Defining Imperialism, Colonialism, and Neo-Colonialism

Introduction

Imperialism, colonialism, and neo-colonialism have been brought to the forefront of popular consciousness. While an analysis of these systems has long been central to political movements in the Global South, they have increasingly entered progressive discourse in the Global North, especially through the genocide in Gaza. Nevertheless, it can be difficult to understand what these systems actually are and how they relate to each other.

In this brief, we define imperialism, colonialism, and neo-colonialism in relation to the capitalist world system. A clear analysis of the systems we are up against is essential for developing strategies to defeat them.

Imperialism

Imperialism is a system in which core capitalist states (i.e. the Global North) deny sovereignty to peripheral states (i.e. the Global South) in order to transfer value from the periphery to the core.^1,a,b This transfer of value is integral to the capitalist mode of production and, indeed, cannot be understood apart from capitalism’s laws of motion. Below, we first outline why capitalism requires imperialism before turning to how imperialism is maintained.

Capitalism’s Dependence on Imperialism

Capitalism is a system in which a small group of people privately owns the means of production (e.g. land, factories, machines).² Private property relations compel capitalists to compete with one another for more and more profit. If they fail to compete in this process of capital accumulation, they risk losing their material privileges and slipping into the working class. This makes capitalism an inherently expansionary system.

Capitalism’s laws of motion produce a number of contradictions that require an ‘outside’ from which value can be drained in order to manage these pressures and sustain accumulation.

1. Primitive Accumulation

First, capital accumulates through the exploitation of workers. Workers produce more value than they are paid in wages, and the difference is appropriated by those who own the means of production (i.e. capitalists). But this process depends on a prior condition: capitalists must already own the means of production, while workers must already be separated from them, forced to sell their labour power in order to survive. In other words, capital accumulation presupposes the very class relations that it creates. As Marx writes, “the whole movement, therefore, seems to turn in a vicious circle.”³ The answer to this problem is primitive accumulation.

Primitive accumulation refers to the ‘extra-economic’ force that capitalism depends on to separate peasants from the land and concentrate the means of production in the hands of the few.^4,c Enclosure, slavery, colonialism, and privatisation are all processes of primitive accumulation.^d

Primitive accumulation took place in the core, but “in the periphery, primitive accumulation has been more intense and continuous.”^5,e Not only did primitive accumulation provide the initial injection of capitalist stock needed to kickstart industrial competition in Europe, but it has remained a critical source of value drain from periphery to core throughout capitalism’s development.⁶

2. Value of Money

Second, value transfer maintains people’s purchasing power in the core.

Because capitalism is expansionary, it leads to an ever-increasing demand for essential commodities, such as raw materials and food. However, given the finite nature of land and natural resources, ever-increasing demand puts upward pressure on the price of these commodities. This would result in massive inflation, reducing people’s purchasing power and eroding the basis for sustained accumulation.⁷

However, by suppressing wages in the periphery, core states are able to minimise demand for these essential commodities in the Global South and keep their prices low in the core.⁸ Wage suppression occurs in many different ways, but one prominent method is the destruction of local production in the periphery. This leaves a large portion of the population unemployed, which increases competition for a limited number of jobs, enabling capitalists to decrease wages and lower the price of goods bound for Northern markets.⁹

3. Class Conflict

Third, value transfer from periphery to core stabilises the general labour-capital contradiction in the core. Capitalists have moderated class conflict in the core by conceding to some working-class demands, such as higher wages, reduced working hours, and expanded welfare services.¹⁰ However, these concessions could only be granted, without cutting into profits, by appropriating more value from the periphery. Without this pressure valve, it is hard to imagine how capitalists would have avoided working-class revolutions in the Global North.

