648
PARTISAN REVIEW
plored territories into its system. And it
is
not to
be
denied that
colonial conquest can be regarded as dependent on this economic
expansion. But whatever the plausibility of such a view may
be,
two
questions remain to be answered: Were the colonial empires in
Mrica founded in accordance with this schematic pattern? Were
the European wars a consequence of these quarrels for the division
of the planet? The facts, if they are questioned without bias, answer
these two questions in the negative.
During the period between 1870 and 1941, there were instances
in which the diplomatic services of nations were mobilized in behalf
of capitalists, and when they vigorously defended certain private in–
vestments (Venezuela, Persia) . Not that foreign ministers were
manipulated by capitalists; but they felt justified in defending cer–
tain economic positions. The fact is that under the system of private
ownership, the ambitions of certain corporations are genuinely
identical with national interests. But, apart from the Boer War,
which was unleashed largely by the intrigues of a large development
company,
none of the colonial undertakings that caused important
diplomatic conflicts in Europe was motivated by the quest for cap–
italist profits; all of them originated in political ambitions that the
chancelleries camouflaged by invoking realistic motives.
In other
words, the actual relationship is most often the inverse of that ac–
cepted by the current theory of imperialism: the economic interests
are only a pretext or a rationalization, whereas the profounder cause
lies in the nations' will to power.
The timber concessions on the Yalu River that gave
rise
to the
Russo-Japanese War were not the result of a business deal
in
the
current sense of this term. The shareholders could not expect divi–
dends during the first years. The twenty thousand forest rangers sent
in as a vanguard were actually disguised Russian soldiers. The
company was founded by highly placed individuals who wished to
interest the court of the Czar in an enterprise whose purpose was
not profits but control of Korea. From the very outset, the objective
was conquest.
Nor was the French protectorate in Tunisia established by
governments taking orders from industrialists or financiers. Neither
the Mejerdah railroad, nor the concession granted to Count Sauvy,
nor the agitation of the Societe Marseillaise would have influenced the
