Imperialism, the Highest Stage of Capitalism
Encyclopedia
Imperialism, the Highest Stage of Capitalism (1917), by Lenin, describes the function of financial capital
in generating profits from imperial
colonialism
, as the final stage of capitalist
development to ensure greater profits. The essay is a synthesis
of Lenin’s modifications and developments of economic
theories that Karl Marx
formulated in Das Kapital
(1867).
(1914–1918) occurred as an “an annexationist, predatory, plunderous” war among monarchic
empires
, the historical and economic
background must be perceived
.
In order for capitalism
to generate greater profits than the home market can yield, the merging of banks and industrial cartels produces finance capitalism
— the exportation and investment of capital
to countries with under-developed economies. In turn, such financial behaviour leads to the division of the world among monopolist
business companies and the great powers. Moreover, in the course of colonizing
undeveloped countries, Business and Government eventually will engage in geopolitical
conflict over the economic exploitation
of large portions of the geographic world and its populaces. Therefore, imperialism
is the highest (advanced) stage of capitalism, requiring monopolies (of labour and natural-resource exploitation) and the exportation of finance capital (rather than goods) to sustain colonialism, which is an integral function of said economic model. Furthermore, in the capitalist homeland, the super-profits yielded by the colonial exploitation
of a people and their economy, permit businessmen to bribe native politicians — labour leaders and the labour aristocracy (upper stratum of the working class) — to politically thwart worker revolt
(labour strike); hence, the new proletariat
, the exploited workers in the Third World
colonies of the European powers, would become the revolutionary vanguard for deposing the global capitalist system.
I. Concentration of Production and Monopolies
II. The banks and their New Role
III. Finance Capital and the Financial Oligarchy
IV. The Export of Capital
V. The Division of the World among Capitalist Combines
VI. The Division of the World among the Great Powers
VII. Imperialism, as a Special Stage of Capitalism
VIII. The Parasitism and Decay of Capitalism
IX. The Critique of Imperialism
X. The Place of Imperialism
Lenin’s socio–political analysis of empire
as the ultimate stage of capitalism derived from Imperialism: A Study (1902), by John A. Hobson
, an English economist, and Finance Capital (Das Finanzcapital, 1910), by Rudolf Hilferding
, an Austrian Marxist, which synthesis
he applied to the new geopolitical
circumstances of the First World War
(1914–1918), wherein capitalist imperial competition had provoked global war among the German Empire
, the British Empire
, the French Empire
, the Tsarist Russian Empire, and their respective allies.
Three years earlier, in 1914, rival Marxist Karl Kautsky
proposed a theory of capitalist coalition, wherein the imperial powers would unite and subsume their nationalist
and economic antagonisms to a system of ultra-imperialism
, whereby they would jointly effect the colonialist exploitation
of the under-developed world. Lenin countered Kautsky by proposing that the balance of power
among the imperial capitalist states continually changed, thereby disallowing the political unity of ultra-imperialism, and that such instability motivated competition and conflict, rather than co-operation:
The post–War edition of Imperialism, the Highest Stage of Capitalism (1920) identified the territorially punitive Russo–German Treaty of Brest–Litovsk
(1917) and the Allied
–German
Treaty of Versailles
(1919) as proofs that empire
and hegemony
— not nationalism
— were the economic motivations for the First World War. In the preface to the French and German editions of the essay, Lenin proposed that revolt against the capitalist global system would be effected with the “thousand million people” of the colonies and semi-colonies (the system’s weak points), rather than with the urban workers of the industrialised societies of Western Europe. He proposed that revolution
would extend to the advanced (industrial) capitalist countries from the under-developed countries, such as Tsarist Russia, where he and the Bolsheviks had successfully seized political command of the October Revolution
of 1917. In political praxis, Lenin expected to realise the theory of Imperialism, the Highest Stage of Capitalism via the Third International (1919–1943), which he intellectually and politically dominated in the July and August conferences of 1920.
