imperialism 的詞源

1826年，“帝国的倡导，对帝国利益的忠诚”，最初在拿破仑背景下使用，但也用于罗马和英国的对外政策；来自 imperial + -ism。

在英国使用（并且短暂地在美国使用）时，有时具有中性或积极的意义，涉及国家利益或西方文明利益的传播，但从一开始通常或多或少是一个指责的术语。

It is the old story of 1798, when French republicanism sick of its own folly and misdeeds, became metamorphosed into imperialism, and consoled itself for its incapacity to found domestic freedom by putting an iron yoke upon Europe, and covering it with blood and battle-fields. [Francis Lloyd, St. James's Magazine, January 1842]

这是1798年的老故事，当时法国共和主义厌倦了自己的愚蠢和罪行，变成了帝国主义，并通过在欧洲施加铁制枷锁，覆盖血与战场，来安慰自己无法建立国内自由的无能。[Francis Lloyd, St. James's Magazine, January 1842]

“一个国家对另一个国家的统治”的一般意义记录于1878年。该词的贬义特质在1900年后加剧，美国对菲律宾叛乱的厌恶以及J.A.霍布森关于帝国主义的书籍的出版，使得该术语在1910年代被共产主义作家采用。

Imperialism is a depraved choice of national life, imposed by self-seeking interests which appeal to the lusts of quantitative acquisitiveness and of forceful domination surviving in a nation from early centuries of animal struggle for existence. Its adoption as a policy implies a deliberate renunciation of that cultivation of the higher inner qualities which for a nation as for an individual constitutes the ascendency of reason over brute impulse. It is the besetting sin of all successful States, and its penalty is unalterable in the order of nature. [J.A. Hobson, "Imperialism: A Study," London, 1902]

帝国主义是国家生活的堕落选择，由自私自利的利益强加，这些利益迎合了数量贪婪和强势统治的欲望，这些欲望在一个民族早期的生存斗争中存续。作为政策的采用意味着故意放弃对更高内在品质的培养，这对于一个民族就像对于一个个体一样，构成了理性对野蛮冲动的优越。它是所有成功国家的固有罪恶，其惩罚在自然法则中是不可改变的。[J.A. Hobson, "Imperialism: A Study," London, 1902]