Imperialism in International Relations

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The following article, “Imperialism in International Relations“, is written by Quratulain Babar, a student of Sir Syed Kazim Ali. Moreover, the article is written on the same pattern, taught by Sir to his students, scoring the highest marks in compulsory subjects for years. Sir Kazim has uploaded his students’ solved past paper questions so other thousands of aspirants can understand how to crack a topic or question, how to write relevantly, what coherence is, and how to include and connect ideas, opinions, and suggestions to score the maximum.

Outline

1-Introduction

2-Understanding Imperialism in International Relations

3-History of Imperialism in International Relations

• ✓European subjugation of the Americas, Africa, and India

4-Effects of Imperialism in International Relations

• ✓Psychological conditioning
• ✓Economic impacts
• ✓Anti-colonial movements

5-Post-imperial Dependency in International Relations

• ✓Limited training and narrow development
• ✓Borders drawn by Europeans
• ✓Incapable leadership  

6-Imperialism through the Lens of International Relations

• ✓Theory of Dependency
  • Enclave economy
    • Evidence: Case study of Angola’s province
  • Nationally controlled production 
    • Evidence: The national capitalist class serves the purpose of industrialized nations.
  • Role of Multinational Corporations (MNCs)
    • Evidence: General Motors factory in Brazil
• ✓Lenin’s theory of imperialism
  • North-South divide through Lenin’s theory
  • Consequence of Lenin’s revolution
    • Evidence: Case study of Mao’s revolution in China

7-Conclusion 

Answer to the Question

Introduction

In International Relations, imperialism – the political domination of weaker states by stronger ones – is seen in terms of asymmetrical power division between the global South and the North. Historically, imperialism has its roots in the 16th century with the expansion of European trade and the discovery of new territories to make profits, resulting in the colonization of territories and economic and psychological exploitation of the locals. Not ending here, even after the independence of these colonies, most of them depend on their colonial masters. The significant factors of their dependence are the limited economic development during the colonial era, incapable leadership, and the borders drawn by Europeans. All these scenarios are the topics of hot debate in IR, where different theorists put them in perspective to see a clearer picture. In this consideration, the theory of Lenin and the Marxist approach are the two primary speculations explaining imperialism concerning the North-South divide. 

What is Imperialism in International Relations?

Exploring the general understanding of the term, ‘Imperialism’ was first coined in the second half of the 19th century. It originated from the Latin word ‘imperium’, meaning supreme power, sovereignty, or rule. It is the practice, theory, or attitude of maintaining or extending power over foreign nations, mainly through expansions. In other words, imperialism is a state strategy in which one country conquers foreign lands to turn them into colonies. 

History of Imperialism in International Relations

Knowing how imperialism emerged and strengthened its roots is pertinent to grasping the concept of imperialism. From the mid-1500s to the late 1800s, Europeans conquered the Americas, South Asia, and sub-Saharan Africa. 

