Introduction

Indeed, imperialism has been one of the most dominant forces in world politics over the last four

centuries, carving up whole countries while oppressing indigenous peoples and obliterating

entire civilizations. Imperialism is not just about armies, labor and gold. Imperialism has a

cultural dimension. When one part of the world systematically oppresses another, it changes not

only the material make-up of those societies, it also affects the cultures.

According to Rodney (1972):

“Africa in the fifteenth century was not just a jumble of different ‘tribes.’ There was a pattern

and there was historical movement. Societies such as feudal Ethiopia and Egypt were at the

furthest point of the process of evolutionary development. Zimbabwe and the Bachwezi states

were also clearly on the ascent away from communalism, but at a lower level than the feudal

states and a few others that were not yet feudal such as those in Western Sudan.”

This above insight by Rodney shows that Africa had a particular pattern of development before

interference from without the continent. As it was and still is with Africa so has it been with the

rest of the third world countries in Asia and Latin America. This is why we can say that the

political and economic life of the so-called Third –World countries cannot be discussed or given

a cursory glance without taking consideration of the influence of the developed or industrialized

nations of the west and North America. This view came as an antithesis to the Modernization

paradigm of political economy, which stated that the third world’s economic and political life

can be studied as a closed system meaning; underdevelopment in the third world is an original

situation.

However , the above thesis remains what the neo-Marxist scholars of the school of imperialism

have come to contradict, because truly the politics of the third- world countries of Asia ,Africa,

and Latin America ,cannot be studied outside the imperialist incursion of the third world , which

is an offshoot of the growth of advanced capitalism. This is why Lenin in his book considered

imperialism as the highest stage of capitalism.

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Capitalism as an economic ideology was influenced greatly by the Industrial Revolution in the

west, starting from Britain in 1760(Collins concise encyclopedia) , and later spreading to other

parts of Europe in the 18th century. The growth of capitalism and its spread around Europe

further brought about the saturation of the European markets. So in essence there was need for

markets elsewhere for these goods. So the continents of Africa, Asia and Latin America became

seen as veritable markets for for these goods.

Thus was born the idea of colonialism, which was consequently a manifestation of imperialism,

whereby territories were turned into colonies of the principal authority for the main purpose of

plunder. The colonization of the third world countries by imperialist Europe halted and distorted

the development patterns that were being followed by the now called third world countries.

Where these imperialists were not allowed to peacefully assume power, they took it by force.

Today, even after the decolonization of the countries of the so-called third world, the

industrialized nations are not only exporting goods but also capital in the form of machinery,

technology, investments and loans. This paper is aimed at elucidating the concept and

phenomenon of imperialism vis-à-vis the underdevelopment situation in the third world today.

Conceptual Clarifications

In the course of this academic exploration it would be pertinent to explicate the concepts of

imperialism, Development and Underdevelopment for the sake of clarity and putting them in the

right context for the sake of good comprehension.

Imperialism: imperialism has been a concept and phenomenon fraught with so many

contradictions as regards its existence or authenticity. Modernization scholars like W.W.Rostow

in his book” the stages of economic growth “have expressly disputed the existence of the concept

of imperialism. On the other hand the Neo-Marxist scholars mostly from the third world,

scholars like; Andre Gunder Frank, Walter Rodney and Ake Claude have come to defend the

existence of the phenomenon, further seeing it as a major force in the life of the third world. So

what is this imperialism?

According to Parati( 1995)”imperialism means the process whereby the dominant politico-

economic interest of one nation expropriate for their own enrichment the land ,labor raw-2

materials and markets of another people. This definition shows that imperialism is a highly

parasitic relationship between territories, because the so-called industrialized expropriated the

resources of the third world to feed their own industrialization. These acts are usually done with

impunity.

Ake (1981:20) also saw the concept as the economic control an exploitation of foreign lands,

arising from the necessity of counteracting the impediments of the accumulation of capital

engendered by the internal contradictions of the domestic capitalist economy. From this

definition, it is implied that imperialism is as a result of the growth of advanced capitalism.

Given the expansionist nature of capitalism it has little inclination to stay at home. Almost 150

years ago, Marx and Engels described a Bourgeoisie that chase over the world surface for the

globe for capital accumulation and surplus value.

Barratt cited in Ake (1981:20) also sees the concept as “the outward drive of certain peoples to

build empires –both formal colonies and privileged positions in markets, protected sources of

materials and extended opportunities for profitable employment of labor. The concept has thus

been associated with an unequal economic relationship between states not simply the inequality

of large and small ,rich and poor trading partners but the inequality of political and economic

dependence of the latter on the former.

