ABSTRACT
The United States (US), it is charged, is imperialist, neo-imperialist, neo-colonialist. Karl Kautsky’s theory was that imperialism was a method of expansion supported by certain powerful capitalist groups (the banks and the armament kinds), contrary to the needs of the capitalist class as a whole; that expenditure on armaments reduced available capital for investment in the domestic economy. A deeper study may suggest that US imperialism since the 1890s was a product of a misperceived economic analysis, a belief that the domestic market problem could be solved only by expansion abroad. The spectacular growth in US foreign relationships is with high-income nations. The most detailed analysis of the imperatives of economic imperialism for the US is that presented by Harry Magdoff in his study The Age of Imperialism. Since the conclusion that imperialism is economically imperative for the US is reached from a variety of viewpoints, it is therefore important that the authors specify what phenomena we are investigating.
