The expression super-imperialism first appeared in November 1914 as an inaccurate translation of the newly coined German term Ultra-Imperialismus.
William E. Bohn, the translator of Karl Kautsky’s article "Der Imperialismus" ("The Imperialism"),[2] seemed to believe that the terms Kartell and Ultra-Imperialismus were not reasonable for the audience of the International Socialist Review, an American Marxist journal.
[3] Bohn faced a double problem as cartels were much less familiar in the United States than the concern-like, tauter organized trust entities and the word ultra, which in English means "exaggerated" or "extreme".
It served now to describe the domination by the super-power United States within a system of imperialism in which the other imperialist powers were set back in their abilities and thus were second-class.
[4] Since the same time, the German term Ultraimperialismus was translated into English literally with ultra-imperialism and was now used to describe a rather equal-righted inter-imperialist cooperation.