Imperialism: the White Man's Burden

Their business interests demand that colonial markets should be opened and developed and that foreign competitors should be shut out. Such aims require political control and imperialism.”By Parker T. Moore, Imperialism and world politics, 1926.Politics and the military also had significance in causing new imperialism. One example is that when a nation had many colonies it believed it would be more powerful and secure. The second example is nationalism, which was a motive for achieving a goal for a nation. Last cause was the poem “The White Man’s Burden“, which was written by Rudyard Kipling, to justify imperialism.

     Europeans viewed Africa as a place where there were more jobs as well as investment opportunities doe the middle class, and a place where the lower class was offered higher status, better job opportunities, and a chance to leave life behind and start again fresh. They also believed that the African people were people who needed to be helped so the Europeans went over on various church missions. Rudyard Kipling’s poem, “White Man’s

I think that American imperialism was partly a success but mostly a failure. It was sort of a success because America was able to expand and take over many nations to have more land which was the goal, but it was also a failure because after gaining domination in many nations, the U.S. was unable to meet the amount of responsibility it required to take care of all the land. The struggles that America faced in taking care of the nation were shared in a poem written by Rudyard Kipling titled “The White Man’s Burden”1 and I believe that the poem is a good example of how imperialism did work but how it was regretted by America. It also failed because it went against the constitution, created hostility between nations, and it destroyed lasting cultures and promoted the idea of Americans being superior.

Starting in the mid-nineteenth century, Europeans developed a superiority complex when comparing themselves to the people of less-developed nations. During the age of imperialism, many European powers ventured into Asian, African, and South American lands in order to colonize and impose the rules of Western society. Rudyard Kipling’s poem, “The White Man’s Burden”, properly depicted the racist ideals that developed with imperialism, as Europeans believed it was their duty to civilize the people they viewed as savages. Europeans held a racially superior point of view for almost an entire century. In the latter half of the twentieth century, however, waves of immigrants began flooding into various European nations. This caused the perception

The economic, political, and social forces that were most responsible for the new imperialism of the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries were the desire for resources, capitalism, a new consumer market, cheap labor, then nationalism from the Romantics, distractions that prevents revolts, and lastly Rudyard Kipling's "White Man Burden", which epitomizes the opinión held by most of Europe. European imperialism grew from 1870-1920 because of economic, political, and social forces.

During the time of imperialism the smaller countries were used more just as a way of competing with other countries to see who could get the most resources and land one place this happened was in china everyone was fighting over land, this was later ended by the open door policy. This was the time when each country showcased how much power they had. Start of seeing the racial difference, the different cultures saw how each other lived it was the principle of because you aren’t like me you are less than me. most places America took followed different rules than those of America. In most of the articles and in the poem it refers to the foreign natives as untamed, and irresponsible. They were treated as animals or just things that could be put to use for no cost. That would have helped their economy. Imperialism wasn’t much of helping people that might have needed it but was more of a business competing for the most wealth.

Cultural attitudes greatly fueled national competition. For example, Rudyard Kipling's poem "The White Man's Burden" showed the superiority of the white Europeans towards the Africans (Document F: Rudyard Kipling, "The White Man's Burden," 1899). This superiority shown illustrates the need Europeans felt to help the Africans and improve their conditions. Also, John Ruskin mentioned in a lecture that England need to teach their future African colonists (Document B: John Ruskin, lecture at Oxford University, February 8, 1870). This shows that the Europeans believed that colonization could be a way to educate the Africans, thus imperialism. These cultural attitudes were the roots of

In history, colonization was a truly popular tradition practiced by great and powerful empires in order to extract and retrieve all materials necessary to support their homeland. However, in order to achieve such sense of commerce and well-being, those colonists who had the power, had to colonize weaker and far less advanced societies. Great powers such as Britain and France would then travel to these societies and implement their rule in order to gain prosperity. Some, those who benefited from colonization, felt that the practice of colonization was an obligation to better the “uncivilized,” societies and help them advance, but the emotional and physical hurt that came from colonizing outweighed the positive aspects. The intention was good, but the manner in which colonization was carried out was poor. This topic is immensely controversial that pieces such as Kipling’s poem, “A White Man’s Burden,” and Achebe’s “Things Fall Apart,” have been written in order to support or go against colonization. But despite much debate, colonization has been a tradition that has caused those regions being colonized much struggle and negativity.

