The imposition of nonterritorial hegemony (or as in the case of colonialism territorial hegemony). Further, in my classes it refers to the imperialism that arose upon the heels of the launch of the European Voyages of Exploitation (the conventional usage of the word “exploration” is a clear Eurocentrist misnomer), and therefore must be distinguished from all other forms of imperialism that preceded it—such as those of the Ancient world. The distinction is an important one in that “modern” imperialism was a symptom of the development of the capitalist mode of production in a particular cultural milieu (specifically that of Europe) that saw religious proselytization as a duty incumbent upon all—including the state—against the backdrop of the rise of the modern nation state. In other words, imperialism was an outcome of the dialectic in the structural/ideational binary. (Note that this is one of those concepts where there are as many definitions as those willing to define it.[1]) See also Neoimperialism
[1]. Those wishing a quick entry into the various theories behind this concept will do well by thumbing through these five separate collections of essays on the subject: Chilcote (2000a, 2000b), Mommsen and Osterhammel (1986), Owen and Sutcliffe (1972), and Patnaik (1986). For a critique of the current resurgence of nostalgia for European imperialism among neoliberals and right wing conservatives in the West, couched in advocacy of what we may term as “imperialism with a human face,” see Amin (1992), Bartholomew (2006), and Foster (2006), who all provide us with a look from various angles at the most enduring and core feature of European imperialism of whatever age, and most aptly described by Amin thusly:
The intervention of the North [OD countries of the Euro-North American ecumene] in the affairs of the South [all PQD countries] is—in all its aspects, at every moment, in whatever form, and a fortiori when it takes the form of a military or political intervention—negative. Never have the armies of the North brought peace, prosperity, or democracy to the peoples of Asia, Africa, or Latin America. In the future, as in the past five centuries, they can only bring to these peoples further servitude, the exploitation of their labor, the expropriation of their riches, and the denial of their rights (pp. 17–18).