Imperialism has been a prominent force throughout history, and the U.S. has and still uses it to gain influence and power across the world. Imperialism had previously been dominated by Western European countries, however the country that best exemplifies an imperial power in today’s world is the United States. Imperialism often occurs due to the need of countries that are economic powers needing raw materials or other sources of wealth to fund their dominant industries. As defined by Lenin: “Imperialism also arises because increased concentration of wealth leads to under consumption. However, since the state represents the capitalist interest it is not possible to reduce under consumption effectively through liberal strategies.”
Thus, many
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has even demonstrated its force worldwide through things like the military to expand its influence politically and has aided them in reaching these different markets. With military bases, all over the world it is extremely easy to see why this is considered imperialistic trait. The Unites States military is used a tool of influence and intimidation. This is easy to see with a military budget that has reached heights so great and has expanded past NATO’s recommended 2% of GDP. In fact, the U.S.’s budget for “national defense” is so great it is more than twice all the other countries in NATO combined. With a budget, this large it is obvious that the U.S. has expanded far past the typical “self-defense strategy” that most countries practice …show more content…
Although the United States is not an empire around the world in terms of owning nations, they have expanded their economic influence in countries across the globe. The United States economy is able to thrive due to expansion of U.S. business into other countries. Large U.S. cooperation’s produce their products in factories overseas that do not have strict labor laws, which in turn allows these businesses to produce their product for a cheap price and control the supply and demand of the product. Imperialism has allowed businesses to thrive as they can produce their product at a lower price foreign than domestically in the U.S, and then in turn sell that product at an extremely high value by controlling the supply and demand of the product on the market. Their expansion all over the world has allowed the country to combat overconsumption and gain control of markets worldwide. Whether it’s through their actions involved with capitalism or their reactions to fight under consumption all signs point to a nation that is