From the 17th to the 20th centuries, Western empires experienced increasing ascendancy, the result of industrial, technological, and medical advances. The aggregation of these innovations favored territorial domination in previously inaccessible areas. The expropriation and commodification of healthcare and biomedicine occurred under the imperial regime. Once global conflict ended the colonial era, a human rights regime was introduced. Postcolonial health bureaucracies were ideologically distinct from previous hegemonic powers, but their approaches were comparable. Both colonial and postcolonial medical institutions preferred vertical approaches, heavily dependent on biomedicine, while tying commercial economic interest to their treatment criteria. Colonial health institutions were developed to perform specific functions deemed necessary by the Empire. Medical facilities were sparsely distributed and offered limited services focused primarily on adult men. These men constituted expeditionary, military, and labor forces that made resource exploitation possible. The African miner, the Indian military personnel, the Congolese sap collectors were the recipients of limited, often vertical, medical resources. Vertical corrections were considered convenient and therefore ideal. When horizontal approaches were adopted, the reasons were not magnanimous. They were necessary to stabilize or regularize the institutions that supported the economic interest of the Empire. Concerns for the well-being of colonial subjects were associated with the financial interests of the empire. Furthermore, because doctors were also responsible for determining who was healthy and fit for work, health services became a tool for population control through biopower. The...... middle of paper ......distributions of new medical knowledge and technical breakthroughs were disseminated at the discretion of the Empire, and on terms favorable to the Empire. This practice is currently used by the policies of international health organizations. Scientific advances and knowledge have been resocialized into a productive force. Colonial medicine was used and practiced at the discretion of the powerful elite, and today the powerful corporate elite determines which drugs are essential and should be readily available to all. Postcolonial bureaucracies have encouraged the pecuniary reconstitution of global health models. In response, the proletariat often forgoes global healthcare in favor of pharmaceuticals. As a result, new improvements in biomedicine have unwittingly promoted the commodification of the body, further forcing the capitalization of healthcare..