“White Man’s Burden”

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Recommended: American imperialism in the nineteenth century

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.

Missionaries frequently rushed to Africa and Asia to convert its people to Christianity. On the other hand, social Darwinism argued the survival of the fittest- applying science to racism, which fed ideas of European racial superiority. After landing on the African continent, Europeans felt they had a duty to civilize Africa, which is explicitly indicated by “The White Man’s Burden.” When white men invaded countries in Africa, they saw a new group of people who wore very little clothing and lived in simple buildings. This gave the Europeans the idea and need to help these people become more developed and evolve socially (Bentley and Ziegler 912). Rudyard Kipling’s "The White Man's Burden" encouraged the United States to impose colonial rule in the Philippines. Stanzas like “To wait in heavy harness,
 On fluttered folk and wild – Your new-caught, sullen peoples, 
Half-devil and half-child”, indicates that Kipling believed maintaining oversea colonies was a burden for the colonial empire because the empire was responsible for the inferior people. His reference to Filipinos as being both half devil and half child explicitly means that new ca...

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...entley, J. H., Ziegler, H. F. Traditions & Encounters: A Global Perspective on the Past. Vol II – From 1500 to the Present. Fourth Edition. McGraw Hill, 2007.

2. Reilly, K. Worlds of History: A Comparative Reader. Third Edition. Bedford / St. Martin’s, 2007.

3. “Napoleonic Wars (1799-1815).” History of War. 2000. Dugdale-Pointont. 27 April, 2008 < http://www.historyofwar.org/articles/wars_napoleonic.html>.

4. “Convention Revising the General Act of Berlin, February 26,1885, and the General Act and Declaration of Brussels, July 2,1890.” American Journal of International Law. 1921, 15(4), 314-321.

5. “Social Darwinism.” Explore the World of Replicators. 2000. Think Quest. 27 April, 2008 .

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