Imperialism: The Highest Stage of Capitalism, written by Vladimir Lenin in 1916, is a summary of Lenin's expansion of the economic theories that Karl Marx established in Das Kapital. It makes an effort to explain how the global market became more significant in the 20th century. According to Lenin, the First World War and colonialism were both results of the globalisation of the capitalist system.

The German, British, French, and Russian empires would eventually clash over the economic exploitation of significant portions of the world while colonising underdeveloped nations. He contends that in the capitalist homeland, the business class can buy local politicians, labour leaders, and the labour aristocracy with the money made from exploiting colonies in order to quell worker uprisings.