ABSTRACT
Imperialism as a political and economic theory first emerged during and immediately after the Boer War. Imperialism and anti-imperialism were still sentiments and beliefs of vague and varying content in the British Isles. In the career of imperialism it was an essential turning point. It made the word an international slogan in Europe, just as the Spanish War had made it a slogan in America. It also gave rise to the world-wide misinterpretation of the Boer War as a capitalist plot. In America the socialist Gaylord Wilshire accepted the statements of capitalists that surplus investment capital made imperialism a necessity under the prevailing economic system. But argued that Americans should make a socialist revolution rather than accept passively the imposition of 'economic autocracy' in the form of trusts and 'political autocracy' in the form of imperialism. Opponents of imperialism could then identify dangerous enterprises and bring pressure on the government to refuse them any official support.
