Capital and Imperialism

Contemporary Marxist theory condemns imperialist expansion as involving not only exploitation but retardation of development in the colonial and semi-colonial countries. Marx and Engels, however, did not have this point of view at first. Down to the middle of the 1860's their pronouncements on colonialism were ambivalent. It was not until the publication of Capital in 1867 that the contradictions were resolved. (Even then, vestiges of the earlier views persisted in the works of Engels until a much later date.)This article can also be found at the Monthly Review website, where most recent articles are published in full.Click here to purchase a PDF version of this article at the Monthly Review website.