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Will Trump recolonize the world ?

samedi 14 février 2026, par Robert Paris, Tiekoura Levi Hamed

Towards a recolonization of the world ? A new imperialist policy to replace globalization and neocolonialism ?

The latest US imperialist intervention in Venezuela, where it claims it will take oil, accompanied by threats across Latin America and Greenland, suggests that Trump is capable of directly seizing the riches he wants to take from all corners of the world.

Trump wants white people to reconquer… South Africa, for the US to reclaim Greenland, Canada, Mexico, Venezuela, the Gulf of Mexico, Panama, the Arctic, outer space, and… Gaza ! But he’s not the only one… Israel wants to colonize "Greater Israel" by devouring Palestine, Lebanon, Syria, and many other lands…

But the "recolonization" movement isn’t limited to these two countries, nor to two figures like Trump and Netanyahu. There’s a genuine trend emerging globally with the idea of resuming colonial plunder. The former colonial powers also see themselves as colonizers. And even the new ones…

The new colonization rush is not limited to the poles and outer space…

Thus, France, recently ousted from Africa and Algeria, would gladly return with its armies, as the former Chief of Staff, General Lecointre, openly stated ! And neither General Mandon, the new French Chief of Staff, nor Macron, Lecornu, Retailleau, Hollande, Valls, the center, the right, or the left would contradict him… Colonial nostalgia flourishes all the more because the coffers are empty, and these people envision refilling them by recovering uranium from Niger, gold from Mali, and many other riches from Algeria or Burkina Faso !

And the new imperialist powers, Russia and China, and also other medium-sized powers like Turkey, Brazil, Saudi Arabia and India, see themselves playing roles of regional domination, by waging some wars and taking advantage of the clashes between the two imperialist blocs.

Europe, marginalized by Trump and threatened by Russia, would like to become a militarily unified power capable of intervening by conquering territories, but the diverging interests of its constituent states prevent it from doing so. Consequently, France, Italy, Germany, and even the United Kingdom could act independently to reclaim remnants of their former colonial empires…

“Recolonization”—what is this insane idea that is beginning to tempt not only defeated generals ousted from Africa, not only a demagogue like Trump, but the entire capitalist world in its collapse ? It would allow rich countries to invade poor countries, taking advantage of their economic and military superiority, to steal from them, plunder them, rape them, and kill them. And at the very least, to threaten them with such actions to force them to back down on their demands to sell their products at exorbitant prices, to impose an unequal and imperialist trade.

The aspirations of formerly colonized peoples in Africa, North Africa, Asia, and South America to have colonial crimes and the debt owed by colonizers to the oppressed and plundered populations recognized, and even to make them pay, rekindle the thirst for revenge among former empires. Hence the hatred of Trump, Retailleau, Valls, Macron, Lecointre, and many others. A new little war and they would gladly return, this time as victors ! But it’s not so easy… It would require pretexts such as Trump’s defense of Christians in Nigeria, or France’s fight against jihadism in the Sahel, or against dictatorships like those of France and the USA in Libya and Syria…

Is this merely demagogic rhetoric, empty threats, or a policy that imperialisms and regional powers could consider ?

Neocolonialism is currently at an impasse, and countries like France are finding it increasingly difficult to exploit their former colonies. Access to energy resources in Algeria and Niger is contested. These countries also want to make France pay for its colonial past. Hence, a desire within French imperialism to return to simple colonial conquest, neocolonialism having run its course, undermined by popular anger and the ambitions of African officers.

On the other hand, the new imperialisms (Russia and China) are very aggressive in the world with the Russian army and Chinese capital… They contribute to facilitating the desire of former colonial states to separate from their former dominant power…

The rise of China and Russia is undoubtedly a game changer. Great powers cannot confront each other directly without risking the global destruction of the planet they wish to continue exploiting. However, they can challenge each other’s influence, control, and exploitation of entire regions of the world, as China and Russia are currently doing in Africa. And they can retaliate with local wars and recolonizations, indirect wars between great powers… This is what they have done in Libya, Syria, Afghanistan, Gaza, Iran, and elsewhere… And imperialist powers can thus reconquer territories to occupy them completely, as Trump is proposing in Gaza, Venezuela, Panama, and elsewhere…

Would capitalism, completely rotten, its operating system blocked, only capable of delaying its historic fall since 2007-2008 through completely artificial financial interventions, be capable of reviving itself by acting in this way ?

