| | Within the broad Marxist discussion on imperialism and colonialism, problems specific to particular regions have been accorded only marginal attention. To a large extent, this explains the non-existence of theories of capitalist relations of the settler-colonial type. This gap in the theoretical analysis of colonialism is even more surprising when we note the central importance accorded to the problem in debate during the age of 'classical' imperialism. The Philosophical Radicals like Simmel considered the settler colonies as being the very embodiment of colonialism and their main reference was to the successive colonies in New England. A similar position was taken by Hobson in his study Imperialism, which so greatly influenced Marxist theory. This anti-imperialist English liberal attributed any economic advantage for the colonizing metropolis solely to the establishment of settler colonies, as against imperialism itself which was necessitated by intra-capitalist contradictions such as under-consumption and oversaving. |
