Abstract

This introduction provides the setting for understanding the presuppositions that undergirded the Enlightenment Period in Europe, foundational to an understanding of the linkages between the ideas of human progress, liberalism, mercantile commerce, colonialism, and neocolonialism, now under the guise of neoliberal globalization. The phase of mercantile capitalism was characterized by rivalry among the European empires but also punctuated by violence at their peripheries. The phase of neoliberal globalization, also punctuated by violence, is led by the US empire, upholder of the principle of value accumulation for private profit, and legitimated by the principles, institutions, and practices of neoliberalism. This work distances itself from postcolonialism which is reticent in recognizing this reality.