• ✓European Subjugation of the Americas, Africa, and India

During the 1300s and the 1400s, Chinese ships moved spices and manufactured goods to India; Muslim ships then moved these goods to Middle Eastern ports, and Venetian traders took the Cargo to Europe. By the early 1500s, Portugal broke into this lucrative business by sailing down the African coast and then north to India and the islands of today’s Indonesia. By 1500, Portugal also discovered and began to colonize Brazil. Seeking a new path to East Asia by supporting Columbus’ expedition, Spain reached the Americas instead. It conquered the Aztec Empire in 1519 and the Inca Empire in 1531 and, soon after, found gold in these regions along with abundant silver. By the 1700s, the Dutch supplanted the Portuguese in much of East Asia and the East Indies, and the French established small colonies in North America and the Caribbean. As far as the British are concerned, by 1700, they had founded colonies in the Atlantic seaboard and numerous islands in the Caribbean. At that time, English trading posts were operating in the Indian ports of Bombay, Madras, and Calcutta. Moreover, the defeat of France in the wars during the 1700s resulted in Britain’s dominance over all of Canada and Britain’s victory over France in wars during the first half of a pre-eminent position of much of India. Nonetheless, between 1775 and 1783, the War of Independence led by Americans sharply constrained Britain’s stronghold in and over the Americas. However, after the Napoleonic Wars, Britain gained control over the Cape of Good Hope, all of India, and several additional sugar-rich islands in the Caribbean. Britain’s position in the world order can be gauged by a famous saying at the time: ‘ The sun never sets in the British Empire’. In addition, the United States, Germany, Japan, Belgium, and Italy, during the 19th and early 20th centuries, joined the major imperial European powers, extending their empires to new regions. Britain undertook direct rule in India in 1857 after an attempted rebellion by Indian army units and, in 1882, took control of Egypt, which had been breaking away from the Ottoman-Turkish Empire. At the same time, France seized Algeria and Tunisia and made inroads into Morocco. By 1900, Belgium was in control of the Congo region, Portugal expanded into Angola and Mozambique, and Italy seized Libya during 1911 and 1912. Further, by 1900, Germany gained territories in eastern, western, and southwestern Africa, and the Netherlands consolidated its control over the East Indies. In the wave of decolonization after World War 2, it was not local colonialists (as in the case of the Americas) but indigenous populations in Asia and Africa who won independence. 

Effects of Imperialism in International Relations

Further, imperialism deeply impacted people and their culture, which will be discussed in the following paragraphs.

•✓Psychological conditioning

First, imperialism had a profound psychological impact on the colonized. To elaborate, despite the large number of natives in Asia and Africa, Europeans maintained their hegemony and stronghold on these peoples. It was made possible by a combination of force and, most importantly, psychological conditioning. Consequently, the white domination was normalized as the locals considered themselves inferior and unable to resist the foreigners. The best demonstration of this phenomenon is the Subcontinent, where locals were multiple times the English, but the British ruled them for more than a century. As a result, the whites often lived in a bubble world separated from the local inhabitants’ lives. 

•✓Economic impacts

Moreover, imperialism also had economic impacts on the colonies. For example, the most easily accessible minerals were dug up and shipped away. Apart from minerals, the best farmland was not planted with subsistence crops; instead it is planted with subsistence crops and sometimes overworked and eroded. Further, the infrastructure that was built served the purposes of imperialism rather than the local population; for instance, railroads only connected mining areas to ports. All this resulted in the economic exploitation of the colonies by the whites. Contrarily, the financial effects were not all adverse. To illustrate, colonialism often fostered local economic accumulation. Much of the infrastructure that exists today in third-world countries was created by colonizers. 

•✓Anti-colonial movements

Furthermore, whenever there were colonizers, there were anti-colonial movements. As a result of the exploitation of the colonizers, independence movements throughout Africa and Asia gained momentum during and after World War 2. Throughout the 1960s, people started to resist imperialism, resulting in a wave of successful independence movements from one country to another. For example, Gandhi’s nonviolent resistance to British rule and the independence of Algeria and Vietnam through warfare are some examples of the movements against imperialism. This was the direct outcome of imperialism and continued until these colonies gained independence. 

Post-imperial dependency in International Relations

Moving ahead, the most general notion regarding imperialism is that it concentrates wealth in the core, draining economic surplus from the periphery. In this context, it might be considered that accumulation in the global South would take off once imperialism was overthrown. Nonetheless, that has never been the case as, except for some exceptions like Singapore, many countries of the South have never accumulated capital successfully since becoming independent. Many factors lead to the global South’s dependency on the global North.