The Core–Periphery
model of global capitalist exploitation, developed by Lenin in the early 20th century, exerted much intellectual influence upon the World-systems theory, by the social scientist Immanuel Wallerstein
, that emphasises world systems of international labour, that divide the world into core countries
, semi-periphery countries
, and periphery countries
. The Core–Periphery model also influenced Dependency theory
, whose proponents Raúl Prebisch
, Andre Gunder Frank
and Fernando Henrique Cardoso
, propose that natural resources flow from a periphery of poor and under-developed countries to a core of wealthy and developed countries, enriching the latter at the expense of the former, because of how the poor countries are integrated to the global economy.
(1914–1918) he redacted a new Preface for the French and German editions (6 July 1920), which was first published in the Communist International No. 18 (1921).
Editions
Finance capitalism
Finance capitalism is a term in Marxian political economics defined as the subordination of processes of production to the accumulation of money profits in a financial system. It is characterized by the pursuit of profit from the purchase and sale of, or investment in, currencies and financial...
in generating profits from imperial
Imperialism
Imperialism, as defined by Dictionary of Human Geography, is "the creation and/or maintenance of an unequal economic, cultural, and territorial relationships, usually between states and often in the form of an empire, based on domination and subordination." The imperialism of the last 500 years,...
colonialism
Exploitation colonialism
Exploitation colonialism is the national economic policy of conquering a country to exploit its natural resources and its native population. The practice of exploitation colonialism contrasts with settler colonialism, the policy of conquering a country to establish a branch of the metropole , and...
, as the final stage of capitalist
Capitalism
Capitalism is an economic system that became dominant in the Western world following the demise of feudalism. There is no consensus on the precise definition nor on how the term should be used as a historical category...
development to ensure greater profits. The essay is a synthesis
Thesis, antithesis, synthesis
The triad thesis, antithesis, synthesis is often used to describe the thought of German philosopher Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel. Hegel never used the term himself, and almost all of his biographers have been eager to discredit it....
of Lenin’s modifications and developments of economic
Political economy
Political economy originally was the term for studying production, buying, and selling, and their relations with law, custom, and government, as well as with the distribution of national income and wealth, including through the budget process. Political economy originated in moral philosophy...
theories that Karl Marx
Karl Marx
Karl Heinrich Marx was a German philosopher, economist, sociologist, historian, journalist, and revolutionary socialist. His ideas played a significant role in the development of social science and the socialist political movement...
formulated in Das Kapital
Das Kapital
Das Kapital, Kritik der politischen Ökonomie , by Karl Marx, is a critical analysis of capitalism as political economy, meant to reveal the economic laws of the capitalist mode of production, and how it was the precursor of the socialist mode of production.- Themes :In Capital: Critique of...
(1867).
Summary
In the Preface to the post-war French and German editions of Imperialism, the Highest Stage of Capitalism (1920), Lenin informs the reader that making sense of why the First World WarWorld War I
World War I , which was predominantly called the World War or the Great War from its occurrence until 1939, and the First World War or World War I thereafter, was a major war centred in Europe that began on 28 July 1914 and lasted until 11 November 1918...
(1914–1918) occurred as an “an annexationist, predatory, plunderous” war among monarchic
Monarchism
Monarchism is the advocacy of the establishment, preservation, or restoration of a monarchy as a form of government in a nation. A monarchist is an individual who supports this form of government out of principle, independent from the person, the Monarch.In this system, the Monarch may be the...
empires
Empire
The term empire derives from the Latin imperium . Politically, an empire is a geographically extensive group of states and peoples united and ruled either by a monarch or an oligarchy....
, the historical and economic
Political economy
Political economy originally was the term for studying production, buying, and selling, and their relations with law, custom, and government, as well as with the distribution of national income and wealth, including through the budget process. Political economy originated in moral philosophy...
background must be perceived
Cultural hegemony
Cultural hegemony is the philosophic and sociological theory, by the Marxist philosopher Antonio Gramsci, that a culturally diverse society can be dominated by one social class, by manipulating the societal culture so that its ruling-class worldview is imposed as the societal norm, which then is...
.
