol 1918–1933) [https://archive.org/search.php?query=creator%3A%28Merriman%2C%20Roger%20Bigelow.%20%29%20empire online].</ref>

==== Imperialism in the Caribbean basin ====
[[File:Spanish Caribbean Islands in the American Viceroyalties 1600.png|thumb|Spanish colonies and territories in the Caribbean basin (c. 1490 – c. 1660)]]
In congruence with the colonialist activities of competing European imperial powers throughout the 15th – 19th centuries, the Spanish were equally engrossed in extending geopolitical power. The Caribbean basin functioned as a key geographic focal point for advancing Spanish imperialism. Similar to the strategic prioritization Spain placed towards achieving victory in the conquests of the [[Aztec Empire]] and [[Inca Empire]], Spain placed equal strategic emphasis on expanding the nation's imperial footprint within the Caribbean basin.

Echoing the prevailing ideological perspectives regarding colonialism and imperialism embraced by Spain's European rivals during the colonial era, including the English, French, and the Dutch, the Spanish used colonialism as a means of expanding imperial geopolitical borders and securing the defense of maritime trade routes in the Caribbean basin.

While leveraging colonialism in the same geographic operating theater as its imperial rivals, Spain maintained distinct imperial objectives and instituted a unique form of colonialism in support of its imperial agenda. Spain placed significant strategic emphasis on the acquisition, extraction, and exportation of precious metals (primarily gold and silver). A second objective was the evangelization of subjugated indigenous populations residing in mineral-rich and strategically favorable locations. Notable examples of these indigenous groups include the [[Taíno|Taίno]] populations inhabiting Puerto Rico and segments of Cuba. Compulsory labor and slavery were widely institutionalized across Spanish-occupied territories and colonies, with an initial emphasis on directing labor towards mining activity and related methods of procuring semi-precious metals. The emergence of the ''[[Encomienda]]'' system during the 16th–17th centuries in occupied colonies within the Caribbean basin reflects a gradual shift in imperial prioritization, increasingly focusing on large-scale production and exportation of agricultural commodities.

==== Scholarly debate and controversy ====
The scope and scale of Spanish participation in imperialism within the Caribbean basin remains a subject of scholarly debate among historians. A fundamental source of contention stems from the inadvertent conflation of theoretical conceptions of imperialism and colonialism. Furthermore, significant variation exists in the definition and interpretation of these terms as expounded by historians, anthropologists, philosophers, and political scientists.

Among historians, there is substantial support in favor of approaching imperialism as a conceptual theory emerging during the 18th–19th centuries, particularly within Britain, propagated by key exponents such as [[Joseph Chamberlain]] and [[Benjamin Disraeli]]. In accordance with this theoretical perspective, the activities of the Spanish in the Caribbean are not components of a preeminent, ideologically driven form of imperialism. Rather, these activities are more accurately classified as representing a form of colonialism.

Further divergence among historians can be attributed to varying theoretical perspectives regarding imperialism that are proposed by emerging academic schools of thought. Noteworthy examples include [[cultural imperialism]], whereby proponents such as John Downing and Annabelle Sreberny-Modammadi define imperialism as "...the conquest and control of one country by a more powerful one."<ref>Downing, John; Ali Mohammadi; Annabelle Sreberny-Mohammadi (1995). ''Questioning the media: a critical introduction'' (2, illustrated ed.). Sage. p. 482. {{ISBN|978-0-8039-7197-4}}.</ref> Cultural imperialism signifies the dimensions of the process that go beyond economic exploitation or military force." Moreover, colonialism is understood as "...the form of imperialism in which the government of the colony is run directly by foreigners."<ref>Downing; Sreberny-Mohammadi (1995). p. 482.</ref>

In spite of diverging perspectives and the absence of a unilateral scholarly consensus regarding imperialism among historians, within the context of Spanish expansion in the Caribbean basin during the colonial era, imperialism can be interpreted as an overarching ideological agenda that is perpetuated through the institution of colonialism. In this context, colonialism functions as an instrument designed to achieve specific imperialist objectives.

