IMPERIALISM

Imperialism

Imperialism

Introduction

This paper has been written with regards to imperialism and its presence in the contemporary world but in a new, insidious form which is rarely territorially explicit and where the corporations, governments and elites that are behind it are not accountable to anyone. The above statement has been discussed after which conclusions have been drawn.

Definition of Imperialism

Imperialism is the process of forcibly expanding state authority over autonomous overseas territory by means of military conquest. More broadly, imperialism is the complex of practices through which one population establishes and maintains instrumental control over the spaces, resources, and everyday lives of another Imperialism is also the ideology through which a population is persuaded to support its domination of another and persuades that other to accept such domination (Drzewiecka 2001 65).

Discussion

This part discuses imperialism in detail and provides facts whether imperialism is good or bad along with examples. Ashcroft argues that the concept of modernity is primarily about conquest and control of land, of ideas, and people. In linking the concept of modernity to the colonial domination of European powers, Ashcroft sets the stage for thinking about globalization as a modern synonym for a form of imperialism a controversial perspective. What is clear is that the discourse of modernity found its most salient construction in bifurcated discourses where Europe was seen, as modern and advanced and non-European societies were seen as static and underdeveloped. Capitalism, therefore, became the economic discourse most often associated with modernity. With regards to Cultural Imperialism, it can be said that imperialism thus entails that ever more distant and distinct peoples will be subsumed within the boundaries of any given empire. Over time, this process tacitly encourages migration to the metropolitan cores and across the empire along the same routes initially established to, logistically expedites peripheral occupation and extraction. Therefore, over the course of their developmental trajectories, all empires become inherently multicultural. As an ideology, imperialism facilitated social cohesion and continued expansion under such conditions(Lechner & Boli 2003, pp. 100). The ideology of imperialism effects a colonization of the mind whereby empire building is valorised, and the conquered are given an incentive to embrace, and even try to pass as, their conquerors. Thus, even empires without clearly determinable colonies strive to colonize the most detailed terrain, that is, their subjects' psyches. The inclusivity of imperial multiculturalism, however, is also heavily disciplined by the state's differential and strategically selective extension of suffrage rights. A strong, incentive to adopt the cultural practices of, and even identify with, the imperial core is; therefore, frustrated by the establishment of elaborate social hierarchies that restrict the extent to which different subject peoples may assimilate into aristocratic society. Some peoples may never be permitted to rise any higher than the rank of the subaltern, whereas others may be regarded as too alien, to rise at all no matter how well they mask themselves in the likeness of the conqueror (Agnew 2005 98).

With regards to cultural imperialism in human, it can be said that ...