Marxism, Imperialism, Post-Colonialism, and Feminism in International Relations

Marx viewed capitalism as a dynamic economic system that continuously expands "productive forces," referring to its capacity for production. This dynamism arises from the fragmentation of capital into competing units.
Capitalists are compelled to reinvest profits to expand production, adopt new technologies, and leverage economies of scale.
This leads to concentration of capital and periodic crises of overaccumulation.
Capitalism, according to Marx, is superior to preceding economic systems due to its greater productive capacity.
In The Communist Manifesto (1848), Marx noted capitalism's creation of more massive and colossal productive forces in a century than all preceding generations, accomplishing wonders surpassing the Egyptian pyramids, Roman aqueducts, and Gothic cathedrals.
Capitalism cannot exist without constantly revolutionizing the instruments of production.
Marx believed capitalism would eventually be superseded by socialism.

Marx considered British industrialism and capitalism as a higher stage of historical development.
He viewed the British as bringing the "greatest, and to speak the truth, the only social revolution in India."
Despite the British acting out of "the vilest interests," Marx saw them as unconsciously fulfilling mankind's destiny through a fundamental revolution in Asia's social state.
In Capital Volume 1, Marx later shifted his view, no longer expecting capitalism to industrialize pre-capitalist economies.
Instead, he argued that Britain had ruined handicraft production in India and that capitalism colonizes foreign lands, converting them into settlements for raw material production.
This leads to a new international division of labor, benefiting main industrial countries by turning parts of the globe into agricultural fields supplying the industrial core.
This anticipates later theories of the "development of underdevelopment".

Capitalism will industrialize the colonies.
Capitalism will not industrialize the colonies but destroy local industry, converting them into sources of raw material for the "main industrial countries."

Late 19th-century Marxist theorists, including Rudolf Hilferding, Rosa Luxembourg, Vladimir Illich Lenin, Nicolai Bukharin, and Karl Kautsky, analyzed imperialism.
Common elements in these analyses included:
- Uneven development of capitalism.
- Concentration of capital.
- Competition between capitalist states.
World War I was attributed to Britain's early pre-eminence, its subsequent relative decline, and the rivalry between Britain and emerging powers like Germany.

Lenin, leader of the Bolsheviks during the Russian Revolution (1917) and writing in 1916, viewed imperialism not as a foreign policy option but as a stage in capitalism's development.
He defined it as the "highest stage" (monopoly stage), characterized by the concentration and internationalization of capital.

The "export of capital" driven by a lack of profitable investment opportunities at home.
Centralization of production and distribution in great trusts and cartels.
Merging of banking and industrial capital.
Capitalist powers dividing the world into "spheres of influence".
Inter-capitalist struggle to redivide the world, leading to inter-capitalist wars (Lenin identified World War I as an imperialist war).
This challenged the liberal thesis that economic interdependence rendered war obsolete.