===Sweden===

{{Main|Swedish overseas colonies}}

==Non-western imperialism by country==
{{See also|List of largest empires}}

===Caliphate===
{{Main|Caliphate}}
The [[Early Muslim conquests]] and the [[Pan-Islamism|pan-islamic]] [[Caliphate]] have been described at religious imperialism motivated by [[Supremacism#Islamic|Islamic supremacism]].<ref name="c737"/><ref name="h557">{{cite book | last=Akhtar | first=Shabbir | title=Islam as Political Religion | publisher=Routledge | date=18 October 2010 | isbn=978-1-136-90143-0 | doi=10.4324/9780203841822 | page=}}</ref>

===China===
[[File:Qing Empire circa 1820 EN.svg|thumb|upright=1.1|The Qing Empire {{Circa|1820}} marked the time when the Qing began to rule these areas.]]
{{Main|Chinese imperialism}}
{{See also|Tang dynasty in Inner Asia|Yuan dynasty in Inner Asia|Qing dynasty in Inner Asia}}

China was one of the world's oldest empires. Due to its long history of imperialist expansion, China has been seen by its neighboring countries as a threat due to its large population, giant economy, large military force as well as its territorial evolution throughout history. Starting with the unification of China under the [[Qin dynasty]], later [[Dynasties in Chinese history|Chinese dynasties]] continued to follow its form of expansions.<ref>Chun-shu Chang, ''The Rise of the Chinese Empire: Nation, State, and Imperialism in Early China, ca. 1600 B.C.–A.D. 8'' (University of Michigan Press, 2007).</ref>

The most successful Chinese imperial dynasties in terms of territorial expansion were the [[Han dynasty|Han]], [[Tang dynasty|Tang]], [[Yuan dynasty|Yuan]], and [[Qing dynasty|Qing]] dynasties.

===Egypt===
{{Excerpt|New Kingdom of Egypt|paragraphs=1}}

===Inca===
{{Excerpt|Inca Empire|paragraphs=1|template=-Inca civilization}}

===Iran===
{{Excerpt|Safavid Iran|only=paragraph}}

===Japan===
{{Main|Japanese colonial empire|List of territories occupied by Imperial Japan}}
[[File:Japanese Empire (orthographic projection).svg|thumb|upright=1|The Greater East Asia Co-Prosperity Sphere in 1942]]

[[File:Japanese Special Naval Landing Forces on the deck board of the IJN xxx, June 11th.jpg|thumb|[[Special Naval Landing Forces|Japanese Marines]] preparing to land in [[Anqing]], China, in June 1938]]

For over 200 years, Japan maintained a feudal society during a period of [[Sakoku|relative isolation from the rest of the world]]. However, in the 1850s, [[Perry Expedition|military pressure from the United States]] and other world powers coerced Japan to open itself to the global market, resulting in an end to the country's isolation. A [[Bakumatsu|period of conflicts and political revolutions]] followed due to socioeconomic uncertainty, ending in 1868 with the reunification of political power under the [[Emperor of Japan|Japanese Emperor]] during the [[Meiji Restoration]]. This sparked a period of rapid industrialization driven in part by a Japanese desire for self-sufficiency. By the early 1900s, Japan was a naval power that could hold its own against an established European power as it defeated Russia.<ref>Andrew Gordon, ''A Modern History of Japan: From Tokugawa Times to the Present'' (2013), pp 114–25.</ref>

Despite its rising population and increasingly industrialized economy, Japan lacked significant natural resources. As a result, the country turned to imperialism and [[expansionism]] in part as a means of compensating for these shortcomings, adopting the national motto ''"[[Fukoku kyōhei]]"'' (富国強兵, "Enrich the state, strengthen the military").<ref>{{Cite book |editor1-first=Paul |editor1-last=Joseph |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=idw0DQAAQBAJ&pg=PA430 |title=The SAGE Encyclopedia of War: Social Science Perspectives |year=2016 |isbn=9781483359885 |page=430|publisher=SAGE Publications }}</ref>

