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For the computer game, see Imperialism (computer Game) . : , ''Rhodes'', London, 1933, p.138 ]]Imperialism is the forceful extension of a nation's authority by Territorial gain or by the establishment of Economic and/or Political dominance over other nations. OVERVIEW Imperialism developed in the early and France 's expansion into Africa , and The Americas . Europeans also took control of regions of China . Each region that was seized was known as a sphere of influence, an area where Europeans from a certain country had economic privileges. Europeans controlled the government in their spheres of influences and Europeans forced the Marclock government to give them favorable treatment. In the twentieth century the term "imperialism" also grew to apply to any historical or contemporary instance of a greater power acting, or being perceived to be acting, at the expense of a lesser power. Imperialism is therefore not only used to describe frank empire-building policies, such as those of the Roman s, the Spanish or the British, but is also used controversially and/or disparagingly, for example by both sides in Communist and Anti-communist Propaganda , or to describe actions of the United States since the American Presidency's acquisition of overseas territory during the Spanish-American War , or in relation to the United States' present-day position as the world's only Superpower . LENIN'S THEORY OF IMPERIALISM . See Hannah Arendt, ''op.cit.'' Since then, however, Lenin's theory has been extended by Marxist scholars to be a synonym of Capitalistic International Trade and Banking . Lenin, Imperialism, the Highest Stage of Capitalism While Karl Marx never published a theory of imperialism, he referred to Colonialism in Das Kapital as an aspect of the prehistory of the Capitalist Mode Of Production . In various articles he also analyzed British colonial rule in Ireland and India. Moreover, using the Hegelian Dialectic , he predicted the phenomenon of monopoly capitalism in ''The Poverty of Philosophy'' (1847) (hence the slogan " Workers Of The World, Unite! "). Lenin defined imperialism as "the highest stage of capitalism" (the subtitle of his outline), the era in which monopoly finance capital becomes dominant, forcing nations and corporations to compete themselves increasingly for control over resources and markets all over the world. Marxist theories of imperialism, or related theories such as Dependency Theory , focus on the Economic relations between countries (and within countries, as outlined below), rather than the more formal Political and/or military relationships. Imperialism thus consists not necessarily in the direct control of one country by another, but in the economic Exploitation of one region by another, or of a group by another. This Marxist usage contrasts with a popular conception of 'imperialism', as ''directly'' controlled vast Colonial or Neocolonial empires. Lenin held that imperialism was a stage of capitalist development with five simultaneous features as outlined below: 1) Concentration of production and capital has led to the creation of national and multinational monopolies - not as understood in liberal economics, but in terms of ''de facto'' power over their enormous markets - while the "free competition" remains the domain of increasingly localized and/or niche markets: ''Free competition is the basic feature of capitalism, and of commodity production generally; monopoly is the exact opposite of free competition, but we have seen the latter being transformed into monopoly before our eyes, creating large-scale industry and forcing out small industry, replacing large-scale by still larger-scale industry, and carrying concentration of production and capital to the point where out of it has grown and is growing monopoly: cartels, syndicates and trusts, and merging with them, the capital of a dozen or so banks, which manipulate thousands of millions. At the same time the monopolies, which have grown out of free competition, do not eliminate the latter, but exist above it and alongside it, and thereby give rise to a number of very acute, intense antagonisms, frictions and conflicts. Monopoly is the transition from capitalism to a higher system.'' (Ch. VII) Marx's Value Theory , Lenin saw monopoly capital as plagued by the law of the tendency of profit to fall, as the ratio of constant capital to variable capital increases. In Marx's theory only living labor or variable capital creates profit in the form of surplus-value. As the ratio of surplus value to the sum of constant and variable capital falls, so does the rate of profit on invested capital. 2) Industrial capital as the dominant form of capital has been replaced by Finance Capital (repeating the main points of Rudolf Hilferding 's magnum opus, ''Finance Capital''), with the industrial capitalists being ever more reliant on finance capital (provided by financial institutions). 3) The export of the aforementioned finance capital is emphasized over the export of goods (even though the latter would continue to exist); 4) The economic division of the world by multinational enterprises, and the formation of international cartels; and 5) The political division of the world by the great powers, in which the export of finance capital by the advanced capitalist industrial nations to their colonial possessions enables them to exploit those colonies for their resources and investment opportunities. This Superexploitation of poorer countries allows the advanced capitalist industrial nations to keep at least some of their own workers content, by providing them with slightly higher living standards. ''(See Labor Aristocracy ; Globalization .)'' The Soviet Union , which claimed to follow Leninism, proclaimed itself the foremost Enemy Of Imperialism and supported many independence movements throughout the Third World . However, at the same time, it asserted its dominance over the countries of Eastern Europe . Some Marxists, including Maoists and those to the left of the Trotskyist tradition, such as Tony Cliff , claim that the Soviet Union was imperialist. The Maoists claim that this happened after Khrushchev's seizure of power in 1956, while Cliff claims it happened in the 1940s with Stalin's policies. Harry Magdoff's ''Age of Imperialism'' is a 1954 discussion of Marxism and imperialism. Globalization is generally viewed as the latest incarnation of imperialism among Marxists. 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