Philip’s Reviews > Imperialism: The Highest Stage of Capitalism > Status Update

X. THE PLACE OF IMPERIALISM IN HISTORY

There are 4 types of monopoly capitalism
First, cartels; syndicates & trusts
Second, seizure of important raw materials
Third, banks as monopolists of finance capital
Fourth, monopoly out of colonial policy

More and more we see rentier states that live off of exported capital

Monopoly out of free competition is the transition from capitalism to a higher socio-economic order.

IX. CRITIQUE OF IMPERIALISM

VIII. PARASITISM AND DECAY OF CAPITALISM

There are a few creditor countries - rentiers - who lend to the vast majority of the world - debtor countries - and slowly change their economies from an industrial capitalism to a rentier capitalism that must live off of other countries' debts.

Kautsky's 'super-imperialism' nonsense is but an anti-Marxist bourgeois pacifism, to fight only imperialism in theory but not its very real foundation - capitalism - is a travesty.

VII. IMPERIALISM AS A SPECIAL STAGE OF CAPITALISM

Imperialism is not merely a policy of industrial capital to seek to annex agrarian lands as Kautsky puts it; imperialism is a stage of capitalism altogether, a stage of finance capital - not industrial capital, and it seeks to annex all the land it can, not necessarily agrarian lands, as Germany seeks Belgium or France Alsace & Lorraine.

As finance capitalism took over from production capitalism, so also did the European powers take over the world.

VI. DIVISION OF THE WORLD AMONG THE GREAT POWERS

The main division of 'unoccupied' land into European owners was in the time between 1860 and 1880, exactly when monopoly capitalism was starting up in Europe.

V. DIVISION OF THE WORLD AMONG CAPITALIST ASSOCIATIONS

Different countries' monopolies, after taking control of their domestic market, start their expansion abroad, here however, they encounter other monopolists and will either compete in being another countries' monopoly or will make a deal to divide the world.