And Japan was eager to take every opportunity. In 1869 they took advantage of the defeat of the rebels of the [[Republic of Ezo]] to incorporate definitely the island of [[Hokkaido]] to Japan. For centuries, Japan viewed the [[Ryukyu Islands]] as one of its provinces. In 1871 the [[Mudan incident]] happened: [[Paiwan people|Taiwanese aborigines]] murdered 54 [[Ryukyuan people|Ryūkyūan]] sailors that became shipwrecked. At that time the [[Ryukyu Islands]] were claimed by both [[Qing China]] and Japan, and the Japanese interpreted the incident as an attack on their citizens. They took steps to bring the islands in their jurisdiction: in 1872 the Japanese [[Ryukyu Domain]] was declared, and in 1874 a [[Japanese invasion of Taiwan (1874)|retaliatory incursion to Taiwan]] was sent, which was a success. The success of this expedition emboldened the Japanese: not even the Americans could defeat the Taiwanese in the [[Formosa Expedition]] of 1867. Very few gave it much thought at the time, but this was the first move in the Japanese expansionism series. Japan occupied Taiwan for the rest of 1874 and then left owing to Chinese pressures, but in 1879 it finally annexed the [[Ryukyu Islands]]. In 1875 Qing China sent a 300-men force to subdue the Taiwanese, but unlike the Japanese the Chinese were routed, ambushed and 250 of their men were killed; the failure of this expedition exposed once more the failure of Qing China to exert effective control in Taiwan, and acted as another incentive for the Japanese to annex Taiwan. Eventually, the spoils for winning the [[First Sino-Japanese War]] in 1894 included [[Taiwan]].<ref>S.C.M. Paine, ''The Japanese Empire: Grand Strategy from the Meiji Restoration to the Pacific War'' (2017) pp 15–48.</ref>

In 1875 Japan took its first operation against [[Kingdom of Joseon|Joseon Korea]], another territory that for centuries it coveted; the [[Ganghwa Island incident]] made Korea open to international trade. [[Korea]] was annexed in 1910. As a result of winning the [[Russo-Japanese War]] in 1905, Japan took part of [[Sakhalin|Sakhalin Island]] from Russia. Precisely, the victory against the [[Russian Empire]] shook the world: never before had an Asian nation defeated a European power{{Dubious|date=August 2020}}, and in Japan it was seen as a feat. Japan's victory against Russia would act as an antecedent for Asian countries in the fight against the Western powers for [[Decolonization]]. During [[World War I]], Japan took German-leased territories in China's Shandong Province, as well as the [[Mariana Islands|Mariana]], [[Caroline Islands|Caroline]], and [[Marshall Islands]], and kept the islands as League of nations mandates. At first, Japan was in good standing with the victorious Allied powers of World War I, but different discrepancies and dissatisfaction with the rewards of the treaties cooled the relations with them, for example American pressure forced it to return the Shandong area. By the '30s, economic depression, urgency of resources and a growing distrust in the Allied powers made Japan lean to a hardened militaristic stance. Through the decade, it would grow closer to Germany and Italy, forming together the Axis alliance. In 1931 Japan took [[Japanese invasion of Manchuria|Manchuria]] from China. International reactions condemned this move, but Japan's already strong skepticism against Allied nations meant that it nevertheless carried on.<ref>Louise Young, ''Japan's Total Empire: Manchuria and the Culture of Wartime Imperialism'' (1999) pp 3–54.</ref>

[[File:First pictures of the Japanese occupation of Peiping in China.jpg|thumb|right|Japanese march into [[Zhengyangmen]] of Beijing after capturing the city in July 1937.]]
During the [[Second Sino-Japanese War]] in 1937, Japan's military invaded central China. Also, in 1938–1939 Japan made an attempt to seize the territory of Soviet Russia and Mongolia, but suffered a serious defeats (see [[Battle of Lake Khasan]], [[Battles of Khalkhin Gol]]). By now, relations with the Allied powers were at the bottom, and an international boycott against Japan to deprive it of natural resources was enforced. A military move to gain access to them was deemed necessary, and so Japan [[Attack on Pearl Harbor|attacked Pearl Harbor]], bringing the United States to World War II. Using its superior technological advances in [[naval aviation]] and its modern doctrines of [[amphibious warfare|amphibious]] and [[naval warfare]], Japan achieved one of the fastest maritime expansions in history. By 1942 Japan had conquered much of East Asia and the Pacific, including the east of China, Hong Kong, Thailand, Vietnam, Cambodia, Burma (Myanmar), Malaysia, the Philippines, Indonesia, part of [[New Guinea]] and many islands of the Pacific Ocean. Just as Japan's late industrialization success and victory against the Russian Empire was seen as an example among underdeveloped Asia-Pacific nations, the Japanese took advantage of this and promoted among its conquered the goal to jointly create an anti-European "[[Greater East Asia Co-Prosperity Sphere]]". This plan helped the Japanese gain support from native populations during its conquests{{citation needed|date=November 2021}} especially in Indonesia.{{citation needed|date=November 2021}} However, the United States had a vastly stronger military and industrial base and defeated Japan, stripping it of conquests and returning its settlers back to Japan.<ref>Ramon H. Myers and Mark R. Peattie, eds., ''The Japanese Colonial Empire, 1895–1945'' (1987) pp 61–127</ref>

