section_path: Etymology and usage
section_name: Etymology and usage
paragraph_text: Etymology and usage
  
  The word imperialism originated from the Latin word imperium, which means "to command", "to be sovereign ", or simply "to rule". The word “imperialism” was first produced in the 19th century to decry Napoleon III 's despotic militarism and his attempts at obtaining political support through foreign military interventions. The term became common in the current sense in Great Britain during the 1870s; by the 1880's it was used with a positive connotation. By the end of the 19th century it was being used to describe the behavior of empires at all times and places. Hannah Arendt and Joseph Schumpeter defined imperialism as expansion for the sake of expansion.
  
  The term was and is mainly applied to Western and Japanese political and economic dominance, especially in Asia and Africa, in the 19th and 20th centuries. Its precise meaning continues to be debated by scholars. Some writers, such as Edward Said, use the term more broadly to describe any system of domination and subordination organized around an imperial core and a periphery. This definition encompasses both nominal empires and neocolonialism.