ABSTRACT
Militarism fulfils a quite definite function in the history of capital,
accompanying as it does every historical phase of accumulation. It plays
a decisive part in the first stages of European capitalism, in the period
of the so-called ‘primitive accumulation’, as a means of conquering the
New World and the spice-producing countries of India. Later, it is
employed to subject the modern colonies, to destroy the social organ-
isations of primitive societies so that their means of production may be
appropriated, forcibly to introduce commodity trade in countries
where the social structure had been unfavourable to it, and to turn the
natives into a proletariat by compelling them to work for wages in the
colonies. It is responsible for the creation and expansion of spheres of
interest for European capital in non-European regions, for extorting
railway concessions in backward countries, and for enforcing the
claims of European capital as international lender. Finally, militarism is
a weapon in the competitive struggle between capitalist countries for
areas of non-capitalist civilisation.
