Super-imperialism is a
Marxist
Marxism is a Left-wing politics, left-wing to Far-left politics, far-left method of socioeconomic analysis that uses a Materialism, materialist interpretation of historical development, better known as historical materialism, to understand S ...
term with two possible meanings. It refers either to the
hegemony of an
imperialist great power over its weaker rivals which then are called sub-imperialisms, or to a comprehensive supra-structure above a set of theoretically equal-righted imperialist states. The latter meaning is the older one and had become rare by the middle of the 20th century.
Etymology
The expression super-imperialism first appeared in November 1914 as an inaccurate translation of the newly coined German term ''
Ultra-Imperialismus''. William E. Bohn, the translator of
Karl Kautsky’s article "Der Imperialismus" ("The Imperialism"), seemed to believe that the terms ''Kartell'' and ''Ultra-Imperialismus'' were not reasonable for the audience of the ''
International Socialist Review'', an American Marxist journal. Bohn faced a double problem as
cartels were much less familiar in the United States than the concern-like, tauter organized
trust entities and the word ''ultra'', which in English means "exaggerated" or "extreme". Thus, he paraphrased Kautsky's ideas in terms more familiar to American readers, somewhat distorting Kautsky's statement.
Recent meanings
Together with the revival of the imperialism debates in the 1970s, the term super-imperialism recovered, but was modified in its content. It served now to describe the domination by the super-power United States within a system of
imperialism
Imperialism is the state policy, practice, or advocacy of extending power and dominion, especially by direct territorial acquisition or by gaining political and economic control of other areas, often through employing hard power (economic and ...
in which the other imperialist powers were set back in their abilities and thus were second-class.
Bob Rowthorn
Robert Rowthorn (born 20 August 1939) is Emeritus Professor of Economics at the University of Cambridge and has been elected as a Life Fellow of King’s College. He is also a senior research fellow of the Centre for Population Research at the D ...
, Imperialism in the Seventies: Unity or Rivalry?, in: New Left Review, 59 (1971), 31; Michael Hudson: Super imperialism : the economic strategy of American empire, New York, 1972. Since the same time, the German term ''Ultraimperialismus'' was translated into English literally with
ultra-imperialism and was now used to describe a rather equal-righted inter-imperialist cooperation.
References
Literature
*
Michael Hudson: ''Super Imperialism. The Economic Strategy of American Empire'' (Third Edition), Islet, 2021.
* Karl Kautsky: ''Imperialism and the War'', in: ''International socialist review'', 15 (1914).
* Karl Kautsky: ''Der Imperialismus'', in: ''Die Neue Zeit''. 32 (1914), vol. 2, p. 908–922.
*
Holm A. Leonhardt: ''Bibliographie zur Ultraimperialismus-Theorie''
ibliography on Ultraimperialism Theory in: Homepage of the Institute of History of Hildesheim University, http://www.uni-hildesheim.de/media/geschichte/Geschichte Ultraimperialismustheorie.pdf (available since 1-20-2008).
*
Holm A. Leonhardt: ''Zur Geschichte der Ultraimperialismus-Theorie 1902–1930. Die Ideengeschichte einer frühen Theorie der politischen Globalisierung''
n the History of Ultra-Imperialism Theory
N, or n, is the fourteenth letter in the Latin alphabet, used in the modern English alphabet, the alphabets of other western European languages and others worldwide. Its name in English is ''en'' (pronounced ), plural ''ens''.
History
...
in: Homepage of the Institute of History, Hildesheim Universität (Germany) http://www.uni-hildesheim.de/de/30219.htm (available since 1-20-2008).
*
Bob Rowthorn
Robert Rowthorn (born 20 August 1939) is Emeritus Professor of Economics at the University of Cambridge and has been elected as a Life Fellow of King’s College. He is also a senior research fellow of the Centre for Population Research at the D ...
: ''Imperialism in the Seventies: Unity or Rivalry? '', in: ''New Left Review'', 59 (1971).
* Martin Thomas: ''Introduction to Kautsky's "Ultra-imperialism"''. Workers Liberty.
Dan Jakopovich, ''In the Belly of the Beast: Challenging US Imperialism and the Politics of the Offensive'
{{DEFAULTSORT:Super-Imperialism
International relations theory
Hegemony
Imperialism studies
Marxist terminology