I MPERIALISM

David Healy

Imperialism, in its most precise traditional usage, means the forcible extension of governmental control over foreign areas not designated for incorporation as integral parts of the nation. The term is commonly used to mean any significant degree of national influence, public or private, over other societies; but to some it refers principally to foreign economic exploitation with or without other actions. In all usages, however, the essential element is that one society must in some way impose itself upon another in a continuing unequal relationship. Thus, American expansionism dated from the beginning of the national experience, while its evolution into true imperialism occurred only in the later nineteenth century.

See also A NTI -I MPERIALISM ; C OLONIALISM AND N EOCOLONIALISM ; C ONTINENTAL E XPANSION ; D OLLAR D IPLOMACY ; E CONOMIC P OLICY AND T HEORY ; I NTERVENTION AND N ONINTERVENTION ; I SOLATIONISM ; M ANDATES AND T RUSTEESHIPS ; O PEN D OOR P OLICY ; P ROTECTORATES AND S PHERES OF I NFLUENCE .