===Mongol===
{{Excerpt|Mongol Empire|paragraphs=1}}

===Mughal===
{{Excerpt|Mughal Empire|paragraphs=1}}

===Ottoman===
{{Main|Ottoman Empire|Territorial evolution of the Ottoman Empire}}
[[File:OttomanEmpire1683.png|thumb|300px|The Ottoman Empire in 1683; core possessions in dark green; [[Vassal and tributary states of the Ottoman Empire|vassal or autonomous areas]] in light green.]]

The Ottoman Empire was an imperial state that lasted from 1299 to 1922. In 1453, [[Mehmed the Conqueror]] captured [[Fall of Constantinople|Constantinople]] and made it his capital. During the 16th and 17th centuries, in particular at the height of its power under the reign of [[Suleiman the Magnificent]], the Ottoman Empire was a powerful multinational, multilingual empire, which [[Turks in Europe#Ottoman migration|invaded and colonized]] much of Southeast Europe, Western Asia, the [[Caucasus]], North Africa, and the [[Horn of Africa]]. Its repeated invasions, and brutal treatment of Slavs led to the [[Great Migrations of the Serbs]] to escape persecution. At the beginning of the 17th century the empire contained [[Provinces of the Ottoman Empire|32 provinces]] and numerous [[Vassal and tributary states of the Ottoman Empire|vassal states]]. Some of these were later absorbed into the empire, while others were granted various types of autonomy during the course of centuries.<ref>Jane Hathaway, ''The Arab Lands under Ottoman Rule, 1516–1800'' (2008).</ref>

Following a long period of [[Ottoman wars in Europe|military setbacks]] against European powers, the Ottoman Empire gradually [[Decline of the Ottoman Empire|declined]], losing control of much of its territory in Europe and Africa.

By 1810 Egypt was effectively independent. In 1821–1829 the Greeks in the [[Greek War of Independence]] were assisted by Russia, Britain and France. In 1815 to 1914 the Ottoman Empire could exist only in the conditions of acute rivalry of the great powers, with Britain its main supporter, especially in the [[Crimean War]] 1853–1856, against Russia. After Ottoman defeat in the [[Russo-Turkish War (1877–1878)]], Bulgaria, Serbia and Montenegro gained independence and Britain took colonial control of [[Cyprus]], while [[Bosnia and Herzegovina]] were occupied and annexed by [[Austria-Hungary|Austro-Hungarian Empire]] in 1908.

The empire allied with Germany in World War I with the imperial ambition of recovering its lost territories, but it [[Dissolution of the Ottoman Empire|dissolved]] in the aftermath of its decisive defeat. The Kemalist national movement, supported by Soviet Russia, achieved victory in the course of the [[Turkish War of Independence]], and the parties signed and ratified the [[Treaty of Lausanne]] in 1923 and 1924. The [[Republic of Turkey]] was established.<ref>Caroline Finkel, (2005). ''Osman's Dream: The Story of the Ottoman Empire, 1300–1923''.</ref>

==Anti-imperialism==
{{Main|Anti-imperialism}}
Anti-imperialism gained a wide currency after the [[Second World War]] and at the onset of the [[Cold War]] as political movements in colonies of European powers promoted national sovereignty. Some anti-imperialist groups who opposed the [[American imperialism|United States]] supported the power of the [[Soviet Union]], such as in [[Guevarism]], while in [[Maoism]] this was criticized as [[social imperialism]].