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This drain of value has been essential for stabilising all three of these contradictions throughout the history of capitalism, and it remains a world-shaping force today.^f It is because of imperialism that the average annual income in Pakistan is $1,500, while it is $54,550 in the UK.¹¹ It is because of imperialism that 24% of the world’s agricultural land is in Africa, yet the continent is a net food importer and is the hungriest in the world.¹² And it is because of imperialism that in 2026, life expectancy at birth in France is nearly 20 years greater than in Haiti.¹³

Imperialism Walks on Two Legs

The conditions for imperial value transfer are not natural; they are created and maintained through economic and military force.^14,g

The military aspect is plain to see. Wars, coups, and genocides are all central mechanisms for enforcing political and economic regimes that facilitate value transfer from periphery to core. The case of Iran is a prime example. In 1951, Iran’s first democratically elected leader, Mohammad Mosaddegh, began nationalising the country’s oil industry, including the Anglo-Iranian Oil Company (today known as British Petroleum, or BP). In response, the US and British governments orchestrated a coup that deposed Mosaddegh in 1953, replacing him with the Shah, who promptly restored Western control over Iranian oil.¹⁵

The economic aspect is more pernicious. The imposition of free-market policies on countries of the Global South via structural adjustment programmes (SAPs), free trade agreements, and development aid enables Northern firms to dictate the terms of trade and conditions of production in the South.^h These economic and military legs ultimately work together to deny sovereignty to countries in the Global South.

In recent years, Southern states have begun challenging the economic dominance of US-led imperialism. The majority of productive capacity now exists in the South, and China has made significant inroads into high-value production, including computers, electric vehicles, renewable energy, aircraft, and pharmaceuticals.¹⁶ This has pushed core states to increase their reliance on military force in order to maintain imperial control. This new, hyper-imperialist phase explains the proliferation of violent outbursts in recent years, including the proxy war in Ukraine, the genocide in Palestine, the bombing of Lebanon, Yemen, and Syria, the war against Iran, and the abduction of Venezuelan President Maduro.¹⁷

We explore the economic and military facets of imperialism in the following sections on colonialism and neo-colonialism, which are the real-historical political systems that have enabled imperial value transfer from the periphery to the core.

Colonialism

Colonialism is a form of imperialist domination in which one state exercises formal political control over another territory, forcibly integrating its economy and society into the capitalist world system.¹⁸ This one-to-one relationship forms a part of, and helps maintain, the broader imperialist system.

The first period of colonial expansion lasted from the late 15th century until the end of the 18th century, coinciding with the rise of capitalism.¹⁹ This stage began with the violent expansion of Spanish and Portuguese settlements across the Americas, as well as the mass enslavement of Africans. Colonial domination reached its peak in the 19th century, as the Industrial Revolution gave European powers new capacities (e.g. steamboats, railroads, and telegraph lines) to conquer lands previously beyond reach.²⁰ The turn of the 20th century saw the final expansion of European colonialism into the interior of Africa and West Asia.²¹

Importantly, the history of colonisation was also shaped by resistance from the colonised. For example, it was the Haitian Revolution (1791 - 1804) that spearheaded the abolition of legal slavery.²²

Colonialism facilitated imperial value flows in two ways. First, it enabled the direct appropriation of value from the periphery to the core through slave rents (i.e. unpaid labour) and by taking control of existing mechanisms of surplus value extraction. For example, the British took control of revenue collection in India from the Mughal emperors and then diverted these resources to the North.²³ Between 1765 and 1938, trillions of dollars’ worth of goods were appropriated from Indian producers by British colonists.²⁴

Second, colonialism enabled Europeans to control production and consumption in the Global South. Colonisers destroyed local subsistence economies through enclosure, dispossession, and the imposition of taxation in colonial currency. This in turn forced people to seek wage labour in European mines and plantations or to produce goods for export to Europe.²⁵ Colonisers also destroyed industrial production in the Global South, which eliminated competition and created dependence on Northern goods.

The co-constitutive relationship between capitalism and colonialism should be understood as both producing development in the core and driving underdevelopment and de-development in the periphery.^26,i

Settler Colonialism vs Franchise Colonialism

A note needs to be made on the distinction between colonialism’s two basic forms: settler colonialism and franchise colonialism.

Settler colonialism is a process in which the settler population is “intent on making a territory their permanent home while continuing to enjoy metropolitan living standards and political privileges.”²⁷ This requires the displacement, ethnic cleansing, or assimilation of the native populations, while denying their claims to the land. Examples of settler colonies include the US, Canada, Australia, New Zealand, Israel, South Africa, Ireland, and Algeria.

In addition to establishing imperialist relations, settler colonialism also helped alleviate the social contradictions in Europe. Between 1815 and 1930, over 50 million Europeans emigrated to the colonies, relocating many of the most exploited and revolutionary layers of the European working class.²⁸

By contrast, franchise colonialism forcibly attaches itself to existing social, political, and economic structures to extract value through the collaboration of local elites.²⁹ Examples include the British in India and the Dutch in Indonesia.