This above definition is useful because it comes from the perspective of some common sense

view of imperialism but it did not establish a link between capitalism and imperialism.

After exploring the above definitions by these authorities in the field it is now pertinent to see

imperialism as the economic and political control of a geographical entity by another, whereby

the former is dominated by the latter for the main purposes of plunder and extraction of, material

and surplus value in a relationship that ends up leading to dependence. This definition could be

seen as appropriate in the context of this paper because;

1. It establishes the relationship between capitalism and imperialism and

2. It establishes the role of dependence in imperialism.

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Development and Underdevelopment: indeed the twin concepts of development and

underdevelopment have remained problematic in terms of conceptualizations in the field of

political science. It has elicited various definitions from scholars of diverse backgrounds and

ideological underpinnings.

According to Rodney (1972:21) “development in human society is a many sided process. At the

level of the individual, it implies increased skill and capacity, greater freedom, creativity, self –

discipline, responsibility and material well being. Some of these are virtually moral categories

and are difficult to evaluate depending as they do on the age in which one lives, ones class,

origins and one’s personal code of what is right and what is wrong. However , what is

indisputable is that the achievement of any of those aspects of personal development is very

much tied in with the state of the society as a whole".

This above exposition of development by Rodney posits that the societal and economic variants

of development are all hinged on the individual. When individuals making up a society are

developed, then the society can be said to be developed.

According to John Montgomery and William Siffin cited in Abah (2000:5), “development is

planned mobilization and direction of scarce resources to achieve constantly rising national goals

and objectives formulated by the national machinery. To them government must be involved in

the development process of a given geographical entity or a semi-autonomous political unit.

Fred Riggs also cited in Abah(2000:5) is however more inclined to equate development with

freedom as he defines it as increase I the level of of autonomy and discretion of social system.

In the context of this paper it is better to see development as the qualitative and quantitative

increase in society, which is as a result of the creative energies of the individuals in that society.

This definition covers the fact that development cannot be given to a group of people or

community but could only be said to have happened when the people in a given society are able

to transform nature or manipulate it for their own betterment.

Underdevelopment on the other hand does not connote the absence of development because

every society has developed in one way or another to the extent possible. Underdevelopment

therefore makes sense only as a means of comparing levels of development. It is very much tied 4

to the fact that social development has been uneven and from a strictly economic point of view,

some human groups have advanced further by producing more and becoming wealthier. Hence in

comparison with the greater affluence of the countries of Europe and North America, the

economically backward countries could only be called underdeveloped. This perspective was

aptly presented by Walter Rodney in “How Europe Underdeveloped Africa”, where he stated

that virtually all underdeveloped countries of the Third World without exception passed through

a colonial era and the trauma of colonialism impacted upon them the condition of

underdevelopment.

This view by Rodney (1972) blamed the underdeveloped status of the third world on

imperialism. It is also instructive of how the underdeveloped post colonial economies Of Africa,

Asia and Latin America, fused into the global capitalist economy to compete side by side with

the industrialized economies of Western Europe and North America.

So we can say today that the communities in Africa, Asia and, Latin America that are now

impoverished and pauperized were as a result of imperialism. Today the gap between the so-

called developed countries and the underdeveloped countries is so wide. Dependency is the order

of the day in which the countries of the third world depend on the industrialized nations for

almost everything ranging from goods to services. The third world countries have been relegated

to the background and only made relevant in the area of supply of Raw Materials in the

international division of labor. Backwardness in science and technology is also another major

area where the third-world lags behind in the balanced of world economy. Major projects that

require the employment of advanced science and technology are now being contracted out to

European multinational and transnational companies.

There can be no doubt that there is still a widening gap between the central and peripheral states

in world economy and politics today. This is because the imperialist nations have seized control

of five monopolies, which are (1) technological monopoly (2) monopolistic control of worldwide

financial markets (3) media and communications monopolies and (4) monopoly of weapons of

mass destruction and other advanced means of destruction.

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This above situation puts the third world countries in a competitive disadvantage when it comes

to trade and investment.

Theoretical Perspective: The theoretical perspective that best suits the thesis of this paper is

the dependency theory as propounded by Andre Gunder Frank, Immanuel Wallenstein and a host

of other third world scholars.

• Generally dependency is the reliance on a person, or something for support, survival or

enhancement

In development studies dependency speaks of a situation in which a particular country or region

relies on another for support, “survival” and growth.

