The word imperialism is derived from the Latin word imperium,[8] which means 'to command', 'to be sovereign', or 'to rule'.[9] It was coined in the 19th century to describe Napoleon III's attempts to gain political support by invasion.[10][11] The term was applied to the British Empire during the 1870s; by the 1880s it had acquired a positive connotation in the West.[12] By the end of the 19th century, the term was used to describe the behavior of empires at all times and places.[13] Hannah Arendt and Joseph Schumpeter defined imperialism as expansion for the sake of expansion.[14]

Hobson, and in 1917, Lenin, attempted to redefine imperialism as the "highest stage of capitalism", as firms exported capital to dominate economically rather than territorially.[15]

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Imperialism