Patrick Wolfe distinguishes the two forms by describing settler colonialism as the drive to eliminate the native population (either by displacement or genocide) and franchise colonialism as the drive to exploit the native population.³⁰ While this can be a helpful way to conceptualise the central logic of each form, the elimination/exploitation divide is not so clear in practice.

The exploitation of native peoples, for example, through forced labour regimes, was central to the establishment and reproduction of many settler colonies (e.g. Algeria, Bolivia, South Africa).³¹ Equally, the elimination of native populations also occurred in franchise colonies (e.g. the Bengal famine of 1943).³² In practice, both the exploitation and elimination of Indigenous communities have been used at different times in settler and franchise colonies “depending on strategic necessities, interactions with indigenous resistance, or changing economic relations with the metropolis.”³³

Without understanding this historical reality, we risk only focusing on the most advanced forms of settler colonialism (e.g. US, Canada, Australia) where the process of elimination is most extreme. As a result, we obscure cases where settler colonialism was defeated, as in many African and South American nations.³⁴ This more complete view of colonial history shows the fragility of settler-colonial projects. Indeed, the trajectory of less-developed settler colonies, like Israel, is far from pre-determined.

While colonialism still exists, the post-WWII period saw a wave of decolonisation during which over 80 nations won political sovereignty.³⁵ This, however, was not the end of imperialism.

Neo-Colonialism

In place of colonialism, neo-colonial relations were established to maintain imperialism. Ghanaian revolutionary Kwame Nkrumah defines neo-colonialism as a system in which Southern states are denied economic sovereignty despite having political independence.³⁶

Through the denial of economic sovereignty, Northern capital organises Southern production to cheapen Southern labour power and resources.³⁷ As goods are exchanged on international markets, a “hidden transfer of value” occurs from periphery to core, which is estimated at $10.8 trillion annually.³⁸ This process is called unequal exchange.

There are five primary methods used by the North to establish and perpetuate neo-colonialism: regime change, sanctions, debt, aid, and trade institutions.

Regime Change

Many post-colonial states pursued an ambitious programme of sovereign development. This included economic protection via tariffs, subsidies, and capital controls, land reform, industry nationalisation, public services, and wage increases.³⁹ Gains in the South meant higher costs for the North, imperilling unequal exchange, eroding profit margins, and straining the social-democratic compromise.^40,j

In response, the North used ‘hybrid war’ tactics (economic blockades, sanctions, cultural propaganda, assassinations, coups) to depose popular leaders pursuing sovereign development, including Árbenz in Guatemala, Sukarno in Indonesia, Nkrumah in Ghana, Allende in Chile, and Sankara in Burkina Faso.⁴¹ In fact, since WWII, the US has assisted in overthrowing over 35 foreign governments.⁴² More recently, the hyper-imperialist US has attempted regime change operations in Venezuela and Iran.⁴³

Sanctions

An equally violent mechanism used by Northern states to discipline Southern economies is sanctions. Sanctions are commercial or financial restrictions, ranging from travel bans and asset freezes to arms embargoes and trade restrictions. They are often designed to pressure foreign governments by imposing collective punishment on their populations. Between 2010 and 2021, unilateral sanctions caused an estimated 564,258 deaths annually, more than five times the number of people killed in direct armed combat.⁴⁴

Most sanctions are imposed unilaterally, that is, without UN approval, and therefore illegally by the US and European countries.⁴⁵ And the most heavily sanctioned countries in recent decades include many states pursuing sovereign development projects: Cuba, Iran, Syria, North Korea, Venezuela, and Russia.⁴⁶

Core states are able to leverage such heavy sanctions because of their economic dominance, which has been established through centuries of imperialism. Not only do Northern firms exert significant power over key supply chains, but the US also controls the global financial system. After being elevated to the position of leading imperialist power after WWII, the US established the dollar as the world’s reserve currency.⁴⁷ With roughly 85% of global trade denominated in US dollars, the US has the power to cut off any country’s access to dollars and therefore to essential commodities.⁴⁸

