The concept of “imperialism” refers, in general parlance, to the policy and practice of extending state power through the acquisition of territory, usually by conquest. In this sense, imperialism has been a feature of state formation from ancient times to the contemporary period.1 A more technical use of the term, relevant for this chapter, was introduced by the British economist J. A. Hobson in 19022 and further developed and popularized by V. I. Lenin in 1917. Imperialism, in Marxist theory, is a higher stage in the development of capitalism3; it is the transition from the early phase of laissez-faire or free-competition capitalism to the rule of monopolies. What distinguishes this latest phase from previous ones is the predominance of monopolies in major industries, the formation of “financial capital” through the merging of industrial and bank capital, the predominance of the export of capital, the formation of international monopolies that divide the world among themselves, and the scramble of imperialist powers to redivide the world into “spheres of influence.”