Colonialism:
Derived from the Latin word colere, “to inhabit,” colonialism describes the domination of land and subjugation of peoples brought into the property relations and social order of the colonizers. Colonialism appeared thousands of year ago with the rise of private property and the slave mode of production. The colonial form of development continued under the feudal mode of production, capitalist mode of production, during all stages of the industrial revolution, and its residue is felt today as humanity becomes globalized.
Colonialism, imperialism and globalization are related terms, but each applies to a different stage of development of society.
Modern imperialism grew out of the capitalist-industrial revolution during the 1870s, after the US Civil War with the rise of monopoly capitalism. Monopoly capitalism was distinguished by the export of the social power of finance capital as distinct from the colonial export of commodities.
“Globalization emerged from the digital revolution and the rise of a real time worldwide infrastructure of robotics, the internet of things and new financial architecture that has brought humanity into one universal mode of production.
(See, Globalization, Imperialism.)
Colony:
A colony during the era of monopoly capitalism was a land mass and its people who became possessions of an imperialist state. It was a non-sovereign people, nation and/or country forcefully owned and controlled by oppressing peoples and state. Rooted in private property relations, based on military and political subjugation, the colony was a form of development of the productive relations and made its first appearance under the slave mode of production.
While a handful of direct colonies still exists, the world has been fundamentally decolonized, as much as possible under private property. Most of the former colonies resemble “client states” and protectorates within the global system of speculative finance. The people of these states are no longer the property of the imperialist state.
“In modern usage, the terms “colony,” “neocolony” and “semicolony” are bound up with the Henry Ford stage of development of the industrial revolution. “Colony,” “neocolony,” and “semicolony” do not describe the new reality of an empire of US bases in a globalized world market, based on the mega-corporate state led by the US Empire.
Neocolony:
When a former direct colony threw off the foreign ruler, gained independence with control of its own state and political institutions, it became a neocolony, which remained financially dependent upon the former direct colonizer. The neocolony existed in the last stage of development of imperialism imperial – monopoly capital.
Semicolony:
A semicolony was a country where the domestic democratic forces of national liberation gained at least partial control of the state. It was a semicolony because the country remained dependent and locked into the system dominated by finance capital. In the past century a semicolony either left the capitalist system or lapsed back into a neocolonial status.
In addition to the neocolony and semicolony was the client state, for instance, Portugal of the past century, which was dominated by the financial-imperialist regime, rather than by military and links to a former colonizer.”
Excerpt From: Darryl Mitchell. “Marxist Glossary Mini Edition 3.0.” iBooks.
Marxist Glossary Mini Edition 3.0 can be purchased at Lulu.com