[[Pan-Africanism]] is a movement across Africa and the world that came as a result of imperial ideas splitting apart African nations and pitting them against each other. The Pan-African movement instead tried to reverse those ideas by uniting Africans and creating a sense of brotherhood among all African people.<ref>{{Cite web |title=The Pan-African Movement {{!}} AHA |url=https://www.historians.org/teaching-and-learning/teaching-resources-for-historians/teaching-and-learning-in-the-digital-age/through-the-lens-of-history-biafra-nigeria-the-west-and-the-world/the-colonial-and-pre-colonial-eras-in-nigeria/the-pan-african-movement#:~:text=Pan-Africanism%20was%20the%20attempt,the%20world%20of%20African%20colonies. |access-date=2023-05-04 |website=www.historians.org}}</ref> The Pan-African movement helped with the eventual end of [[Colonialism]] in Africa.

Representatives at the [[First Pan-African Conference|1900 Pan African Conference]] demanded moderate reforms for colonial African nations.<ref>{{Cite web |last=Adejumobi |first=Saheed |date=2008-07-30 |title=The Pan-African Congresses, 1900–1945 • |url=https://www.blackpast.org/global-african-history/pan-african-congresses-1900-1945/ |access-date=2023-05-04 |language=en-US}}</ref> The conference also discussed African populations in the [[Caribbean]] and the United States and their rights. A total of six Pan-African conferences that were held, and these allowed the African people to have a voice in ending colonial rule.

== See also ==
{{Div col|colwidth=30em}}
* [[Analysis of Western European colonialism and colonization]]
* [[Fourteen Points]] esp. V and XII in 1918
* [[Historic recurrence]]
* [[Historiography of the British Empire]]
* ''[[Imperialism, the Highest Stage of Capitalism]]'' 1917 book by Lenin
** [[Super-imperialism]]
** [[Ultra-imperialism]]
* [[International relations (1648–1814)]]
* [[International relations (1814–1919)]]
* [[International relations (1919–1939)]]
* [[Iron law of oligarchy]]
* [[List of empires]]
** [[List of kingdoms and empires in African history]]
* [[Mercantilism]]
* [[Might Makes Right]]
* [[Political history of the world]]
* [[Postcolonialism]]
* [[Right of conquest]]
* [[Scramble for Africa]], in the late 19th century
{{Div col end}}

== References ==
{{Reflist}}

==Sources==
* {{Cite book |last=Morgan |first=David |author-link=David O. Morgan |title=The Mongols |date=2007 |publisher=[[Blackwell Publishing]] |isbn=978-1-4051-3539-9 |edition=2nd |location=Malden, MA; Oxford, England; Carlton, Victoria}}
* {{Citation |last=Stein |first=Burton |title=A History of India |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=QY4zdTDwMAQC |year=2010 |publisher=John Wiley & Sons |isbn=978-1-4443-2351-1 |authorlink=Burton Stein |access-date=15 July 2019 }}
* {{cite book|last=Streusand|first=Douglas E.|title=Islamic Gunpowder Empires: Ottomans, Safavids, and Mughals|date=2011|publisher=Westview Press|location=|isbn=9780813313597}}