In order for capitalism
Capitalism
Capitalism is an economic system that became dominant in the Western world following the demise of feudalism. There is no consensus on the precise definition nor on how the term should be used as a historical category...
to generate greater profits than the home market can yield, the merging of banks and industrial cartels produces finance capitalism
Finance capitalism
Finance capitalism is a term in Marxian political economics defined as the subordination of processes of production to the accumulation of money profits in a financial system. It is characterized by the pursuit of profit from the purchase and sale of, or investment in, currencies and financial...
— the exportation and investment of capital
Capital (economics)
In economics, capital, capital goods, or real capital refers to already-produced durable goods used in production of goods or services. The capital goods are not significantly consumed, though they may depreciate in the production process...
to countries with under-developed economies. In turn, such financial behaviour leads to the division of the world among monopolist
Monopoly
A monopoly exists when a specific person or enterprise is the only supplier of a particular commodity...
business companies and the great powers. Moreover, in the course of colonizing
Exploitation colonialism
Exploitation colonialism is the national economic policy of conquering a country to exploit its natural resources and its native population. The practice of exploitation colonialism contrasts with settler colonialism, the policy of conquering a country to establish a branch of the metropole , and...
undeveloped countries, Business and Government eventually will engage in geopolitical
Geopolitics
Geopolitics, from Greek Γη and Πολιτική in broad terms, is a theory that describes the relation between politics and territory whether on local or international scale....
conflict over the economic exploitation
Exploitation
This article discusses the term exploitation in the meaning of using something in an unjust or cruel manner.- As unjust benefit :In political economy, economics, and sociology, exploitation involves a persistent social relationship in which certain persons are being mistreated or unfairly used for...
of large portions of the geographic world and its populaces. Therefore, imperialism
Imperialism
Imperialism, as defined by Dictionary of Human Geography, is "the creation and/or maintenance of an unequal economic, cultural, and territorial relationships, usually between states and often in the form of an empire, based on domination and subordination." The imperialism of the last 500 years,...
is the highest (advanced) stage of capitalism, requiring monopolies (of labour and natural-resource exploitation) and the exportation of finance capital (rather than goods) to sustain colonialism, which is an integral function of said economic model. Furthermore, in the capitalist homeland, the super-profits yielded by the colonial exploitation
Exploitation colonialism
Exploitation colonialism is the national economic policy of conquering a country to exploit its natural resources and its native population. The practice of exploitation colonialism contrasts with settler colonialism, the policy of conquering a country to establish a branch of the metropole , and...
of a people and their economy, permit businessmen to bribe native politicians — labour leaders and the labour aristocracy (upper stratum of the working class) — to politically thwart worker revolt
Strike
Strike may refer to:-Refusal to work or perform:* Strike action, also known as a walkout, a work stoppage caused by the mass refusal of employees to perform work...
(labour strike); hence, the new proletariat
Proletariat
The proletariat is a term used to identify a lower social class, usually the working class; a member of such a class is proletarian...
, the exploited workers in the Third World
Third World
The term Third World arose during the Cold War to define countries that remained non-aligned with either capitalism and NATO , or communism and the Soviet Union...
colonies of the European powers, would become the revolutionary vanguard for deposing the global capitalist system.
I. Concentration of Production and Monopolies
II. The banks and their New Role
III. Finance Capital and the Financial Oligarchy
IV. The Export of Capital
V. The Division of the World among Capitalist Combines
VI. The Division of the World among the Great Powers
VII. Imperialism, as a Special Stage of Capitalism
VIII. The Parasitism and Decay of Capitalism
IX. The Critique of Imperialism
X. The Place of Imperialism
Theoretical development
Empire
The term empire derives from the Latin imperium . Politically, an empire is a geographically extensive group of states and peoples united and ruled either by a monarch or an oligarchy....
as the ultimate stage of capitalism derived from Imperialism: A Study (1902), by John A. Hobson
John A. Hobson
John Atkinson Hobson , commonly known as John A. Hobson or J. A. Hobson, was an English economist and critic of imperialism, widely popular as a lecturer and writer.-Life:...
, an English economist, and Finance Capital (Das Finanzcapital, 1910), by Rudolf Hilferding
Rudolf Hilferding
Rudolf Hilferding was an Austrian-born Marxist economist, leading socialist theorist, politician and chief theoretician for the Social Democratic Party of Germany during the Weimar Republic, almost universally recognized as the SPD's foremost theoretician of his century, and a...
