Political rivalry and international economic competition: the centralization of capital and the outbreak of World War I

• Grant number: 11/19356-4
• Support Opportunities: Scholarships in Brazil - Scientific Initiation
• Start date: January 01, 2012
• End date: December 31, 2012
• Field of knowledge: Applied Social Sciences - Economics - International Economy
• Principal Investigator: Eduardo Barros Mariutti
• Grantee: Thomas Victor Conti
• Host Institution: Instituto de Economia (IE). Universidade Estadual de Campinas (UNICAMP). Campinas , SP, Brazil

Abstract

The objective of this research is to understand the nature of the imperialist forces at the end of the nineteenth century that were responsible for the crisis of British hegemony and the outbreak of the First World War. We start with a central hypothesis: the British order was originally based on its dominance in international trade. However, the process of centralization of capital spread industrialization to a limited set of countries, which enabled a new kind of political rivalry, based on the symbiosis between the national capital and the state, increasingly supported by nationalism. The competition between national capitals engendered an expansionist policy that divided the world into spheres of influence increasingly hostile, which, on assuming a bipolar shape, resulted in the Great War.(AU)