The White Man 's Burden

The reading of The white man’s burden is written by Rudyard Kipling. In this poem is he starts off by saying how white people to "Send forth the best ye breed" to go into "exile" and help their "captives." Some of the other main points stated were how white people should use small words and patiently repeat themselves in order to help the others such as black people in understanding them talking. Some other points

Source 1 is an image that is showing a man in a washroom washing his hands with soap. It can be made out that the man is white and of high social class. It is an advertisement about Pears’ soap and its advances in cleaning purposes. But on the other hand we can read the saying “The White Man’s Burden” which is used to indicate that white men have a responsibility o0f being paternalistic towards the first nations. In this case it is most likely first nations since in the background there are signs of ships and imperialism. The ideological perspective presented in the source is globalization. If there was no competition between the European countries it was most likely that America would have never been found. The links between the principles

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.

“Take up the white man’s burden--send forth the best ye breed--Go bind your sons to exile to serve your captives’ need…” -Rudyard Kipling, The White Man’s Burden, 1897

The German and British people believed that they were better than everyone else. In Document F Rudyard Kipling wrote a poem calling the Africans uncivilized and a burden. The poem displays ethnocentrism, the belief that your culture is better than everyone else. This document provides a new viewpoint of the cause of imperialism; cultural superiority. When Kipling says “ Your new-caught, sullen peoples, Half-devil and half-child” he is referring to the colonized people. Document B John Ruskin and Freidrich Fabri talk about how the Germans and British are better than everyone, clearly displaying ethnocentrism. Fabri believed that Germany should strive after colonies because they needed to complete with the British to maintain a new position of industrial

Britain’s colonialism caused many problems for natives and natural born British who lived in the colonies. The illusion of patriotism shattered as conflicts of race, class, and gender equality took light.

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.

Despite this, Kipling’s portrayal of Kotick justifies one of Orwell’s other critiques. He accuses Kipling of being “the prophet of British imperialism” and “morally insensitive” (Orwell). As the author of “The White Man’s Burden,” Kipling appears to live up to this aspect of Orwell’s critique. Kotick, prophesied as “a white seal [who] would come out of the North and lead the seal people” must seize control by force, analogous to educated white imperialist

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.

The British colonization of Kenya destroyed the culture and economy of the native people, but it established a democratic government and left Kenya a more modernized country.[1] During the 1880’s through 1914, the start of WWI, was an age of imperialism. One place that felt victim to this imperialism was Africa. At this time Africa was a wholly unmodernized continent. The reason the Europeans went after Africa was the introduction of the idea of social Darwinism and the “white man’s burden”. Social Darwinism is the belief that only the strongest and the most cunning can make it to the top of the social ladder, and it was the White Man’s Burden to step in for these undeveloped countries

My reasoning behind this opinion comes from the fact that Kipling lived in a time and place where it was more than common for people to have somewhat (or completely) racist mindsets. It truly is unfortunate, but it is difficult for a person to swim against the current, so to speak, and not conform to the general way of thinking of the rest of society. For that reason, I think Kipling felt that European expansion and Western imperialism were both justified and completely necessary…maybe even destined to happen. Along those same lines, if he did in fact believe that expansion and imperialism were going to happen one way or the other, he would have also felt that there were certain responsibilities and obligations that went along with the growth of civilization. For that reason, he must have been advocating imperialism AND pointing out the responsibilities that went along with that

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.

     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).