• ✓Limited training and narrow development

First, the locals’ limited training and experience during the colonial period is one of the significant factors, leaving a massive gap in technical and administrative skills. Another problem faced by newly independent states was that as colonies, their economies had been narrowly developed to serve the needs of the European home country. Many of these economies rested on the export of one or two products. To illustrate, for Zambia, it was copper ore; for EI Salvador, coffee; for Botswana, diamonds. Such a narrow export economy would seem well-suited to use the state’s comparative advantage to increase its specialization in the world economy’s one niche. But it leaves the state prone to price fluctuations on world markets. In addition, infrastructure, such as railroads, was set up to serve the export economy. For example, in Angola and Namibia, the major railroads, built in colonial times, lead from mining and plantation districts to ports. 

• ✓Borders drawn by Europeans

Likewise, the borders of the colonial states drawn by their imperial masters are another factor obstructing their growth. To illustrate, the boundaries of these countries were drawn by officers sitting as overseers. As a result, many ethnic rivalries erupted in these regions, leading to instability. Many African countries are good examples in this regard. Thus, these rivalries resulted in civil wars, halting capital accumulation.

• ✓Incapable leadership 

Finally, the government’s inability to control its territory was another reason for its dependency on the global North. In some cases, corruption penetrated the roots of these governments’ administration, and in other cases, the centralized government made matters worse. All this resulted in its poor development.

 In sum, liberation from colonial control did not change underlying economic realities. The main trading partners of the newly independent countries were usually their former colonial masters. Moreover, the main products were usually those developed under colonialism. And the administrative units and territorial borders were those created by Europeans. Therefore, the state continued to occupy the same peripheral position in the world system after independence as it had before.  

Imperialism through the Lens of International Relations

Talking about imperialism notion in international relations (IR), this subject sees imperialism as asymmetrical power relations between developed and underdeveloped countries. The theory of Lenin and the Marxist scholars of IR explain this relation.

Theory of Dependency

Regarding Marxist scholars, the relation between the developed and the developing world is seen through dependency theory. In this consideration, dependency is a situation where capital accumulation cannot sustain itself internally. According to this theory, a dependent country must borrow capital to produce goods; its debt payments then reduce the accumulation of surplus. This theory does not focus on the overall structure of the world system (centre and periphery) but on how a peripheral state’s internal class relationships play out. These theorists illustrate that a third-world state’s development (or lack thereof) depends on its local conditions and history.

• ✓Enclave economy

One historically significant dependency configuration is the enclave economy in which foreign capital is invested in the third-world country to extract a particular raw material in a specific place, usually a mine, oil well, or plantation. In this economy, the cycle of capital accumulation is primed by foreign capital, fueled by local resources, and completes itself with the sale of products in foreign markets. Such an arrangement leaves the country’s economy largely untouched except to give employment to a few local workers in the enclave and to provide taxes to the state. Over time, it leaves the state’s natural resources depleted.

• Case study of Angola’s province

In this regard, Angola’s Cabinda province thatis found up the coast from the rest of Angola is an excellent example of an enclave economy. To explain, Chevron pumps oil from a large field of offshore wells, and the money goes to Angolan government officials spending some on weapons and pocket large sums in flagrant acts of corruption. Aside from a tiny number of workers who work for Chevron, the people of Cabinda live in poverty with recurrent banditry by unpaid soldiers, crumbling infrastructure, and few government services and jobs. However, the U.S. workers, inside the Chevron compound, drive on paved roads, eat American food, and enjoy an 18-hole golf course. And they spend 28 days there working 12 hours a day and then fly back to the United States for 28 days of rest. Travelling the 12 miles to the airport by helicopter, the Americans rarely leave the fenced compound, which Chevron reportedly surrounded with land mines. This example best explains the prevention of capital accumulation in the dependent state. 

