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subimperialism

From Wiktionary, the free dictionary

English

WOTD – 12 March 2025

Etymology

PIE word
*upó

From sub- (prefix meaning ‘beneath, under; secondary, subsidiary’) +‎ imperialism.

Pronunciation

Noun

subimperialism (countable and uncountable, plural subimperialisms)

  1. (politics) A form of imperialism (“policy of forcefully extending a nation's authority by territorial gain or by the establishment of economic and political dominance over other nations”) which is subordinate to another imperialism. [from 20th c.]
    • 1956 September 30, F. A. Voight, “Soviet Colonialism”, in Soviet Total War: “Historic Mission” of Violence and Deceit (85th Congress, 1st Session, House Document; no. 227, part 2), volume II, Washington, D.C.: Committee on Un-American Activities, United States House of Representatives, →OCLC, page 554:
      The revolt against "imperialism" has engendered a number of "subimperialisms." Egypt has ambitious plans of expansion which include the annexation of the Sudan and the suppression of Israel. India is determined to retain possession of Kashmir (the cause of ineradicable antagonism between her and Pakistan) and to annex the Portuguese territory (territory, not colony) of Goa.
    • 1967, W[illiam] David McIntyre, “Mid-Victorian Imperialism: A Pragmatic Approach to Empire”, in The Imperial Frontier in the Tropics, 1865–75: A Study of British Colonial Policy in West Africa, Malaya and the South Pacific in the Age of Gladstone and Disraeli, London: Macmillan and Co.; New York, N.Y.: St. Martin’s Press, →OCLC, page 380:
      Behind each experiment there was an important element of ‘sub-imperialism’. In West Africa, the Lagos merchants and Government became entangled in the Yoruba region. Sierra Leonians became involved in the northern rivers and some even looked to the interior of Soudan.
    • 1971, W[illiam] Gordon East, O[skar] H[ermann] K[hristian] Spate, Charles A. Fisher, “Epilogue: The Unity of Asia?”, in W. Gordon East, O. H. K. Spate, Charles A. Fisher, editors, The Changing Map of Asia: A Political Geography, 5th edition, London: Methuen & Co […], →ISBN, page 640:
      And the situation is further complicated by the nascent or sub-imperialisms of the Indians and the Chinese, as shown for example by the dispute over Indonesian actions against Chinese traders.
    • 1975 May–June, NACLA-East, “Brazil: The Continental Strategy: Introduction”, in NACLA’s Latin America & Empire Report, volume IX, number 4, New York, N.Y.: North American Congress on Latin America, →ISSN, →OCLC, page 3, column 1:
      The indications of Brazil's growing influence in Latin America, described in detail in this Report, have prompted a debate on the question of "subimperialism," the term commonly used to characterize Brazil's continental role.
    • 1975, G. N. Sanderson, “The European Partition of Africa: Coincidence or Conjuncture?”, in E[rnest] F[rancis] Penrose, editor, European Imperialism and the Partition of Africa, London; Portland, Or.: Frank Cass and Company, →ISBN, page 39:
      The other [new force] was Cecil Rhodes' unlimited expansion to the north, a 'personal' sub-imperialism far transcending the traditional Cape goal of local paramountcy, but yet serving it: […]
    • 1978 June 14, “Editorial Criticizes France’s African Policy”, in [anonymous], transl., Translations on Sub-saharan Africa (JPRS; 71295), number 1947, Arlington, Va.: Joint Publications Research Service, →OCLC, page 51:
      At this point, the French president [Valéry Giscard d'Estaing] took upon himself a well-known role that others before him, including [Adolf] Hitler, had already claimed—that of lawful defender of the so-called Western civilization. […] In fact, it is merely a question of French subimperialism being obliged to show a side it would prefer to keep hidden—its militaristic intervention.
      Translation of an editorial in Portuguese from Noticias (Maputo, Mozambique, 16 May 1978, page 8).
    • 1985, Marcia Wright, “East Africa, 1870–1905”, in Ronald Oliver, G. N. Sanderson, editors, The Cambridge History of Africa, volume 6 (From 1870 to 1905), Cambridge, Cambridgeshire: Cambridge University Press, published 2001, →ISBN, page 580:
      Upon the conclusion of the 1900 Buganda Agreement, an oligarchy in Buganda, composed mainly of Christians, with Protestants in the strongest position, achieved one of the most impressive settlements in the annals of sub-imperialism. This agreement guaranteed that the Bakungu chiefs would be the principal class mediating between the colonial power and the common people.
    • 1998, Louise Young, “The Jewel in the Crown: The International Context of Manchukuo”, in Japan’s Total Empire: Manchuria and the Culture of Wartime Imperialism, Berkeley; Los Angeles, Calif.; London: University of California Press, published 1999, →ISBN, part I (The Making of a Total Empire), page 30:
      Acting sometimes at the behest of the army high command or with the unofficial support of civilian officials, and sometimes on independent initiative, Kwantung Army officers made the army into an agent of subimperialism.
    • 2016, Patrick Bond, “BRICS within Critical International Political Economy”, in Alan Cafruny, Leila Simona Talani, Gonzalo Pozo Martin, editors, The Palgrave Handbook of Critical International Political Economy (Palgrave Handbooks in IPE), London: Palgrave Macmillan, Springer Nature, →DOI, →ISBN, part III (Regional Analysis), page 351:
      The pages below argue for an interpretation of BRICS [Brazil, Russia, India, China, South Africa] not typically comprehensible within the mainstream of analysis: "subimperialism", based on locating BRICS within global uneven and combined development.
    • 2021, Ulrike Kirchberger, “Between Transimperial Networking and National Antagonism: German Scientists in the British Empire during the Long Nineteenth Century”, in Andrew Goss, editor, The Routledge Handbook of Science and Empire (Routledge Handbooks), Abingdon, Oxfordshire; New York, N.Y.: Routledge, →ISBN, page 144:
      In this way, Germans were part of the British subimperialism of science. They provided metropolitan science with information and biota. Many of them were well integrated into British academia and society. At the same time, they participated in transimperial networks that undermined the core–periphery hierarchies of British imperial science.

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