We’ve given some close attention to the “new imperialism” of the late nineteenth century, which is typically dated from the 1880s (the Berlin Conference of 1884 was an important turning point) down to the First World War. I mentioned in passing the “free trade imperialism” of the nineteenth century. It’s worthy of some attention. It refers, above all, to the relationship between Britain and the world in the aftermath of the Napoleonic wars until the 1870s. In these decades, Britain managed a system of free-trade that served its national interests — dominating colonies and free states with an economic form of imperialism.
“Burn” (Quemada), the 1969 film from Gillo Pontecorvo, offers a pointed critique of the whole idea. It is at once an indictment of British 19th c. colonialism and a powerful critique of the U.S. war in Vietnam. Marlon Brando stars as Walker, the British official who first spurs the slaves of Quemada, a fictional island in the Caribbean, to revolt against their Portuguese masters and put in place … a new government dominated by rich planters. See his speech on the advantages of prostitution to marriage, which he offers the plantation owners as a guide to why free laborers should be preferred to slaves…