This research project investigates the transformation of colonial power from mercantilist imperialism to modern and neo-imperial systems shaped by industrial capitalism and free trade. Through historical and comparative analysis, the project traces how changing economic doctrines, technological developments, and global power shifts restructured imperial practices between the sixteenth and twentieth centuries. Rather than treating mercantilism and free trade as opposing systems, it examines how both were used to maintain territorial control, extract resources and labour, dominate colonial markets, and dispossess Indigenous populations.
The project connects theoretical approaches to imperialism, world-systems theory, and settler colonialism with historical cases from Namibia, India, New Zealand, Egypt, and the European partition of Africa. Particular attention is given to the Berlin Conference, the rise of new industrial powers, and the ways colonial violence was justified through ideas of modernization, civilization, development, and economic freedom. It also examines Namibia’s experience as part of a broader network of interconnected imperial systems, rather than as an isolated colonial case.
By mapping the continuities between mercantilism, industrial capitalism, settler colonialism, and contemporary globalization, the project argues that imperialism did not disappear with decolonization but adapted into new economic, political, and institutional forms. It ultimately seeks to demonstrate how present-day global inequalities, economic dependencies, and patterns of Indigenous dispossession remain rooted in colonial structures that continue to shape relations between the global core and periphery.
