Expansion—exporting money rather than people—differs fundamentally from conquest

Evidence

By comparisons with ancient Empires, by mistaking expansion for conquest, by neglecting the difference between Commonwealth and Empire (which pre-imperialist historians called the difference between plantations and possessions, or colonies and dependencies, or, somewhat later, colonialism and imperialism23), by neglecting, in other words, the difference between export of (British) people and export of (British) money, historians tried to dismiss the disturbing fact that so many of the important events in modern history look as though molehills had labored and had brought forth mountains. — Hannah Arendt, The Origins of Totalitarianism, 358

Categorization

Category: Definitional Content

• DEFINE: Distinguishes expansion (capital export) from conquest (people export), a definitional distinction central to the imperialism/colonialism toolkit.
• XREF: The ‘molehills labor and bring forth mountains’ disparity anticipates the discussion of causeless power in the biopolitics readings.

Related

• Imperialism as expansion differs fundamentally from empire building as rule of law (similarity 0.79)
• Expansion as permanent political aim originates in business speculation, not political thought (similarity 0.79)
• Imperialism arose from oversaved capital seeking foreign investment, not territorial motives (similarity 0.78)