We shall now deal with a political phenomenon which affects several States and countries and has, therefore, international and even global significance. It is called Imperialism.
Meanings of Imperialism.
Imperialism means differently to different people. In simple terms, it means the policy of a powerful State to conquer or dominate weaker States and countries. In this sense, imperialism is a product of military power. Whenever a country or a conqueror, a people or a State, becomes militarily strong, it seeks to build an empire by conquering and subjugating other peoples, countries and areas of the world.
Understood in this sense, Imperialism is as old a political phenomenon as the great empires of the ancient East and West, like the Empires of Ancient Babylon, Assyria, Egypt and Persia and of Alexander, and Rome, or the Medieval Empires of the Indian Mughals, Turkish the great Sultan, etc. But this term is not used in Political Science in this sense today.
Modem Imperialism is different from the ancient or medieval Imperialism, for it is more than mere military conquest and domination. It has also economic, political, social and other aspects, which were either insignificant or non-existent elements in the earlier Imperialisms. Moreover, it is a product of nationalism of the modern nation-State which did not exist in the past. These aspects and elements have made Modem Imperialism colonialist.
Colonialism is the basic feature of Modern Imperialism. Earlier Imperialisms either lacked it completely or it existed only in a rudimentary form. Modem Imperialism or Colonialism may, therefore, be defined as a policy or by which a nation-State establishes its political domination and economic control over other countries, nations and peoples due to their economic, social and cultural backwardness, for the purpose of their economic exploitation.