Imperialism can be defined as when a strong nation take over a weak nation. Strong nations would enforce their politics, economics and military control in the weak nations they took over. Imperialism was appealing to the United States because it would allow them to set up nations all around the world including overseas. In Europe and around the world imperialism was being used and by the 1880s, America wanted to do the same.

Europeans contained the belief that their customs and religious values were the sole method in living. Missionaries from throughout Europe desired to journey to foreign lands in order to teach the civilized and Christian ways of living to the natives. Often missionaries were in competition for converts, and thus supplied imperialism with other drives (Patterson, par. 10). The Social Darwinist ideas were prevalent in this time. The Europeans believed in the survival of the fittest, and it was generally accepted that the Anglo-Saxons were the superior race. In the 1890’s Rudyard Kipling published “Whiteman’s Burden”. This poem defines the white man as responsible for civilizing the “others”. It is supportive of the imperialism of other countries

Rudyard Kipling’s attitude towards the British Empire was significantly negative. The novella essentially expressed Kipling’s feelings towards British Imperialism and his overall frustration with the British Empire. However, there are several positive qualities of the Empire pointed out by Kipling several times throughout his novella. Despite his mixed feelings, he is ultimately dissatisfied with the British Empire, claiming that it is “the White Man’s Burden”. Kipling was a steadfast imperialist, living in a time of British domination and oppression. He shared similar outlooks with the natives, that the majority of them were oppressed by the government and the wealthy. The upper class was greedy and wanted working men to do all of the work for them so that they could reap the profits. Kipling conveys his attitude towards British Imperialism through parallelism and figurative language.

However, some westerners actually genuinely thought that they should help and westernize the inferior countries of the world. The British went into Africa, thinking that it was their duty to spread their advances of medicine, law, western civilization, and the Christian religion. This was proved to be embraced in the "anthem of imperialism," called the White Man's Burden by Rudyard Kipling. He expressed in the poem that the duty of the "white man" was to teach and help the people who they cast the inferior rank to. However, it is hard to believe that this was Britain's most important goal in their imperialism.

Many nations wanted to expand their territory and gain control of natural resources that are nonnative. As a result, Imperialism began in the late nineteenth century due to economic, political, and social forces including the Industrial Revolution, trade, and military conditions. Imperialism is the domination over an undeveloped, less industrialized country by a stronger, more industrialized nation. Although Imperialism has shaped the culture and customs all over the world, it had both negative and positive impacts throughout imperialized nations. The Perspectives on imperialism varied widely between those who imposed it and those who were affected by it.

     In one of his most famous poems, Rudyard Kipling said, "Take up the white man's burden!" (146). He was only one of many who believed in the virtues of imperialism in the late nineteenth and the early twentieth centuries. During that period, imperialism was on the rise, and Africa was being swallowed up by competing European nations. The imperialists had many arguments supporting imperialism. They said it was beneficial and, in some cases, essential. Their arguments did not satisfy everyone, but that did not bother them. The justifications ranged from economics to social services, while touching on everything else in between (Hayes 222-3).

Rudyard Kipling’s 1899 poem “The White Man’s Burden” epitomizes the European man’s view on imperialism, Euro-centrism and social Darwinism. Four centuries before 1899, such ideas were briefly hinted in the letter from Christopher Columbus to King Ferdinand and Queen Isabella, however by 1899 these attitudes strengthened and developed fully into their complete meaning. The U.S and Europe’s imperialism in the nineteenth century were the most influential ever in the history of human civilization. The immense motive for imperialism came from social factors including religion and Social Darwinism.