These great powers can temporarily exploit minerals, energy, and all kinds of wealth through such plunder if they were to actually reoccupy and colonize a territory. They can deceive their populations into believing in a new global domination. They can imagine thus refilling the coffers of their governments, their central banks, their banks, and their industries, and supplying them with cheap raw materials.

But it is impossible for capitalism to revive itself in this way, to resolve the intractable problem that is stifling it : the overaccumulation of large capital. For it is the excess of capital that is killing capitalism, and it is not by going off here or there to enrich oneself through plunder that one can cure this catastrophic ill for the entire system.

Plundering the world may lead to wealth, but it doesn’t reduce the proportion of unproductive investments relative to total capital. Colonial profit means conquering riches, certainly, but it doesn’t generate new productive investments ; it doesn’t create new added value.

The capitalist world already possesses far too much wealth relative to its capacity to invest it by creating surplus value extracted from human labor. Even by directly re-enslaveing the former colonial peoples, capitalism would merely be changing the form of exploitation of these countries’ populations, a form of exploitation that has been carried out through neocolonialism since the end of direct colonialism.

Recolonization : a solution for an imperialist world emerging from an old international order called "globalization" without knowing how or where to go ?

https://www.erudit.org/fr/revues/ei/2008-v39-n2-ei2470/019195ar/
Does the new policy of American imperialism towards South America, South Africa, India, and the Middle East signify an attempt to return to the policy of colonizing the world ?

Trump’s new attitudes toward the formerly decolonized Third World are surprising. Will he follow through on this policy ? Will decaying capitalism seek a way out through a new, violent, and destructive invasion of the planet ? Through a recolonization of the world ?

https://www.wsws.org/fr/articles/2025/09/25/diwp-s25.html

https://fr.wikipedia.org/wiki/Expansionnisme_am%C3%A9ricain_sous_Donald_Trump

https://www.lemonde.fr/idees/article/2025/03/08/l-obsession-americaine-de-l-expansion-exacerbee-par-donald-trump-entre-en-conflit-direct-avec-les-limites-de-la-planete_6577149_3232.html
Trump’s colonialist attitude within the USA

https://www.lemonde.fr/idees/article/2025/03/07/comment-donald-trump-ravive-le-mythe-americain-de-la-frontiere_6576863_3232.html

https://www.radiofrance.fr/franceculture/podcasts/la-revue-de-presse-internationale/la-revue-de-presse-internationale-emission-du-vendredi-28-mars-2025-7111088

https://www.courrierinternational.com/article/une-agence-federale-recrit-l-histoire-raciale-americaine-sous-la-pression-de-trump_229612

https://www.courrierinternational.com/article/israel-palestine-trump-et-la-colonisation-une-question-de-politique-interieure-americaine

https://www.politis.fr/articles/2025/07/monde-reportage-en-louisiane-trump-reviser-la-memoire-de-lesclavage/

https://www.courrierinternational.com/article/israel-palestine-trump-et-la-colonisation-une-question-de-politique-interieure-americaine

https://journals.openedition.org/esa/6445
Trump’s colonialist attitude towards immigration

https://www.lopinion.fr/international/donald-trump-annonce-la-suspension-definitive-de-limmigration-venant-du-tiers-monde

https://www.lemonde.fr/international/article/2025/11/28/donald-trump-annonce-qu-il-va-suspendre-definitivement-l-immigration-venant-du-tiers-monde-apres-l-attaque-de-deux-membres-de-la-garde-nationale-a-washington_6655196_3210.html