INTERNATIONAL RELATIONS AND POLITICS Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2250 words

INTERNATIONAL RELATIONS AND POLITICS - Essay Example The term of imperialism is usually applied when speaking about such countries as the United Kingdom, the USA, Japan, Italy, Spain and France of the 19th century. In that time these countries were trying to found empires by owning areas in Africa. This process is known as â€Å"the Scramble for Africa†. In his work dated 1916 â€Å"Imperialism, the Highest stage of Capitalism† Lenin wrote about the importance of building the strong capitalist empire that will treat other nations and will have enough power to take decisions on the world arena. According to him, imperialism implies the domination of the developed countries over the underdeveloped ones (such as African counties). Though it must be mentioned that empire-building and the desire to capture other lands has always been in the history, the Lenin’s imperialism was a specific one because of the capitalist basis. Capitalism is founded on the idea that all the power is possessed by private owners and capital s tands for the key element in the economic system. Within the turn of the 19th century the capitalism in such countries as France, Japan, the USA and the UK was characterized by a great number of monopolies. Lenin wrote in his manifest that the small privately owned companies that were the key factor of the nation prosperity according to Karl Marx were to be replaced by the big monopolies that would have fewer owners, and in other words, fewer people controlling it. Such giants of production or other business controlled the whole nation with the help of the power that capital gave to them. The thing is that the dominant elements of the economy â€Å"capital, land and wealth were concentrated in the hands of the few† (Greene, 1970). Lenin wrote: "if it was necessary to give the briefest possible definition of imperialism, we should have to say that imperialism is the monopoly stage of capitalism" (Greene, 1970). So, when the economy of one country strives for monopoly, it leads to the decrease of competition. In a while such situation in one state can project to the international arena. In order to secure the power, capital and their ownership those few people needed the support of the state. Any security implies heavy spending on military forces. According to Lenin’s theory, the monopolization of the capital leads to the army strengthening. The rate of a country’s security depended on its army and navy forces, and it in its turn depended on the industrial production that provided these departments. As a result the interests of monopolies and state linked together and there appeared tough interdependence. According to Bukharin, the counterpart of Lenin, the monopolization of economy leads to its internationalization, though this internationalization was to be slowed by the armed nations that protected their ownership and capital violently. Therefore, there was the necessity for a state to cooperate with other countries, but it was to be done carefully in order not to risk the state security. As Lenin explained, "Capitalism's transition to the stage of monopoly capitalism, to finance capital, is connected with the intensification of the struggle for the partitioning of the world" (Warren, 1980). As mentioned above the new wave of imperialism based on capitalism was founded on the scramble for weak counties in order to provide