For most of the history of the capitalist world-economy, imperial conquest was the principal factor in creating a periphery to the European imperial core. This study focuses on how the dynamics of the capitalist world-economy affected the pattern of colonization in the periphery. Colonization is considered a hierarchical alternative to market relations, increased when market relations perform poorly and slowed when the market expands. A time series regression analysis, covering the tonguee duree of the whole system, provides initial comprehensive quantitative support for two central propositions in world-system theory. The findings indicate that long waves of economic expansion and periods of unincentric hegemony negatively affected the rate of colonization. Major wars among core states had no immediate impact but had long-term positive effects. A shift in the international regime brought about by the rise of socialist states also contributed to the decline offormal colonization. The findings point to the utility of long waves, hegemony, and international regimes in long-term historical studies of the trade-off between market and hierarchical relations.
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Terry Boswell (1989) studied this question.