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Large companies help build and maintain an economy of a country, but when do those companies get too big? When they have power to manipulate the government. Companies such as Coca-Cola, Irving and Bechtel have amassed huge fortunes through what some would call modern day imperialism. In the pursuit for maximum profits, rules are bent and ethics challenged. With the power of today’s transnational corporations it is hard not to describe their business practices as imperialistic. Corporations have manipulated governments in the past, and through the exploitation of third world nations and corrupting of government officials it seems they still are. Corporate imperialism is not a new issue that only the people of today have to deal with. It dates back a very long time. When the word imperialism is said, European countries come to mind. It was the Europeans who really first used companies to gain influence in a certain region of the world. If a civilization was too established, or too large for Europeans to directly rule it, they would establish control of ports and trade and rule the country indirectly. These European countries would grant exclusive rights to one lucky company who would trade in the region they were trying to infl