Raymond Aron
THE LENINIST MYTH OF IMPERIALISM
The theory of imperialism appears, in various fonns, in
the works of Rosa Luxemburg, Bukharin, Lenin, and others. But the
ideas common to all of them can be reduced to a few propositions.
First, capitalist economy, because of its very structure, cannot absorb
its own production, so that it is compelled to expand, and the in–
dividuals do not even become aware of the mechanism that is carry–
ing them away. Second, the race among the European nations to
win overseas territories for colonial exploitation, is a fatal consequence
of competition. In Africa, in Asia, in Oceania, Europeans seek raw
materials, markets, places to invest their surplus capital. The period
of colonial expansion marks a stage of capitalist development char–
acterized by the dominance of financial capital and the power of
monopolies. Third, the European wars are the fatal result of imperial–
ism:
their real stake is the division of the planet, even though they
may be occasioned by some European dispute. They are precipitated
by the growing imbalance between the mother countries and the
colonial empires, by the advent of the era of the closed world. Having
encompassed the limits of the planet, the will to power that
has
driven
the capitalists to the remotest comers of the world now turns upon
itself.
This theory enjoys tremendous prestige even in non-Marxist
circles. It is intellectually
s~tisfying.
It
accounts for a certain number
of facts. The interest manifested by Great Britain, and more recently
by the United States, in the Near East, is measured in terms of the
oil resources of this region. The Boer War had something to do with
the South Mrican gold mines, and the propaganda carried on in
London by agents of large development companies. In the course
of the last twenty years of the nineteenth century, the European
nations carved out empires in Mrica for themselves, and simultane-
