Imperialism

Imperialism has existed for many centuries and is defined in different ways. Some scholars have related it directly to their definition of empire. For our consideration here, however, which lies mainly with the twentieth century, it seems best to define it as a country's extension of rule or authority by force or the threat of its use over a foreign territory. Such a simple definition sidesteps the very complex arguments among scholars about formal and informal empires and what constitutes an empire. Such debates need not bog us down here.

The imperialism of the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries had many unique features. The desire for new markets to absorb the increasing capitalist productive capacity and to help overcome the global depression of 1873 to 1896, along with technological advances in shipping, communications, and military capacities, stimulated a new outburst of imperialism. British Prime Minister Lord Salisbury said in 1895, “We must be prepared to take the requisite measures to open new markets for ourselves among the half-civilized or uncivilized nations of the globe.” In 1898, the year of the U.S. annexation of Hawaii and of the Spanish–American War, political orator and soon-to-be senator from Indiana, Albert Beveridge, expressed a similar sentiment: