Course:HIST317/Empire - Abroad/Tristan's Document Analysis
For The Greater Good:
A Look Into The “White Man’s Burden”
In early February 1899, the already well-established British poet, Rudyard Kipling wrote a poem that for many would come to justify the need for Imperial might and upholding of Christian values throughout the globe. This poem would prove highly influential in not only British colonial belief, but even in the early stages of American Imperialism. Written after the American takeover of the Philippines and other former Spanish colonies, he was endorsing the belief that these backwards natives needed to be subdued and civilized.
Kipling’s seven-stanza poem begins with,
“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.”
Just by breaking down this stanza one can see how strong a Eurocentric/Ethnocentric tone Kipling had taken. The poet was even encouraging men and women of the civil world, in this case Europe and America, to send out their finest pioneers, missionaries and soldiers into the dark and wild lands of Africa, South America, Asia and the Pacific. There these good Christians would come face to face with the indigenous peoples who were “half-devil and half-child”. In the following six stanzas Kipling speaks of earning profits from the work of these “heathen”, referring to their Godlessness existence, as well as ending famine amongst their peoples, and more importantly giving them eventual freedom from their primitive states of paganism and no education.
Many in positions of power and policy making in Britain (and America as well) found that this poem was a good justification for the expansion of empire into the untamed lands because it amplified the belief that indigenous peoples were incapable of achieving anything without education, technology or God. Spreading the Christian faith became a cause that many supporters of imperialism could rally around, especially when it came to Africa. In India Britain had been able to civilize and control the native population without too much hardship for the British military and missionary forces located there. Africa would prove to a new challenge. New souls were available to salvage from the brink, as Europe continued its “Scramble For Africa”. Another motivating factor was that the native peoples were ill equipped to pose any serious resistance; however Britain still recalled the damaging effects of the Anglo-Zulu war in the late 1800’s where the “primitive tribes” managed to rise against a technologically superior foe. Moreover, the lack of any African military meant that resources such as ivory, diamonds and gold could be freely gathered to supply an imperial economy based on trade capital, not to mention the fact of a new labor source yet to be tapped. Britain, utilizing its military dominance, was able to acquire huge expanses of territory that would become South Africa, Zimbabwe, Sudan, Egypt, and Nigeria among other present day African nations.
Conclusively, Kipling’s apparent endorsement of Imperialism in the name of a greater good won over many contemporary readers who would shape foreign policy. The Eurocentric and highly ethnocentric views were quite common at the time as attitudes of racial, religious and regional equality had yet to find a voice. In today’s understanding of world dynamics, this poetry would seem to be highly controversial as it degrades others based on their native heritage. However in the context that it was written Kipling may have felt that it was the right thing to do. Civilizing the tribes of Godless heathens would be a noble enterprise that many other higher societies should undertake, if not for moral decency at least it would prove economically beneficial.
“The White Man's Burden”
By Rudyard Kipling
McClure's Magazine 12 (Feb. 1899).
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.
Take up the White Man's burden-
No tawdry rule of kings,
But toil of serf and sweeper-
The tale of common things.
The ports ye shall not enter,
The roads ye shall not tread,
Go mark them with your living,
And mark them with your dead.
Take up the White Man's burden--
And reap his old reward:
The blame of those ye better,
The hate of those ye guard--
The cry of hosts ye humour
(Ah, slowly!) toward the light:--
"Why brought he us from bondage,
Our loved Egyptian night?"
Take up the White Man's burden--
Ye dare not stoop to less--
Nor call too loud on Freedom
To cloke your weariness;
By all ye cry or whisper,
By all ye leave or do,
The silent, sullen peoples
Shall weigh your gods and you.
Take up the White Man's burden--
Have done with childish days--
The lightly proferred laurel,
The easy, ungrudged praise.
Comes now, to search your manhood
Through all the thankless years
Cold, edged with dear-bought wisdom,
The judgment of your peers!