Rationales for Imperialism
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.
—Rudyard Kipling, “The White Man’s Burden,” 1899
Learning Objectives
- A: Explain how ideologies contributed to the development of imperialism from 1750 to 1900.
Rudyard Kipling was an English writer who spent his youth in British
colonial India. The speaker in his poem urged the whites of Western countries to establish colonies for the good of the “inferior” people of the word. Whether Kipling actually supported this idea is not clear, but his poem was used to justify it. Proponents justified European colonization using a variety of explanations, from a belief in nationalism, a desire for economic wealth, a sense of religious duty, and a belief they were biologically superior. These various motives for establishing overseas empires—a policy called imperialism—would lead to conflicts in Asia and a scramble to colonize Africa. (See Topic 6.2.)
Sections
Nationalist Motives for Imperialism
Cultural and Religious Motives for Imperialism
Economic Motives for Imperialism
Think As a Historian: THINK AS A HISTORIAN: EXPLAIN THE CONTEXT Of THE COLONIZATION Of AfRICA
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Reflect
REFLECT ON THE TOPIC ESSENTIAL QUESTION
1. In one to three paragraphs, explain the part ideologies played in the development of imperialism between 1750 and 1900.
AP Exam Practice
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