...“’The White Man’s Burden,’ published in 1899 in McClure’s magazine, is one of Kipling’s most infamous poems” (Gradesaver.com). This seven-stanza poem was originally composed for Queen Victoria’s Diamond Jubilee, which was a celebration held to mark her 60-year reign. As the time approached, he presented an entirely different poem and used this poem, The White Man’s Burden, to send to Theodore Roosevelt, who was governor of New York at the time. He sent this poem after spotting many different events across the Atlantic in the Spanish-American War. Kipling thought that sending this poem would help Roosevelt become aware of maybe losing power and an empire. All seven stanzas of this poem start with the same line “Take up the White Man’s burden—“ that goes into the second line that explains a different aspect of what should be done to help different uncivilized places by ending hunger, disease, and more for the natives, who are described as “half devil and half child.” It helped create an idea of the different responsibilities a white man should take care of with the education and possessions they have. With all this help, it was thought that it would help the Americans to develop and advance to a superior state of civilization. Generally meaning that white people have...
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...Analysis of The White Man’s Burden (1899) The poem The White Man’s Burden is about imperialism and how the powerful countries seized foreign land to become a power with colonies. The text talks about how the inhabitants of the lands acted differently due to culture difference, and how it was the white man’s burden to lecture them in their own values and culture. The title of the poem is The White Man’s Burden. This tells us what the poem is about, so it fits well to the text. The structure of the text is build up by 7 stanzas, which contains 4 lines each. In every stanza there is the end rime pattern: a, a, b, b. Every stanza starts with the sentence “Take up the White Man’s burden”, which is a typical thing for poems to do. A lot of poems repeat the same sentence over and over again. The poem has a normal rhythm, which is helped by the split in the middle of every sentence, which separates the line in 2. This helps give the poem a natural flow. The first part of the line is sort of an exclamation in all instances throughout the poem. The exclamation gets elaborated on in the second part of line, which functions as an explanation. Throughout the poem there is also a lot of metaphors, which helps color the poem, and activates the mind. The most common metaphor is of course the lead sentence in every stanza. The sentence “Take up the white man’s burden” is a symbol on the pressure the white men thought were being put on to their shoulders at the time. Also the part “Take...
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...country takes over another country, tricking the citizens, taking their resources, land, and even people. Things Fall Apart and White Man’s Burden are strong examples of this. Imperialism. The Africans are taken over by the Europeans. Things Fall Apart is a book written from an African’s perspective, this African is Chinua Achebe who was actually from Nigeria. White Man’s Burden is a poem written from a European’s point of view. Rudyard Kipling wrote White Man’s Burden, he was a European. The authors of each of these texts clearly convey their opinions on imperialism. In White Man’s Burden, Kipling shows that imperialism is something to be proud of, a community is establishing their power. However, in Things Fall Apart, Achebe demonstrates that imperialism is not all glorious, it is humiliating to the imperialized country....
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...“Take up the White Man's burden— / Ye dare not stoop to less—/ Nor call too loud on Freedom / To cloak your weariness. / By all ye will or whisper, / By all ye leave or do, / The silent sullen peoples/ Shall weigh your God and you.” reads Ruyard Kipling’s poem, “The White Man’s Burden.” Rudyard Kipling, who was a well-known author around the turn of the century. He was a prestigious college graduate who had won many awards, including the Nobel Prize for writing. This tells us, the readers, that he is a very credible writer. Now, academically, there is much discourse and disagreement in regards to weather the poem is satirical. Many scholars believe that Kipling’s sentiment expressed about Imperialism as genuine, especially considering some of his other work. However, some do believe the poem is satire, and that Kipling is mocking the concept of “The White Man’s Burden.” Regardless of whether or not the poem is satirical, and while disregarding that the poem is directly about the Philippine-American War, “The White Man’s Burden” still shows what pro-Imperialists believed. “The White Man’s Burden” shows modern readers the thought process that lead many Western forces to go to lands they had never been before and systematically destroy a people’s way of life....
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...In a constant quest to gain new land, Europe saw hope in Africa. After nearly 300 years (1500-1807) slaves’ trade was legal and blooming. After this trade was banned, many European countries saw no reason to be in Africa, Until 1880 when King Leopold of Belgium acquired a lot of African land. What is the driving force behind European Imperialism in Africa? The driving forces behind European imperialism in Africa were political competition, Economics, and cultural attitude. With many countries fighting to acquire easy land quickly there was a political competition. From (document A) I can see seven European countries drew a partition of Africa. From (document B) I can see that the Germans were seeking a “friendly competition” with the English...