== Further reading ==
{{Refbegin}}
* Abernethy, David P. ''The Dynamics of Global Dominance: European Overseas Empires, 1425–1980'' (Yale UP, 2000), political science approach. [https://muse.jhu.edu/article/16319/summary online review]
* Ankerl, Guy. ''Coexisting Contemporary Civilizations: Arabo-Muslim, Bharatai, Chinese, and Western,'' Geneva, INU Press, 2000, {{ISBN|2-88155-004-5}}.
* Bayly, C.A. ed. ''Atlas of the British Empire'' (1989). survey by scholars; heavily illustrated
* Brendon, Piers. [https://www.opendemocracy.net/en/british_empire/ "A Moral Audit of the British Empire"]. ''History Today'', (Oct 2007), Vol. 57 Issue 10, pp.&nbsp;44–47
* Brendon, Piers. ''The Decline and Fall of the British Empire, 1781–1997'' (2008), {{ISBN|978-0-307-27028-3}}, wide-ranging survey
* Bickers, Robert and Christian Henriot, ''New Frontiers: Imperialism's New Communities in East Asia, 1842–1953'', Manchester, Manchester University Press, 2000, {{ISBN|0-7190-5604-7}}
* Blanken, Leo. ''[http://www.themontrealreview.com/2009/Rational-Empires-Institutional-Incentives-and-Imperial-Expansion.php Rational Empires: Institutional Incentives and Imperial Expansion],'' University Of Chicago Press, 2012
* Bush, Barbara. ''Imperialism and Postcolonialism (History: Concepts, Theories and Practice),'' Longmans, 2006, {{ISBN|0-582-50583-6}}
* Comer, Earl of. ''Ancient and Modern Imperialism,'' John Murray, 1910.
* Cotterell, Arthur. ''Western Power in Asia: Its Slow Rise and Swift Fall, 1415 – 1999'' (2009) popular history [https://www.amazon.com/Western-Power-Asia-Slow-Swift/dp/0470824891/ excerpts]
* [[Faramerz Dabhoiwala|Dabhoiwala, Fara]], "Imperial Delusions" (review of [[Priya Satia]], ''Time's Monster: How History Makes History'', Belknap Press/Harvard University Press, 2020, 363 pp.; [[Mahmood Mamdani]], ''[[Neither Settler nor Native]]: The Making and Unmaking of Permanent Minorities'', Belknap Press/Harvard University Press, 2020, 401 pp.; and [[Adom Getachew]], ''Worldmaking after Empire: The Rise and Fall of Self-Determination'', Princeton University Press, 2021 [?], 271 pp.), ''[[The New York Review of Books]]'', vol. LXVIII, no. 11 (1 July 2021), pp. 59–62. 
* Darwin, John. '' After Tamerlane: The Rise and Fall of Global Empires, 1400–2000,'' (Penguin Books, 2008), 576 pp
* Darwin, John. ''The Empire Project'' (2011) 811pp [https://play.google.com/books/reader?id=b7E83PeQAQMC&hl=en&pg=GBS.PA23.w.1.1.99 free viewing]
* {{Cite encyclopedia |year=2008 |encyclopedia=The Encyclopedia of Libertarianism |editor-last=Hamowy |editor-first=Ronald |editor-link=Ronald Hamowy |pages=237–39 |doi=10.4135/9781412965811.n146 |isbn=978-1-4129-6580-4 |lccn=2008009151 |oclc=750831024 |last1=Davies |first1=Stephen |chapter-url=https://books.google.com/books?id=yxNgXs3TkJYC |chapter=Imperialism}}
* [[Wendy Doniger|Doniger, Wendy]], "The Rise and Fall of Warhorses" (review of [[David Chaffetz]], ''Raiders, Rulers, and Traders: The Horse and the Rise of Empires'', Norton, 2024, 424 pp.), ''[[The New York Review of Books]]'', vol. LXXII, no. 6 (10 April 2025), pp. 17–19. "Unlike cows, [[horse]]s, whose teeth are quite dull, pull up grass by the roots rather than biting off the blades, or they nibble it right down to the ground, thus quickly destroying the land, which may require some years to recover.... [H]orses in the wild... range constantly to find new territory... [T]he horse came to symbolize [[conquest]] through its own natural [[imperialism]]. The [[steppe]]s bred [[nomad]]ic horses and nomadic [[Eurasian nomads|horde]]s.... Men waged [[war]] to get other people's horses so that they could wage war. [[Horsepower]]... remained the basic unit of power for centuries.... But the [[horse-breeding]] people of the steppes never succeeded in conquering the part of the world west of the [[Carpathians]] and the [[Alps]], nor [[civilization]]s.... where [[sea power]]... was decisive." (p. 17.)  
