AP Success - AP European History: Kipling's "The White Man's Burden"
The White Man's Burden is a poem written by Rudyard Kipling in 1900 that was aimed at encouraging the United States to take over the colonial control of the Philippines from Spain. Kipling was a British writer who was known for his imperialistic views,
Take up the White Man's burden - Send forth the best ye breed - Go bind your sons to exile To serve your captives' need; To wait in heavy harness On fluttered folk and wild - Your new-caught sullen peoples, Half devil and half child.
Take up the White Man's burden - In patience to abide To veil the threat of terror And check the show of pride; By open speech and simple, An hundred times made plain, To seek another's profit, And work another's gain.
Take up the White Man's burden - The savage wars of peace - Fill full the mouth of famine And bid the sickness cease; And when your goal is nearest The end for others sought, Watch Sloth and heathen Folly Bring all your hopes to nought.
Rudyard Kipling, "The White Man's Burden," 1900
Question 1
Identify one rationale for European imperialism expressed in the excerpt.
Question 2
Identify the broader context in which the excerpt was written.
Question 3
Explain one way how the ideas expressed in the excerpt conflicted with European nations' imperialistic aims in Africa and Asia.
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