"atrophies"
Two factors in the older empires have primarily contributed to weaken their powers of resistance against outside “barbarians” and to strengthen and stimulate the zeal of the invaders. The first is the habit of economic parasitism, by which the ruling state has used its provinces, colonies and dependencies in order to enrich its ruling class and to bribe its lower classes into acquiescence. This bleeding of dependencies, while it enfeebles and atrophies the energy of the imperial people, irritates and eventually rouses to rebellion the more vigorous and less tractable of the subject races; each repression of rebellions rankles in the blood, and gradually a force of gathering discontent is roused which turns against the governing power.
The second factor is related to the first, consisting in that form of “parasitism” known as the employment of mercenary forces. This is the most fatal symptom of imperial infatuation, whereby the oppressor at once deprives himself of the habit and the instruments of effective self-protection and hands them over to the most capable and energetic of his enemies. This conjunction of follies and vices has never failed to bring about the downfall of empires in the past.
J.A. Hobson
The Scientific Basis of Imperialism
(September 1902)