Dependency is a Neo-Marxist perspective that maintains that Third World countries are

Underdeveloped because of the activities of the First World (developed and industrialized

nations)

Dependency theory holds that “the condition of underdevelopment is precisely the result of the

incorporation of the Third World economies into the capitalist world system which is dominated

by the West and North America” (Randall and Theo bald 1998, 120)

Dependency Theory emerged in the 1950s as a critique of Modernization

Argues that these Classical theorists failed to recognize that Imperialism, Colonialism and Neo-

Colonialism is solely responsible for the development of the First World and the subsequent

underdevelopment of the Third World.

These below are the features of the dependency critique:

• The existence of a Capitalist World System as a conduit pipe for the siphoning of the

resources of the third world.

• In this capitalist system countries are divided into Metropoles and Satellites (Frank) or

Core and Semi-periphery and Periphery (Wallenstein)

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• Core Countries/ are the Rich Industrialized Countries of the West, whose GDP and per

capita income exceed 7% per annum

• Peripheries are those countries whose annual rate of growth is less than 5-7% and are

primary producers of goods and services.

Semi-peripheries: Newly industrialized countries, China, Singapore, Taiwan, South Korea

(Asian Tigers), Cuba, Brazil, Venezuela, Mexico, Indonesia, Egypt, Portugal, Spain and Italy.

• The capitalist system operates where peripheries/Satellites provide raw material for the

Core/Metrpole countries who manufacture and sells it. Thus the basis of dependency and

Underdevelopment.

Dependency according to scholars emerged as a result of Europe’s drive to capital accumulation.

Thus led to the colonization of Latin American, Caribbean, African and East Asian States. The

extraction of wealth (Natural resources and capital) followed leading to the transfer of this

wealth to Europe facilitating industrialization and development (Rodney, 1972).

According to Andre Gunder Frank, “monopoly control of trade and unequal exchange between

metropole and satellite resulted in the extraction of surplus value (Potter and Binns et al, 1999).

In general the theory of dependency holds that both ;political and economic dependency are

inversely and significantly related economic prosperity, that is more dependent countries are also

less prosperous. In order for these backward to countries to develop they must disassociate

themselves from all relations with the first world. This is because the imperialist nations of the

west have created artificial underdevelopment in the third world through imperialism.

Imperialism and Third world Underdevelopment

As has been earlier posited in this paper, the political and the economic life of the third- world

cannot be studied imperialism. This is because imperialism has made a major impact amongst

the so- called third world or less developed countries and has even altered their modes of

production that should be historically determined.

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According to Rodney (1972:3) every people have shown a capacity for independently increasing

their ability to live a more satisfactory life through exploiting the resources of nature. Every

continent independently participated in the early epochs of the extension of man’s control over

his environment which means in effect that every continent can point to a period of economic

development.

Drawing from Rodney above even the so-called third-world countries today showed some form

of development pattern before external interference from the imperial nations such as ; Britain,

France and the U.S.A.

A classical example of this above statement was the situation of India. In 1810, India was

exporting more textiles to England than England was exporting to India. By 1830, the trade

flows was reversed. The British had put up prohibitive tariff barriers to shut out Indian finished

goods and were dumping their commodities in India, a practice which was backed by the British

Gunboats and military force.

Conclusion

In conclusion, the influence of imperialism on the third –world cannot be overemphasized given

its immense impact in determining the politico-economic standing of the third-world today.

Whole civilizations have been altered, countries carved up and mode of productions artificially

changed, and dependencies created. The situation now remains where the third –world finds a

solution for the further imperial exploitation and domination of the third-world. A veritable

solution to this situation is for the third-world countries to delink from whatsoever link they have

with the imperialist nations. But immediate delinking may be fatalistic. So a slow process

delinking will be advised so as to combat imperialism and underdevelopment in the third-world

forever.

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REFERENCES

Abah, N. (2000) Development administration; A multidisciplinary approach Enugu: John-Jacobs

classic publishers.

Ake, C. (1981) Political economy of Africa. New York. Longman Inc.

Andre, G. (1967) Capitalism and Underdevelopment in Latin America .New York: Monthly

Review Press.

Baran, P (1957) the political economy of growth. New York: Monthly review press.

David, C. (2004) Maps of time. Berkely: University of California.

Parati, M (1995) Against an Empire. Losangeles : city light books.

Potter & Binns et al(1999) Geographies of Development. New York: Oxford University Press.

Randall & Theobald (1998) Political change and Underdevelopment: A Lynn Reiner publisher’s

book.

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