* Fay, Richard B. and Daniel Gaido (ed. and trans.), ''Discovering Imperialism: Social Democracy to World War I.'' Chicago: Haymarket Books, 2012.
* [[Niall Ferguson]], ''Empire: How Britain Made the Modern World,'' Penguin Books, 2004, {{ISBN|0-14-100754-0}}
* Gotteland, Mathieu. [https://middlegroundjournal.com/2017/09/05/on-teaching-column-what-is-informal-imperialism/ What Is Informal Imperialism?], The Middle Ground Journal (2017).
* [[Michael Hardt]] and [[Toni Negri]], ''Empire,'' [[Harvard University Press]], 2000, {{ISBN|0-674-00671-2}}
* {{cite journal |last1=Hickel |first1=Jason |author1-link=Jason Hickel |last2=Dorninger |first2=Christian |last3=Wieland |first3=Hanspeter |last4=Suwandi |first4=Intan |date=2022 |title=Imperialist appropriation in the world economy: Drain from the global South through unequal exchange, 1990–2015 |journal=[[Global Environmental Change]] |volume=73 |issue=102467 |page=102467 |doi=10.1016/j.gloenvcha.2022.102467 |s2cid=246855421 |access-date= |doi-access=free|bibcode=2022GEC....7302467H }}
* [[E.J. Hobsbawm]], ''The Age of Empire, 1875–1914,'' Abacus Books, 1989, {{ISBN|0-349-10598-7}}
* [[E.J. Hobsbawm]], ''On Empire: America, War, and Global Supremacy,'' Pantheon Books, 2008, {{ISBN|0-375-42537-3}}
* [[J.A. Hobson]], ''Imperialism: A Study,'' Cosimo Classics, 2005, {{ISBN|1-59605-250-3}}
* Hodge, Carl Cavanagh. ''Encyclopedia of the Age of Imperialism, 1800–1914'' (2 vol. 2007), online
* Howe, Stephen Howe, ed., ''The New Imperial Histories Reader'' (2009) [https://h-net.org/reviews/showrev.php?id=32358 online review].
* {{Cite book |last1=James |first1=Paul |url=https://www.academia.edu/3587722 |title=Globalization and Violence, Vol. 1: Globalizing Empires, Old and New |last2=Nairn |first2=Tom |publisher=Sage Publications |year=2006 |author-link=Paul James (academic)}}
* Kumar, Krishan. ''Visions of Empire: How Five Imperial Regimes Shaped the World'' (2017).
* [[Gabriel Kuhn]], [http://kersplebedeb.com/posts/oppressor-and-oppressed-nations/ ''Oppressor and Oppressed Nations: Sketching a Taxonomy of Imperialism''], Kersplebedeb, June 2017.
* Lawrence, Adria K. ''Imperial Rule and the Politics of Nationalism: Anti-Colonial Protest in the French Empire'' (Cambridge UP, 2013) [https://issforum.org/roundtables/7-18-imperial-rule-nationalism online reviews]
* [[Jackson Lears]], "Imperial Exceptionalism" (review of [[Victor Bulmer-Thomas]], ''Empire in Retreat: The Past, Present, and Future of the United States'', Yale University Press, 2018, {{ISBN|978-0-300-21000-2}}, 459 pp.; and [[David C. Hendrickson]], ''Republic in Peril: American Empire and the Liberal Tradition'', Oxford University Press, 2017, {{ISBN|978-0190660383}}, 287 pp.), ''[[The New York Review of Books]]'', vol. LXVI, no. 2 (February 7, 2019), pp. 8–10. Bulmer-Thomas writes: "Imperial retreat is not the same as national decline, as many other countries can attest. Indeed, imperial retreat can strengthen the nation-state just as imperial expansion can weaken it." (''[[The New York Review of Books|NYRB]]'', cited on p. 10.)
* [[Merriman, Roger Bigelow]]. ''The Rise of the Spanish Empire in the Old World and in the New'' (4 vol 1918–1933) [https://archive.org/search.php?query=creator%3A%28Merriman%2C%20Roger%20Bigelow.%20%29%20empire online].
* {{Cite book |last=Monypenny |first=William Flavelle |title=The Empire and the century |date=1905 |publisher=John Murray |pages=5–28 |chapter=[[s:The Empire and the century/The Imperial Ideal|The Imperial Ideal]] |author-link=William Flavelle Monypenny}}
