ABSTRACT
Imperialism was the required policy of twentieth-century developed capitalist states. A slangy English phrase coined in the mid-eighteen nineties seemed an apt label for the transformations which were taking place: 'the New Imperialism'. The phrase 'theory of imperialism' was also first used at this time by people who were struggling to understand and survive the vast changes taking place around them. The theories devised by Marxists were the most complex and interesting because they attempted to place twentieth-century imperialism in a longer historical perspective. All the competing theories of imperialism were concerned with the politico-economic-military programmes promoted at the turn of the century by Chamberlain in Britain and like-minded statesmen in other countries. Up to the conclusion of the First World War, the merits of conflicting theories of imperialism were not debated in the academy but in the realm of practical politics.
