I have complained about it before but I heard on of the guests from guerrilla history on the deprogram make this argument and it made me want to gouge my eyes out. This kind of trans historical argumentation is both stupid and unmarxist, just stop! Sorry I felt the need to vent.
These states were not imperialist and they weren't settler colonies. This framing doesn't make any fucking sense when transfered to a medieval context. Like the best you could say is that the Italian city states represented an early firm of merchant capital, but even then that is an incredibly complex phenomenon that has only a tenuous connection to modern capitalism. Calling these city states early capitalism is just a fancy way of saying "lol u hate capitalism yet you exchange good or service! Curious!"
Seriously just stop. I don't know why this set me off but it was like a week ago and I am still mad about it.
I was just providing lenin's definition of imperialism in the context of the conversation because It seemed that folks were talking past one another. I believe that if you are approaching imperialism from a Leninist (or analogous) perspective it's important to have the specific definition to at least be able to cut off any confusion based on specific terminology from the get go. I also didn't listen to the podcast in context of the post for what it's worth, and I'm not really coming down too hard on any side here. I was just hoping to provide some context lol
That being said, since there is the more colloquial use of the term that most people understand as 'empire-building' which includes conquest, settling, etc., I just tend to lay out specifically If I'm talking about imperialism as understood within a capitalist framework versus imperial projects. Lenin's writings on finance/capitalist imperialism is certainly supposed to be evocative of empire building so in casual context I don't think that it matters all too much to use the term more loosely unless you are getting into the weeds regarding social imperialism or whatever else. I think it's unfortunate that lenin didn't name it neoimperialism or some other more clever portmanteau/neologism.