Imperialism was
at its peak when Joseph Conrad was writing. In order to clarify its concept let
us see some interpretations…
Imperialism is a
type of advocacy of Empire. Its name originated from the Latin word
"imperium", meaning to rule over large territories. Imperialism is
"a policy of extending a country's power and influence through
colonization, use of military force, or other means". Imperialism has
greatly shaped the contemporary world. The term imperialism has been applied to
Western (and Japanese) political and economic dominance especially in Asia and
Africa in the 19th and 20th centuries. Its precise meaning continues to be
debated by scholars. Some writers use the term more broadly to describe any
system of domination and subordination organised with an imperial center and a
periphery. From a Marxist perspective, imperialism is a natural feature of a
developed capitalist nation state as it matures into monopoly capitalism.
Imperialism is
defined as "an unequal human and territorial relationship, usually in the
form of an empire, based on ideas of superiority and practices of dominance,
and involving the extension of authority and control of one state or people
over another." Imperialism is a process and ideology that does not only
focus on political dominance, but rather, conquest over expansion. Imperialism
is particularly focused on the control that one group, often a state power, has
on another group of people. There are "formal" or
"informal" imperialism. "Formal imperialism" is, "the
physical control or full-fledged colonial rule". "Informal
control" is less direct, however; it is still a powerful form of
dominance. There are three waves of imperialism; Americas (North, South and the
Caribbean), Asia and Africa. From the fifteenth century forward, Spain and
Portugal were responsible for colonizing South America. Both Spain and Portugal
were soon followed by the British, French and Dutch, who gained territory in
North America. Britain, using the private East India Company, colonized parts
of India. Portugal, Netherlands, France and Japan also had Asian colonial
possessions. The third wave, Africa, or the "New Imperialism" was
structured by the Berlin Conference (1884–85), at which the main European
powers divided up Africa.
 |
| British Empire |
The definition
of imperialism has not been finalized for centuries and was confusedly seen to
represent the policies of major powers, or simply, general-purpose
aggressiveness. Further on, some writers used the term imperialism, in slightly
more discriminating fashion, to mean all kinds of domination or control by a
group of people over another.
Some examples of
formal imperialism are: British rule of the colonies in America before 1776,
India (1858–1947), Hong Kong (1842–1997), and Kenya (1920–1963). Some examples of
informal imperialism are: Britain's 19th-century hegemony in Chile and Iraq, or
the owning of more than 70 percent of banana companies in Guatemala by the USA.
The word
imperialism became common in Great Britain during the 1870s and was used with a
negative connotation.
El
Libro
Central to
Conrad's work is the idea that there is little difference between so-called
civilized people and those described as savages. Heart of Darkness raises important questions about imperialism and
racism.
Originally
published as a three-part serial story in Blackwood's Magazine, the novella Heart of Darkness has been variously
published and translated into many languages. In 1998, the Modern Library
ranked Heart of Darkness as the
sixty-seventh of the hundred best novels in English of the twentieth century.
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