Imperialism from the Eleventh Century to the Twenty-First Century

Abstract

From the eleventh century onward, a number of city states arose in Italybased on communes, free of feudalism, and controlled by the city’s merchants and financiers. The city states went into a rapid decline with the rise of nation states in northern Europe. Following the logic of capitalist accumulation, the new nation states acquired colonies from the beginning. England already had its oldest colony in Ireland, conquered by Henry II in the late twelfth century. From the seventeenth century, it acquired colonies in North America and the Caribbean, and in the eighteenth century it conquered most of India, which became its most valuable prize. After defeating France in 1815, it became the sole superpower until it was challenged by imperial Germany in World War I. After the interregnum of the interwar years, the United Statesemerged as the most powerful nation economically and militarily, its paramountcy being challenged by the Soviet Union until it went into terminal decline from the late seventies. By 2020its superpower status is wasbeing challenged by China and Russia. In the meantime most other European countries had acquired colonies. Most of these colonies became formally independent after World War II, some not until the late seventies.