What reward did Kipling suggest the White Man gets for carrying his burden?

As you know, I enjoy investigating the controversies of our history. Interestingly, your textbook begins Chapter 20 with an powerful image of “Uncle Sam” with the superimposed chapter title “Becoming a World Power.” What does this image conjure up in your mind? The text goes on to provide a very succinct explanation for why America proceeded to create an overseas empire.

In telling the story the author mentions, rightfully so, that there was tremendous protest to the country’s new imperialism “…citing the U.S. government’s violent atrocities, the racialist ideals that propelled America’s imperial march, and the moral problem of allowing business interest to drive armed diplomacy.” The text goes on to state that the developments of this period led the country into the First World War and also defined U.S. foreign policy for the remainder of the twentieth century. These are incredibly strong conclusions.

During the 1890’s controversy over the issue of U.S. Imperialism not only occurred in newspapers and political debate, but oddly enough, in poetry as well. The link below will take you to a very interesting site where you will find a collection of articles and poems written on the subject.

http://historymatters.gmu.edu/d/6609

Here is an easier to read version:

http://www.fordham.edu/halsall/mod/Kipling.html

There you will find a famous poem written in 1899 by Rudyard Kipling entitled “The White Man’s Burden.” Basically, the white man’s burden was the belief that white men (or the western world) had to take care of the rest of the world’s people because these people were incapable of taking care of themselves. A most troubling conclusion. Without much provocation, my students invariably make a connection about this period in our history to concerns about our current foreign policy. [Note: the discussion topic for this unit.]

You will also find two additional poems that are also quite controversial and revealing, “The Poor Man’s Burden” by George McNeill and “The Black Man’s Burden” written by H. T. Johnson. [The links to these two poems are the “History Matter” home page under Activity One.]

Please read each poem and answer the four questions posed within the site.

1. According to Kipling, and in your own words, what was the “White Man’s Burden”?

2. What reward did Kipling suggest the “White Man” gets for carrying his “burden”?

3. Who did Kipling think would read his poem? What do you think that this audience might have said in response to it?

4. For what audiences do you think H.T. Johnson and George McNeil wrote their poems? How do you think those audiences might have responded to “The Black Man’s Burden” and “The Poor Man’s Burden”?

If you have difficulty answering the questions then explore the additional links within the site that discuss the topic further. Another source is Wikipedia. Ordinarily, I would not use Wikipedia as a reliable source because of concerns regarding its accuracy (anyone can contribute to the topics discussed). But in this instance, they provide a good discussion on the historical analysis and the various interpretations of Kipling’s poem.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_White_Man’s_Burden

Chapter 20: Becoming a World Power Chapter Introduction
Book Title: HIST3
Printed By: Wint Phyu (mickylee.jiating@gmail.com)
© 2014 Wadsworth Publishing, Cengage Learning
Chapter Introduction
This iconic image of “Uncle Sam” first emerged in 1917 on a poster used to recruit
American men to fight in World War I.
AP Images
Learning Outcomes
20-1
20-2
20-3
20-4
20-5
“Between 1867 and 1917, the United
States became a true world power
for the first time in its history.”
After reading this chapter, you should be able to do the following:
Explain the major reasons for the growing call in the late 1800s for the
United States to develop an empire.
Describe the first moves Americans made toward empire.
Explain the major reasons for the Spanish-American War of 1898, and
discuss the controversy over imperialism that developed after the war.
Describe the growth of imperialism in America during the Progressive era.
Discuss World War I, including reasons for the war, American experiences
during the war, and effects of the treaty that ended the war.
What do you think?
American interests end at the nation’s borders.
Strongly
Disagree
Strongly
Agree
1 2 3 4 5 6 7
Between 1867 and 1917, the United States became a true world power for the first time in
its history. To a large degree, this was a result of the Industrial Revolution. The search for
overseas markets and the ideology of manifest destiny (which held that God had
preordained that Americans would possess all the land between the Atlantic and Pacific
oceans, and which Americans had developed in conquering the West in the 1840s and
1850s) spurred the United States to keep pushing outward, building up its navy in the
1880s and beginning to acquire overseas territories. Many Americans also felt they had a
duty to “civilize” the so-called “lesser” nations of the world, their superiority based in no
small part on notions of racial superiority. Victory in the Spanish-American War in 1898
was a turning point, adding a string of island colonies in the Caribbean Sea and the Pacific
Ocean to U.S. territory, and declaring to the world that the United States was a global
power.
During these years, American military might backed up American commercial interests,
creating an “economic imperialism” that sometimes weighed on other countries almost as
heavily as outright conquest. Many Americans vigorously protested their country’s new
imperialism, citing the U.S. government’s violent atrocities, the racist ideals that propelled
America’s imperial march, and the moral problem of allowing business interests to drive
armed diplomacy. Nevertheless, these imperialist developments led the country into the
First World War and then served as the basis for U.S. foreign policy for much of the
twentieth century.
Chapter 20: Becoming a World Power Chapter Introduction
Book Title: HIST3
Printed By: Wint Phyu (mickylee.jiating@gmail.com)
© 2014 Wadsworth Publishing, Cengage Learning
© 2013 Cengage Learning Inc. All rights reserved. No part of this work may by reproduced or used in any form or by any
means – graphic, electronic, or mechanical, or in any other manner – without the written permission of the copyright holder.
(1)
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(3)
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20-1 – Explain the major reasons for the
growing call in the late 1800s for the United
States to develop an empire.