Super-imperialism
Encyclopedia
Super-imperialism is a Marxist term with two possible meanings. It refers either to the hegemony of an imperialist great power over its weaker rivals, who then are called sub-imperialisms, or to a comprehensive supra-structure above a set of (theoretically) equal-righted imperialist
New Imperialism
New Imperialism refers to the colonial expansion adopted by Europe's powers and, later, Japan and the United States, during the 19th and early 20th centuries; expansion took place from the French conquest of Algeria until World War I: approximately 1830 to 1914...

 states. – The latter meaning is the older one and had become rare by the middle of 20th century.

Origin of the term

The expression super-imperialism first apppeared in November 1914 as an (inaccurate) translation of the newly coined German term Ultra-Imperialismus
Ultra-imperialism
Ultra-imperialism, or occasionally hyperimperialism and formerly super-imperialism, is a potential, comparatively peaceful phase of capitalism, meaning "after" or "beyond" imperialism. It was described mainly by Karl Kautsky...

. William E. Bohn, the translator of Karl Kautsky
Karl Kautsky
Karl Johann Kautsky was a Czech-German philosopher, journalist, and Marxist theoretician. Kautsky was recognized as among the most authoritative promulgators of Orthodox Marxism after the death of Friedrich Engels in 1895 until the coming of World War I in 1914 and was called by some the "Pope of...

’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: Cartel
Cartel
A cartel is a formal agreement among competing firms. It is a formal organization of producers and manufacturers that agree to fix prices, marketing, and production. Cartels usually occur in an oligopolistic industry, where there is a small number of sellers and usually involve homogeneous products...

s were much less familiar in the USA than the concern-like, tauter organized Trust (monopoly)s – 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
Theories of New Imperialism
The term imperialism was used from the third quarter of the nineteenth century to describe various forms of political control by a greater power over less powerful territories or nationalities, although analytically the phenomena which it denotes may differ greatly from each other and from the...

 in the 1970s the term super-imperialism recovered, but got modified in its content. It served now to describe the domination by the super-power USA
American Empire
American imperialism is a term referring to the economic, military and cultural influence of the United States on other countries. The concept of an American Empire was first popularized during the presidency of James K...

 within a system of imperialism
New Imperialism
New Imperialism refers to the colonial expansion adopted by Europe's powers and, later, Japan and the United States, during the 19th and early 20th centuries; expansion took place from the French conquest of Algeria until World War I: approximately 1830 to 1914...

, in which the other imperialist powers were set back in their abilities and thus were second-class. Since the same time, the German term Ultraimperialismus was translated into English literally with ultra-imperialism
Ultra-imperialism
Ultra-imperialism, or occasionally hyperimperialism and formerly super-imperialism, is a potential, comparatively peaceful phase of capitalism, meaning "after" or "beyond" imperialism. It was described mainly by Karl Kautsky...

 and was now used to describe a rather equal-righted inter-imperialist cooperation.

Literature

  • Michael Hudson
    Michael Hudson (economist)
    Michael Hudson is research professor of economics at University of Missouri, Kansas City and a research associate at the Levy Economics Institute of Bard College...

    : Super imperialism : the economic strategy of American empire, New York, 1972.
  • 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 [Bibliography 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 [On the History of Ultra-Imperialism Theory], 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: 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'
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