, an Austrian Marxist, which synthesis
Thesis, antithesis, synthesis
The triad thesis, antithesis, synthesis is often used to describe the thought of German philosopher Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel. Hegel never used the term himself, and almost all of his biographers have been eager to discredit it....
he applied to the new geopolitical
Geopolitics
Geopolitics, from Greek Γη and Πολιτική in broad terms, is a theory that describes the relation between politics and territory whether on local or international scale....
circumstances of the First World War
World War I
World War I , which was predominantly called the World War or the Great War from its occurrence until 1939, and the First World War or World War I thereafter, was a major war centred in Europe that began on 28 July 1914 and lasted until 11 November 1918...
(1914–1918), wherein capitalist imperial competition had provoked global war among the German Empire
German Empire
The German Empire refers to Germany during the "Second Reich" period from the unification of Germany and proclamation of Wilhelm I as German Emperor on 18 January 1871, to 1918, when it became a federal republic after defeat in World War I and the abdication of the Emperor, Wilhelm II.The German...
, the British Empire
British Empire
The British Empire comprised the dominions, colonies, protectorates, mandates and other territories ruled or administered by the United Kingdom. It originated with the overseas colonies and trading posts established by England in the late 16th and early 17th centuries. At its height, it was the...
, the French Empire
French Third Republic
The French Third Republic was the republican government of France from 1870, when the Second French Empire collapsed due to the French defeat in the Franco-Prussian War, to 1940, when France was overrun by Nazi Germany during World War II, resulting in the German and Italian occupations of France...
, the Tsarist Russian Empire, and their respective allies.
Three years earlier, in 1914, rival Marxist Karl Kautsky
Karl Kautsky
Karl Johann Kautsky was a Czech-German philosopher, journalist, and Marxist theoretician. Kautsky was recognized as among the most authoritative promulgators of Orthodox Marxism after the death of Friedrich Engels in 1895 until the coming of World War I in 1914 and was called by some the "Pope of...
proposed a theory of capitalist coalition, wherein the imperial powers would unite and subsume their nationalist
Nationalism
Nationalism is a political ideology that involves a strong identification of a group of individuals with a political entity defined in national terms, i.e. a nation. In the 'modernist' image of the nation, it is nationalism that creates national identity. There are various definitions for what...
and economic antagonisms to a system of ultra-imperialism
Ultra-imperialism
Ultra-imperialism, or occasionally hyperimperialism and formerly super-imperialism, is a potential, comparatively peaceful phase of capitalism, meaning "after" or "beyond" imperialism. It was described mainly by Karl Kautsky...
, whereby they would jointly effect the colonialist exploitation
Exploitation
This article discusses the term exploitation in the meaning of using something in an unjust or cruel manner.- As unjust benefit :In political economy, economics, and sociology, exploitation involves a persistent social relationship in which certain persons are being mistreated or unfairly used for...
of the under-developed world. Lenin countered Kautsky by proposing that the balance of power
Balance of power
Balance of power may refer to:* Balance of power , distribution of power between a central government and its subnational governments...
among the imperial capitalist states continually changed, thereby disallowing the political unity of ultra-imperialism, and that such instability motivated competition and conflict, rather than co-operation:
Half a century ago Germany was a miserable insignificant country, if her capitalist strength is compared with that of the Britain of that time; Japan compared with Russia in the same way. Is it “conceivable that in ten or twenty years’ time the relative strength will have remained unchanged?” It is out of the question.
The post–War edition of Imperialism, the Highest Stage of Capitalism (1920) identified the territorially punitive Russo–German Treaty of Brest–Litovsk
Treaty of Brest-Litovsk
The Treaty of Brest-Litovsk was a peace treaty signed on March 3, 1918, mediated by South African Andrik Fuller, at Brest-Litovsk between Russia and the Central Powers, headed by Germany, marking Russia's exit from World War I.While the treaty was practically obsolete before the end of the year,...
