ABSTRACT
Orthodox Marxist historical materialisms have viewed the history of social formations one-sidedly from the mode of production as base, which over-determines the political, ideological superstructure. In contrast, this article proposes an augmentation of historical materialism which has as its determinative base the mode of exchange. Specifically, through a lens of exchange, a spatial and territorial element is brought to an analysis and historicizing of imperialism. This article argues that the world entered into an imperialist stage of capitalism in the 1990s. Imperialism is inseparable from the capitalist economy. But it does not necessarily follow that imperialism can be explained away as a historical stage of the capitalist economy. Imperialism is a matter of politics among nations. To see this, we need to look at world history from the double axis, i.e. the state and capital. Modern imperialism is not necessarily expansionist in terms of territory. Rather, it aims at expanding through trade. By way of spreading the market economy, imperialism tries to gain surplus value. Thus, ‘neoliberalism’ by definition is imperialism. Its nature is to aim for global expansion of the market.
