Contemporary Descriptions of Imperialism

During the late 19th and early 20th centuries, the term imperialism was significantly transformed and modified through Marxist writings. Imperialism, in classical Marxian use, refers to a particular stage of capitalism. Karl Marx, in his critique of capitalism, premised that once the oppressed and exploited proletariat realized their actual conditions, they would rise up in a spontaneous socialist revolution. This revolt did not materialize among the laboring classes of Europe, however, leading some Marxists to reconsider the inner workings of capitalism. Vladimir Iliac Lenin in particular set out to explain why the proletariat did not revolt; indeed, at ...