* [[Parker Thomas Moon|Moon, Parker T.]] ''Imperialism and world politics'' (1926); 583 pp; Wide-ranging historical survey; online
* Ness, Immanuel and Zak Cope, eds. ''The Palgrave Encyclopedia of Imperialism and Anti-Imperialism'' (2 vol 2015), 1456 pp
* Page, Melvin E. et al. eds. ''Colonialism: An International Social, Cultural, and Political Encyclopedia'' (2 vol 2003)
* [[Thomas Pakenham (historian)|Thomas Pakenham]]. ''The Scramble for Africa: White Man's Conquest of the Dark Continent from 1876 to 1912'' (1992), {{ISBN|978-0-380-71999-0}}
* Poddar, Prem, and Lars Jensen, eds., ''A historical companion to postcolonial literatures: Continental Europe and Its Empires'' (Edinburgh UP, 2008) [https://www.amazon.com/Historical-Companion-Postcolonial-Literatures-Continental/dp/0748623949/ excerpt] also [https://www.jstor.org/stable/10.3366/j.ctt1g0b6vw entire text online]
* Rothermund, Dietmar. ''Memories of Post-Imperial Nations: The Aftermath of Decolonization, 1945–2013'' (2015), {{ISBN|1-107-10229-4}}; Compares the impact on Great Britain, the Netherlands, Belgium, France, Portugal, Italy and Japan
* [[Edward Said]], ''Culture and Imperialism,'' Vintage Books, 1998, {{ISBN|0-09-996750-2}}
* Simms, Brendan. ''Three victories and a defeat: the rise and fall of the first British Empire'' (Hachette UK, 2008). to 1783.
* Smith, Simon C. ''British Imperialism 1750–1970,'' Cambridge University Press, 1998, {{ISBN|0-521-59930-X}}
* Stuchtey, Benedikt. [http://nbn-resolving.de/urn:nbn:de:0159-20101025319 ''Colonialism and Imperialism, 1450–1950''], [[European History Online]], Mainz: [[Institute of European History]], 2011.
* {{cite book |last1=Thornton |first1=A.P. |title=Imperialism in the Twentieth Century |date=1980 |publisher=University of Minnesota Press |location=Minneapolis |isbn=9780816609932}}
* U.S. Tariff Commission. ''[https://archive.org/details/colonialtariffpo00unit Colonial tariff policies]'' (1922), worldwide; 922 pp
* Vandervort, Bruce. ''Wars of Imperial Conquest in Africa, 1830―1914'' (Indiana UP, 2009)
* {{Cite journal |last=Winslow |first=E. M. |year=1931 |title=Marxian, Liberal, and Sociological Theories of Imperialism |journal=Journal of Political Economy |volume=39 |issue=6 |pages=713–758 |doi=10.1086/254283 |jstor=1823170 |s2cid=143859209}}
* {{Cite journal |last=Xypolia |first=Ilia |date=August 2016 |title=Divide et Impera: Vertical and Horizontal Dimensions of British Imperialism |journal=Critique |volume=44 |issue=3 |pages=221–231 |doi=10.1080/03017605.2016.1199629 |hdl-access=free |s2cid=148118309 |hdl=2164/9956}}
{{Refend}}

'''Primary sources'''
* [[V. I. Lenin]], ''[[Imperialism: The Highest Stage of Capitalism]],'' International Publishers, New York, 1997, {{ISBN|0-7178-0098-9}}
* [[Rosa Luxemburg]], ''[[The Accumulation of Capital: A Contribution to an Economic Explanation of Imperialism]]''

== External links ==
{{Wiktionary|imperialism}}
{{Wikiquote}}
{{Commons category}}
* [https://www.infoplease.com/encyclopedia/social-science/government/concepts/imperialism Imperialism Entry in The Columbia Electronic Encyclopedia, 6th ed.], Columbia University Press.
* [https://web.archive.org/web/20110512015502/http://www.polis.cam.ac.uk/contacts/staff/eperreausaussine/imperialism.pdf Imperialism], by Emile Perreau-Saussine

==Notes==
{{notelist}} 
{{Politics}}

{{Political ideologies}}
{{Empires}}
{{Authoritarian types of rule}}
{{International relations}}
{{Authority control}}

[[Category:Authoritarianism]]
[[Category:Imperialism| ]]
[[Category:History of colonialism]]
[[Category:Marxian economics]]
[[Category:Political systems]]
[[Category:Political theories]]
[[Category:Invasions]]