ABSTRACT
This chapter explores how modernity and the West gained dominance over societies elsewhere in the world. It deals with the expansion of European influence from 1500 and the role of plunder, slavery and trade in enabling the industrial revolution. The nature and causes of imperialism, particularly ecological imperialism, are linked to capitalism’s need to overcome economic and political limits to growth, and world systems theory is used to explain the emerging global division of labour. The rise of socialism as an anti-capitalist and anti-imperialist politics seeking to alter the direction of the modern project is then outlined. While some social scientists and geographers began to develop an understanding of society and nature based on Marx’s dialectical materialism, mainstream geography remained dominated by simpler formulations. The chapter covers the period from 1500 to 1945 with a focus on the nineteenth century.