• ✓Nationally controlled production

Next, a different historical pattern is nationally controlled production, in which a local capitalist class controls a cycle of accumulation based on producing export products. The cycle still depends on foreign markets, but the profits accrue to the local capitalists, building up a powerful class of wealthy owners within the country. This class – the local bourgeoisie – tends to behave in a manner consistent with the interests of wealthy industrialized countries (on whose markets the class depends). They are not unpatriotic, but their interests tend to converge with those of foreign capitalists. For instance, they want to keep local wages as low as possible and thus produce cheap goods for consumers in rich countries. In alliance with political authorities, the local capitalists enforce a system of domination that ultimately serves the foreign capitalists. In this manner, the local elite directs the national economy towards the needs of the rich nations, which serves as a source of raw materials and a market for goods from the rich countries that would be sold to the elite. The government has failed to develop indigenous manufacturing and a vibrant working and middle class. This is another form of dependency.

• ✓Role of Multinational Corporations (MNCs)

After World War 2, a third form of dependency became more common – MNCs’ penetration of national economies. In this case, the capital is provided externally (as with enclaves); however, production is for local markets. For instance, a General Motors (GM) factory in Brazil produces cars primarily for sale within Brazil. Income must be concentrated enough to create a middle class that can afford such goods to develop local markets for such manufactured goods.  This sharpens income disparities within the country (most people remain poor). The cycle of accumulation depends on regional labour and local markets. However, because MNCs provide foreign capital, they profit from much of the surplus. 

• Lenin’s theory of imperialism

Explaining the theory, Lenin was the revolutionary leader of the Bolshevik movement, which brought communists to power in Russia in 1917 and began its transformation into the multinational empire of the Soviet Union. However, like Thucydides, Lenin systematically analyzed international relations as a political scientist. He wrote a short book, Imperialism: The Highest Stage of Capitalism, containing an elegant international relations theory.

• Lenin’s theory

In his theory of imperialism, Lenin argued that the European capitalists were investing in colonies where they could earn big profits and then using part of these to buy off the working class at home. At the end of the nineteenth century, he argued that large banks and corporations in Europe and America needed new markets to maintain their economic profits. After a while, profits declined at home, so they had to look abroad, where capital was scarce and investments were more profitable. To capture new markets in places like Africa, the capitalists in Germany prodded the German government to conquer some African territories, giving them exclusive colonial control over the people and resources in these territories. Similarly, the British banks and corporations got their government to take steps similar to those of the American, French, and other capitalist powers. Lenin thereby explains the scramble for Africa, or the colonial powers’ carving up of that continent after 1870, as a function of the simultaneous need of various capitalist countries to expand. When all the existing territory was taken, capitalist countries had no choice but to fight each other to redistribute the territory. This is how Lenin explained World War I, which was being fought when the Bolshevik revolution was carried out. Lenin also argued that capitalist countries would keep fighting each other until they exhausted themselves, allowing nation-states with less profit-driven economies (socialist states) to take over.

• ✓North-South divide through Lenin’s theory

Contemporarily, the approach to North-South relations is still shaped by Lenin’s idea, which states that the developed world exploits the developing world (through formal or informal colonization) and buys off its own working class with profits. Through this globalization of class relations, world accumulation concentrates surplus toward the wealthy parts of the world and away from the poor ones.

• ✓Consequence of Lenin’s Revolution

Additionally, Lenin’s revolution resulted in many revolutions in the third world, ending European exploitation. After this era, the United States, the world’s most prosperous economy, became the target of revolutionaries agitating against exploitation in poor countries. Imperialists were thrown out in several countries, and revolutionary nationalists took power.

• Case study of China

One of the most critical revolutions was in China, where Mao Zedong’s communists took power in 1949. This revolution was based on Lenin’s ideology and was mainly led by peasants. After taking power, Mao declared that China had finally stood on its feet, throwing off imperialism. This pattern was repeated in variations in dozens of countries.

Conclusion 

Conclusively, the yawning gap between the industrialized stars and the industrializing states is seen as a direct outcome of Imperialism. This approach is put into perspective by the IR theories. Marxist scholars know the global South’s dependency on the North due to the history of the countries of the global South and their internal class relationships. Similarly, Lenin’s theory sees imperialism as the weapon of the industrialized nations to advance their capitalistic aims. In other words, imperialism is seen as an impediment to the development of the global South.

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