Imperialism and postcolonialism

When the term ‘imperialism’ was originally popularised, most of the world’s population lived in nations that were subjugated by empires, however, given the wave of decolonisation that followed the second world war, the question arises, what is ‘imperialism’ in the postcolonial era? Does ‘imperialism’ cease to exist because formal empires have mostly ended? The answer begins with recognising that the term ‘imperialism’ originally had two intentions, firstly, to explain the tendency towards global conflict, and secondly, to describe situations in which nations exploit nations. By integrating these two intentions into a unified theoretical framework, this chapter argues that the same contradictions that culminated in the first world war, are re-emerging today.