IJASOS- International E-journal of Advances in Social Sciences

Abstract

In the context of politics in the
contemporary world, the concepts of "empire" and
"imperialism" are increasingly used. The study of imperialism becomes
an important and urgent issue. We propose to consider the concept of
"imperialism" as a notion and a phenomenon.

The notion of
"imperialism" was appeared in the second half of the XIX century.
"Imperialism" was understood as "the desire of the state to
expand its territorial (colonial) possessions, mainly in other parts of the
world". The notion of "imperialism" was elaborated to define the
dominant policy of the empire. Then this notion began to be used to refer to
the policy of colonial empires. Through this concept has acquired independent
features and later separated from the phenomenon of the empire. In the
post-colonial world, we can talk about the imperialism of territories that are
not empires; including scientist can speak about internal imperialism in the
territory of one country.

At the turn of the XIX and XX
centuries “Imperialism” began to be understood as the equivalent of
colonialism, including as the colonialism of maritime powers. This led to both
basic provisions for understanding "imperialism": political and
economic. The concept of "imperialism" has acquired a new meaning in
the Marxist approach, where imperialism has become synonymous with capitalism.

In Russian science, imperialism is
more often understood as an economic phenomenon - the highest stage of
capitalism with a negative connotation, and in West European and in American
science it is understood as a political phenomenon - the desire of the country
to expand its territory or zone of its influence.

In the middle of the twentieth
century, a new round of the concept of "imperialism" development
began. In addition to political and economic meaning, the military and the
cultural one have begun to be defined. 
Now scientists have a discussion about military imperialism and cultural
imperialism. In addition to cultural imperialism, Galtung singled out
communication imperialism, which has become increasingly intense due to
actively developing globalization.

After we observed the history of the
concept of imperialism, we can conclude that due to the formulation of the
contextual variables of the "imperialism" concept it is used in
different historical contexts, and not only in relation to the colonial and
post-colonial period. Today the notion of imperialism is filled with new
meanings connected with the domination of the four most important aspects of
interstate interaction: military, political, economic and cultural.