Since the early 1960s, the study of translation has begun to conquer a more defined space within academic institutions and publications. Since then, all the basically essentialist attempts at widening and consolidating such a space have declared their interest in making that study as rational and as systematic as possible, so that it would be recognized as a legitimate research area which should also legislate over all translation practices, no matter which languages, goals or circumstances were involved. This paper presents a critical account of the main attempts at occupying the academic terrain claimed by Translation Studies, arguing that what has motivated them, above all, is a certain imperialistic thrust in which what is actually at stake is the prestige and the power of the trends in the name of which they intend to discipline the translators task.