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...Proponents of imperialism and colonialism sparked from the idea that it would improve the economic, political, and social portions of an environment. The design of European imperialism elicited political and diplomatic responses, and soon after it provoked military resistance. Both methods of so-called improvement kept nations from doing what could possibly help them thrive; cooperating to achieve shared goals. Without cooperation, places cannot improve and prosper on aspects that need refinement. Colonialism does not help the native populations because it overall divides previous peaceful co-existing portions of a society. Purposefully, colonization aimed to control land, labor, natural resources, and markets. Settlers need to occupy a country,...
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...The white man’s burden The white man’s burden is a poem written by Rudyard Kipling, a British author and poet with ori- gins in the British India. The poem was written in 1899 when Rudyard Kipling was 34 years old – it was posted in the magazine McClure’s with the subtitle “United States and the Philippine Islands”. “Take up the white man’s burden Send forth the best ye breed. Go bind your sons to exile To serve your captives need.” (Kipling; The white man’s burden; 1st stanza pt. 1) The poem is a quite long description of the burden mentioned in the title and refers to a bur- den, which the “white man” has put on his own shoulders. It is rather satirical when read, as the poem indirectly can be interpreted as a discrimination of the white mans (British) imperialistic in- spirations and perhaps even megalomania – as one might have expected from the author. The mean- ing of the title is interpreted as following: The burden of the white man is to “serve his captives need” as written in the first stanza. By this, Kipling refers to how the white man, with a perhaps imperialistic ideology, is to rule the people suppressed by the British colonies, later described as “new-caught, sullen peoples, half-devil and half-child” (Kipling; TWMB, 1st stanza pt. 2). This description of the captives is a caricatured pic- ture of what Kipling believes the white man saw his captives as, while implying the satiric element of the poem. Kipling presents the imperialistic view of the white man...
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...Heart of Darkness Imperialism has always had certain negative effects. Not only are the victims of imperialism exploited economically but they are often bound to experience racism. The natives are forced to abandon their political and spiritual views to learn the ways of the imperialists. In Joseph Conrad's novel Heart of Darkness, Conrad describes the negative consequences affiliated with imperialism for not only the indigenous people, but also the imperialists themselves. In the beginning of the novel Heart of Darkness, Conrad shows that the British believed their imperialism had a positive influence on the Congolese by introducing them to civilization and the British way of life. "Hunters for gold or pursuers of fame, they all had gone out on that stream, bearing the sword, and often the torch, messengers of the might within the land, bearers of a spark from the sacred fire. What greatness had not floated on the ebb of that river into the mystery of an unknown earth! … The dreams of men, the seed of commonwealths, the germs of empires." (pp. 2-3 ll. 29-2). This is an optimistic statement describing the British mentality. They assume that they are imperializing for helpful reasons when they are truthfully just attempting to obtain Congo's resources. Marlow undermines the good intentions of the explorers. In the quote, "Mind, none of us would feel [...] at the back of it; not a sentimental pretence but an idea; and an unselfish belief in the idea." (pp. 4-5 ll. 26-5), Marlow...
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...To me “The White Man’s Burden” refers to the idea of colonization and the need and desire to do so. That it was white man’s destiny and responsibility to colonize. The “White Man’s Burden” by Kipling was his artistic take on the Americans attempting to colonize the Philippines. The thought was that the white man was put on earth to make the rest of the world that same as them and it was a “burden” to bear. Europeans justified racist policies in their imperial ventures by having the mindset that they were benefiting the colonized land. The imperialist people were very ethnocentric and thought that their ideas and way of life was the better way of life and by forcing it upon the other nations they were giving them a better life. In “The Gold Watch” by Mulk Raj Anand portrays roles that are similar to the ideas of imperialism. He relates the social hierarchy of Indian to the relationship of colonized people to the people colonizing. The story depicts the idea that even if you are on the lower end and feel less meaningful (colonized) you still respect what you do and desire to keep doing it. Reading the excerpt from “Heart of Darkness” by Joseph Conrad you get the idea that he did not agree with what most Europeans believed about colonization and taking over another nation. He felt it was brutal and unnecessary. The short story (A Drink in the Passage) by Alan Paton to me also is a negative reaction to the ideology of Europe at the time thinking that they have the right...
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...North and West of Africa, but Germany would just conquer a handful of countries before going into the 20th century (263 DBQ). These countries would soon become opponents in one of the greatest territory conquest in the world’s history. Resources is the main point in all three of these powers because Great Britain looked at the world as control, the thought of ruling land to them meant more power. A very important reason these powers would fight for this piece of land is because of the potential wealth it holds but also because the countries would see it that the Africans needed help. Turning the conquerors into saviors and that is always a good feeling when possibly it is not the case as the poem “White Man’s Burden,” by Rudyard Kipling would mention. “Take up the White Man’s burden, Send out the best ye breed…. To serve your captive’s need” (273 DBQ). Great Britain, Germany and Frace would soon find out that Africa not only big in land, but possibly even greater in resources. This would include slaves, gold and ivory. Germany would soon want to...
