This chapter argues that G. W. F. Hegel was concerned mainly with the creation of colonies of settlement as a response to poverty generated in European society by economic transformation. Karl Marx's interest was drawn, first, to the decisive impetus of intercontinental trade in the formation of the global economy and, second, to the role he believed contemporary European overseas empire would play in hastening capitalism's maturation and demise. It suggests that much of the divergence between Hegel and Marx on the imperial themes stems from the different intellectual influences as well as the disparate political contexts in which each operated. Colonization represented a viable political solution within Hegel's framework. An analysis of the theme of colonies and empire in the political thought of Hegel and Marx suggests that the extra-European dimension is a crucial, if relatively neglected, feature of their thought and also facilitates unusual comparisons between them.