Karl Kautsky : Imperialism and the War Source: International Socialist Review, November 1914 Translated: William E. Bohn Transcribed: for marxists.org, March, 2002
"If imperialism were necessary to the continued existence of the capitalist method of production-these arguments against it would make little impression on the capitalist mind. But they will make a deep impression if imperialism is only one among several means of achieving this object. We can say of imperialism what Marx said of capitalism: Monopoly creates competition and competition creates monopoly. The violent competition of great concerns led to the formation of trusts and the destruction of small concerns. Just so there may develop in the present war a combination of the stronger nations, which will put an end to the competitive building of armaments. >From a purely economic point of view, therefore, it is not impossible that capitalism is now to enter upon a new phase, a phase marked by the transfer of trust methods to international politics, a sort of super-imperialism. The working class would be forced to fight this new form of capitalism as it did the old, but the danger from it would lie in a new direction. This analysis was completed before Austria surprised us with her ultimatum to Servia. The conflict between these two nations did not result from imperialistic tendencies alone. In eastern Europe nationalism still plays a role as a revolutionary force and the present conflict has a nationalist as well as an imperialist cause. Austria attempted to carry out an imperialist policy; she annexed Bosnia and appeared to be on the point of bringing Albania within her sphere of influence. Through these activities she roused the nationalist spirit of Servia, which felt itself threatened by Austria and thus became a danger to the Austrian government. The world-war was brought on, not because imperialism was necessary to Austria, but because Austria, on account of the peculiarity of its organization, endangered itself through following an imperialist policy. Such a policy can be successfully followed only by a state which is internally united and which has for its field of operations a region far behind it in civilization. But in this case a state divided against itself, a state half Slavic in population, attempted to carry out an imperialist policy at the expense of a Slavic neighbor state which is quite the equal in civilization of the adjacent parts of its imperialistic enemy." (End of quote)