A recent example of this tool of economic coercion is the decades-long sanctions regime against Venezuela, which, coupled with the US’s abduction of President Nicolás Maduro in January 2026, has forced the Venezuelan government to compromise on key pillars of its economic sovereignty.⁴⁹ In August 2026, the US and Venezuela struck a deal granting the US majority control over Venezuela’s 65 billion barrels of proven oil reserves – the largest proven reserves in the world and the foundation of Venezuela’s economy.⁵⁰

Debt

The instrumentalisation of debt has been a more covert method of establishing control over Southern economies.^k After the post-WWII decolonisation wave, Wall Street lent huge amounts of money to newly independent Southern states, which were “hungry for capital” to fund development.⁵¹ In the early 1980s, these loans became unpayable after US interest rates (which the loans were based on) were increased to lower domestic US inflation.⁵²

With the South in a state of economic turmoil, the North conditioned emergency debt relief on SAPs imposed by the International Monetary Fund and the World Bank.⁵³ SAPs required that public spending be cut, public assets privatised, capital controls abolished, and labour and environmental regulations axed.⁵⁴ This reoriented Southern economies in service of capital accumulation in the North. Those who resisted, like Burkinabé revolutionary president Thomas Sankara, were swiftly ousted by imperialist powers.⁵⁵

Additionally, debt repayments have themselves been a mechanism of value transfer from South to North. Between 1980 and 2015, Southern countries paid over $4.2 trillion in interest payments to the North, far exceeding the total aid received over the same time period.⁵⁶

Aid

Development aid has also been vital to establishing Northern control over Southern economies. Like debt relief, aid often comes with conditionalities.^l For example, a study of the US Agency for International Development’s (USAID) development assistance in Nigeria between 1985 and 1999 found that financial support required Nigeria to purchase American goods and services, stunting domestic industry.⁵⁷ USAID also used its leverage to shape government institutions, “embedding policies that favored economic liberalization and foreign investment at the heart of Nigeria’s governance structures.”⁵⁸ This was reinforced by funding journalist training programmes that helped shape public opinion in support of neoliberal policies.⁵⁹

In other cases, aid is weaponised by withdrawing it, or threatening to withdraw it, when countries pursue sovereign development projects. Earlier this year, the US threatened to withdraw funding for life-saving malaria, tuberculosis, and HIV programmes in Zambia if it did not get preferential access to the country’s mineral resources.⁶⁰

Trade Institutions

Trade institutions are a fifth vector for perpetuating neo-colonialism.^m In 1995, imperialist powers restructured the global economy through the World Trade Organization (WTO). The WTO conditioned country membership on the reduction of tariffs, elimination of subsidies, and deregulation of capital flows. This deprived the entire South of the exact tools that the North had used for its own development.⁶¹

The creation of the WTO was flanked by a profusion of free trade agreements (FTAs) between the North and South. Most FTAs include a provision known as Investor-State Dispute Settlement, which allows a private corporation to sue a state over a sovereign policy action that threatens future profits (e.g. a wage increase).⁶² Investors have won 57% of cases, with an average payout of $438 million, funded by taxpayers.⁶³ If states refuse to pay, their foreign assets can be seized.⁶⁴

This brings Nkrumah’s formulation into sharp relief: Southern political sovereignty is subordinated to neo-colonial imperialism.

Conclusion

Imperialism, colonialism, and neo-colonialism are world-shaping systems responsible for unequal development, the denial of Southern sovereignty, widespread immiseration, famine, systemic poverty, and genocide. As expressions of imperialism, colonialism and neo-colonialism are integral to the development, maintenance, and reproduction of capitalism. Together they form the system that is oppressing the global majority and driving ecological collapse.

Armed with this analysis, it is clear that all movements struggling for liberation must be anti-imperialist. In the South, anti-imperialism requires fighting imperialism on both legs. This means developing the economic and military force to delink from the imperialist system and reclaim sovereignty.

In the North, anti-imperialism requires building internationalist organisations that can help create more oxygen for sovereign development in the South. Critical demands include demilitarisation, debt cancellation, and ecological reparations.

While recognising that the frontlines of anti-imperialist struggle exist in the periphery – Palestine, Iran, Venezuela, Cuba, China – imperialism will only be defeated through the unified action of all working and oppressed peoples across the world. Recalling Thomas Sankara, “the only thing you need to remember is that when the people stand up, imperialism trembles.”