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...an effort to get resources. England, especially, has been a culprit of imperialism taking over parts of China, India, and Africa. In both the book Things Fall Apart by Chinua Achebe and the poem White Man’s Burden by Rudyard Kipling they speak of imperialism in a way that made it sound not convenient or the receiving side. Achebe writes about an Igbo village and how the white men write off the lives of the villagers as just cautionary tales, unimportant to the progression of their task. Kipling writes about imperialism in a disapproving way. Both writers can agree that they...
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...seeing. It talks about how white missionaries come to spread their religion, Christianity, around the villages. In White Man’s Burden, it is written that they are looking for the best of their people to come civilize and educate the Africans. In Things Fall Apart, the white missionaries come to spread Christianity. “But the missionaries persevered, and in the end they were received by the rulers of Mbanta. They asked for a plot of land to build their church” (Achebe 148). The first thing the missionaries did was build a church. The villagers gave them a plot of their land in the Evil Forest to build it on, in hopes that they would die just like all the people they had sent there. Though, days passed and they were still alive, starting to introduce them to Christianity. They also started to build more things for themselves and bring in more people to educate the Igbo people. The white missionaries did...
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...Effects of Imperialism - Imperialism is when a mother country takes over a smaller nation or colony for political, social, and/or economic reasons. Imperialism has been a major force in shaping the modern world. The effects of Imperialism have been interpreted from a variety of viewpoints. This major Imperialism occurred during the late 19th Century and early 20th century. It had more negative effects in the modern world today then positive effects. A positive effect is seen in document one called "Modern Progressive Nations," it shows how the larger nations gave to the smaller colonies. The nations built them roads, canals, and railways. Showed them the telegraph, newspaper, established schools for them, gave them the blessing of their civilization, and overall made them economized. They were part of modern culture after this occurred. Another positive effect is seen in document three called "Colonial Governments and Missionaries. " It shows how the colonial governments introduced improved medical care, and better methods of sanitation. There were new crops; tools and farming methods, which helped, increase food production. These changes meant less death to smaller colonies, and overall improve the state of living. They now could live longer and have better sanitation compared to the earlier imperialism. A negative effect is seen document two-called "Colonization." In the picture you can see that the colonies doing the mother countrys hard work did not civilize...
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...What Was the Driving Force Behind European Imperialism in Africa? During the 19th century, King Leopold II of Belgium compared Africa to a cake. At the Berlin Conference in 1885, seven European nations took slices of Africa for themselves without discussing any details with Africans. From a 21st century perspective, this seems like a selfish thing to have done, so why did Europeans engage in imperialism? Certainly, political factors, cultural causes, and technological advancements were important. But the primary cause was economic. European nations competed to exploit the rich resources of Africa for financial and commercial gain. Much of European imperialism in Africa came as a result of political causes. There were seven different European countries with colonies in Africa (Doc A). This probably created an intense atmosphere of competition. Each of these countries wanted to "keep up" with their neighbors and did not want to be surpassed in riches or glory ... Many in England believed they had to take colonies "or perish." Germany believed it needed to "prove and maintain its newly won position" by taking more colonies (Doc B). National pride created competition among nations that accelerated European movement into Africa. European imperialism in Africa also resulted from cultural causes. One example of this is that at The Berlin Conference, Europeans stated that the "moral and material well being" of the African peoples would be improved by European imperialism (BGE)...
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...believed that the Enlightenment was the freedom from one’s immaturity. This meant that people should begin thinking for themselves rather than be influenced by the church or state and this would lead to an improved society. Immanuel Kant influenced many philosophers during the Enlightenment such as John Locke and Jean-Jacques Rousseau. Locke believed that man possesses natural right to life, liberty, and property. Rousseau elaborated on Locke’s idea and stated that “man is born free and everywhere his is shackled.” Society corrupts man, but balanced civil liberty and equality can be achieved through reformed society and government. These values were revolutionary because they have formed today’s society. If it were not for Kant expressing what the Enlightenment was about, many would not have voiced their own thoughts and today’s world would be completely different. Thomas Malthus – In the late 18th century, Thomas Malthus was an English priest who was known for his Malthusian doctrine. In his doctrine, he argues that “poverty and distress are unavoidable, because population grows faster than food production.” This means that he believed that lack of enough food would cause death, which would also bring the population down to have enough food for everyone. However, this was not true because today we can see that the population has grown since the 18th century. Not only this, but food production has increased much more than Malthus could have imagined. During this time period,...
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