The philosophy of imperialism was very popular in the 19th and the first half of the 20th century. At its very core is the resource economy. It claims that a nation can only prosper by possessing resources and this actually drives them into wars of conquest and colonization.

What are resources? Resources are a social construct and they change as society changes. Wood in itself is nothing compared to a natural object, a plant. But man gave it meaning and turned it into his resource.

In contrast to imperialism, which claimed that a nation must have access to the ocean and ports, mines of all possible ores and minerals (and they cannot be built anywhere), as many sources of drinking water as possible, forests, agricultural land, etc., #liberalism pointed to the need for free trade. If there are no trade restrictions at the border, then it doesn't matter if your country has all that when the population can get everything they need through free trade. In this sense, #imperialism is a philosophy of war, and liberalism is a philosophy of peace. In the West, liberalism has won a landslide victory. Unfortunately, in some parts of the world, it has not caught on.

Today, you can see a classic example of the philosophy of imperialism in #Putin and his supporters or apologists. It does not occur to them that #Russia could have benefited enormously from #Ukraine if only it had built good diplomatic relations and signed a free trade agreement. They don't get it because they think a man must own every means of production he needs to live. They simply don't believe in trade.