(1917) and the Allied
Allies of World War I
The Entente Powers were the countries at war with the Central Powers during World War I. The members of the Triple Entente were the United Kingdom, France, and the Russian Empire; Italy entered the war on their side in 1915...
–German
German Empire
The German Empire refers to Germany during the "Second Reich" period from the unification of Germany and proclamation of Wilhelm I as German Emperor on 18 January 1871, to 1918, when it became a federal republic after defeat in World War I and the abdication of the Emperor, Wilhelm II.The German...
Treaty of Versailles
Treaty of Versailles
The Treaty of Versailles was one of the peace treaties at the end of World War I. It ended the state of war between Germany and the Allied Powers. It was signed on 28 June 1919, exactly five years after the assassination of Archduke Franz Ferdinand. The other Central Powers on the German side of...
(1919) as proofs that empire
Empire
The term empire derives from the Latin imperium . Politically, an empire is a geographically extensive group of states and peoples united and ruled either by a monarch or an oligarchy....
and hegemony
Hegemony
Hegemony is an indirect form of imperial dominance in which the hegemon rules sub-ordinate states by the implied means of power rather than direct military force. In Ancient Greece , hegemony denoted the politico–military dominance of a city-state over other city-states...
— not nationalism
Nationalism
Nationalism is a political ideology that involves a strong identification of a group of individuals with a political entity defined in national terms, i.e. a nation. In the 'modernist' image of the nation, it is nationalism that creates national identity. There are various definitions for what...
— were the economic motivations for the First World War. In the preface to the French and German editions of the essay, Lenin proposed that revolt against the capitalist global system would be effected with the “thousand million people” of the colonies and semi-colonies (the system’s weak points), rather than with the urban workers of the industrialised societies of Western Europe. He proposed that revolution
Revolution
A revolution is a fundamental change in power or organizational structures that takes place in a relatively short period of time.Aristotle described two types of political revolution:...
would extend to the advanced (industrial) capitalist countries from the under-developed countries, such as Tsarist Russia, where he and the Bolsheviks had successfully seized political command of the October Revolution
October Revolution
The October Revolution , also known as the Great October Socialist Revolution , Red October, the October Uprising or the Bolshevik Revolution, was a political revolution and a part of the Russian Revolution of 1917...
of 1917. In political praxis, Lenin expected to realise the theory of Imperialism, the Highest Stage of Capitalism via the Third International (1919–1943), which he intellectually and politically dominated in the July and August conferences of 1920.
Intellectual influence
Core-periphery
Core-periphery theory is based on the notion that as one region or state expands in economic prosperity, it must engulf regions nearby to ensure ongoing economic and political success. The area of high growth or former high growth becomes known as the core, and the neighboring area is the periphery...
model of global capitalist exploitation, developed by Lenin in the early 20th century, exerted much intellectual influence upon the World-systems theory, by the social scientist Immanuel Wallerstein
Immanuel Wallerstein
Immanuel Maurice Wallerstein is a US sociologist, historical social scientist, and world-systems analyst...
, that emphasises world systems of international labour, that divide the world into core countries
Core countries
In World Systems Theory, the core countries are the industrialized capitalist countries on which periphery countries and semi-periphery countries depend. Core countries control and benefit from the global market. They are usually recognized as wealthy nations with a wide variety of resources and...
, semi-periphery countries
Semi-periphery countries
In world-systems theory, the semi-periphery countries are the industrializing, mostly capitalist countries which are positioned between the periphery and core countries...
, and periphery countries
Periphery countries
In World Systems Theory, the periphery countries are those that are less developed than the semi-periphery and core countries. These countries usually receive a disproportionately small share of global wealth. They have weak state institutions and are dependent on – according to some, exploited...
. The Core–Periphery model also influenced Dependency theory
Dependency theory
Dependency theory or dependencia theory is a body of social science theories predicated on the notion that resources flow from a "periphery" of poor and underdeveloped states to a "core" of wealthy states, enriching the latter at the expense of the former...
, whose proponents Raúl Prebisch
Raúl Prebisch
Raúl Prebisch was an Argentine economist known for his contribution to structuralist economics, in particular the Singer–Prebisch thesis that formed the basis of economic dependency theory. He is sometimes considered to be a neo-Marxist though this label is misleading...
