Imperialism: the Highest Stage of Capitalism: a Popular Outline

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Economic Compulsion That Lenin Talks about In his Essay “Imperialism, the Highest Stage of Capitalism, a Popular Outline"

In his 128 pages essay, titled “Imperialism: The Highest Stage of Capitalism, A Popular Outline", Lenin, a Russian communist, paints a nasty picture of imperialism. According to Lenin, imperialism involves humiliation of the so called third world nations by colonial powers for reasons that are largely, but not entirely, economic. A more detailed, yet summarized definition of imperialism, as outlined by Lenin contains five points. First, the author notes that imperialism involves accumulation of capital and production to an extent of creating monopolies that play a crucial role in influencing global economic decisions (Lenin 196). Secondly, imperialism involves merging or concentration of bank and industrial capital to form what Lenin calls financial oligarchy or accumulation of such financial capital in the hands of a few individuals or institutions (Lenin 210). The third concept of imperialism involves exportation of capital as opposed to exportation of commodities in their raw or finished forms (Lenin 240). The fourth concept of the term involves uniting of international capitalist monopolies to such an extent that they share the world among themselves (Lenin 246). Lenin also includes the division of territorial boundaries by a few nations in his definition of imperialism (Lenin 254). According to Lenin, nations, powerful ones for that matter, are driven by their desire to make huge profits and retain their power. For that reason, nations would go to great extents, including waging world wars, not because they desire to be at war with each other because they want to maintain their status, which mainly includes the status of economic power houses (Lenin 265).

Although Lenin’s short essay was published over a 100 years ago, precisely 1917, it is still relevant. The scramble and subsequent...