, Andre Gunder Frank
Andre Gunder Frank
Andre Gunder Frank was a German-American economic historian and sociologist who promoted "dependency theory" after 1970 and "World Systems Theory" after 1984...
and Fernando Henrique Cardoso
Fernando Henrique Cardoso
Fernando Henrique Cardoso – also known by his initials FHC – was the 34th President of the Federative Republic of Brazil for two terms from January 1, 1995 to December 31, 2002. He is an accomplished sociologist, professor and politician...
, propose that natural resources flow from a periphery of poor and under-developed countries to a core of wealthy and developed countries, enriching the latter at the expense of the former, because of how the poor countries are integrated to the global economy.
Publication History
In 1916, Lenin wrote Imperialism, the Highest Stage of Capitalism (1917), in Zürich, during the January–June period. The essay was first published by Zhzn i, Znaniye Publishers, Petrograd, in mid 1917; after the First World WarWorld War I
World War I , which was predominantly called the World War or the Great War from its occurrence until 1939, and the First World War or World War I thereafter, was a major war centred in Europe that began on 28 July 1914 and lasted until 11 November 1918...
(1914–1918) he redacted a new Preface for the French and German editions (6 July 1920), which was first published in the Communist International No. 18 (1921).
Editions
- Владимир Ленин (1917) Империализм, как Высшая Стадия Капитализма, Петроград: Жизнь и Знание.
- Vladimir Lenin (1948) Imperialism, the Highest Stage of Capitalism, London: Lawrence and Wishart.
- Vladimir Lenin (2000) Imperialism, the Highest Stage of Capitalism, with Introduction by Prabat Patnaik, New Delhi: LeftWord Books
- Vladimir Lenin (2010) Imperialism, the Highest Stage of Capitalism, Penguin Classics.
See also
- Banana republicBanana republicIn political science, the pejorative term Banana Republic denotes a politically unstable country dependent upon limited primary productions , which is ruled by a plutocracy, a small, self-elected, wealthy group who exploit the country by means of a politico-economic oligarchy...
- Das KapitalDas KapitalDas Kapital, Kritik der politischen Ökonomie , by Karl Marx, is a critical analysis of capitalism as political economy, meant to reveal the economic laws of the capitalist mode of production, and how it was the precursor of the socialist mode of production.- Themes :In Capital: Critique of...
- Dependency theoryDependency theoryDependency theory or dependencia theory is a body of social science theories predicated on the notion that resources flow from a "periphery" of poor and underdeveloped states to a "core" of wealthy states, enriching the latter at the expense of the former...
- Exploitation colonialismExploitation colonialismExploitation colonialism is the national economic policy of conquering a country to exploit its natural resources and its native population. The practice of exploitation colonialism contrasts with settler colonialism, the policy of conquering a country to establish a branch of the metropole , and...
- GlobalizationGlobalizationGlobalization refers to the increasingly global relationships of culture, people and economic activity. Most often, it refers to economics: the global distribution of the production of goods and services, through reduction of barriers to international trade such as tariffs, export fees, and import...
- Political economyPolitical economyPolitical economy originally was the term for studying production, buying, and selling, and their relations with law, custom, and government, as well as with the distribution of national income and wealth, including through the budget process. Political economy originated in moral philosophy...
- Singer–Prebisch thesis
- Ultra-imperialismUltra-imperialismUltra-imperialism, or occasionally hyperimperialism and formerly super-imperialism, is a potential, comparatively peaceful phase of capitalism, meaning "after" or "beyond" imperialism. It was described mainly by Karl Kautsky...
- The Accumulation of Capital: A Contribution to an Economic Explanation of ImperialismThe Accumulation of CapitalThe Accumulation of Capital is the principal book length work of Rosa Luxemburg first published in 1913.It is in three sections as described below :# The Problem of Reproduction#...
(1913), by Rosa LuxemburgRosa LuxemburgRosa Luxemburg was a Marxist theorist, philosopher, economist and activist of Polish Jewish descent who became a naturalized German citizen...