The White Man’s Burden

HIST 10043/13/13

Rudyard Kipling (1865-1936)• British novelist, short story writer, and poet who celebrated

British Imperialism• Born in Bombay, but moved to England at age 5.• At 16 he returns to India to edit a newspaper in Lahore.• He begins writing short stories set in British India which gain him notoriety.• By 1889, Kipling was earning enough from his writings to quit the paper and travel the world.

“The White Man’s Burden” (1899)

• Published in McClure’s magazine with the subtitle “The United States and the Philippine Islands”

• What is the “White Man’s Burden” which Kipling is referring to?

• How does Kipling view European colonialism?• Do the benefits outweigh the costs?

The White Man’s Burden

The Journal (Detroit, 1898),

The White Man’s Burden

Time Magazine (1899)

The White Man’s Burden

Magazine ad (1890’s)

Social Darwinism• Search for scientific explanation for political and economic

dominance of powerful over weak, men over women, rich over poor, Europeans over other races, and humans over nature.

• Charles Darwin (1809-1882): On the Origin of the Species

– “natural selection”– “survival of the fittest”

• Herbert Spencer (1820-1903), pseudo-scientific belief that racial differences are product of biology rather than history.

The New Imperialism (1869-1914)

• Land grab by Western powers (and Japan) to divide up the rest of the world.

• 10 million square miles conquered (over 1/6th of all land in the world)• 150 million people under colonial rule.• Reorganize the world around industrialized world economy.

Political Motives• European competition and hyper-sensitivity towards status.• Britain must protect their colonial interests.• France and Russia need to improve their image after humiliating defeats (Franco-Prussian War, Crimean War, Russo-Japanese War)• Germany, Italy, Portugal, and Belgium see colonies as status symbols• Colonial governors take initiative to expand territory before someone else can.

Cultural Motives• “White Man’s Burden”• Christian revival in US and Europe• Conversion but also change culture (abolish slavery, end of sati,

etc.)• Racism: cultures ranked from “savage” to “civilized”• Non-Europeans were permanently inferior and therefore needed European guidance.

The Midway - World’s Columbian Exposition, Chicago, 1893

Economic Motives• Industrialization demanded resources (copper, tin, rubber,

etc.).• Development of a luxury economy also demanded resources (diamonds, coffee, tobacco, etc.).• Series of depressions caused businessmen to ask governments to protect foreign interests.• Declining profits at home meant more investment abroad.

Machine Guns• Puckle Gun (1718): round bullets for Christians, square bullets for non-Christians• 1890’s: First effective machine guns,firing eleven bullets a second• Switches the balance of warfare, a few hundred Europeans could defeat thousands of Africans or Asians.• Battle of Omdurman (1898)

– 47 British killed, 340 wounded– 9,700 Sudanese killed, 13,000 wounded, 5,000 captured– Twenty machine guns make the difference

The Scramble for Africa• Pre-19th century, little outside interference in Africa• North Africa and areas immediately south of Sahara,

develop large Muslim empires• Europeans built small trading posts and resupply ports, but trade was most often on African terms• Starting in 1870’s, European power look to divide up Africa• 1879: 90+% of Africa under African rule

Egypt• Khedives attempt to modernize following Napoleon’s invasion

with foreign investment• Attempt to break free of Ottoman Empire and build their own

empire in Sudan and Ethiopia• Reorient economy towards exports (cotton)• 1869: Suez Canal completed• 1876: Interest on foreign debt equals 1/3rd of exports and Egypt forced to sell its shares of the Suez Canal to Britain• 1878: Egypt forced to appoint French minister of public works and British minister of finance

Egypt and the Suez Canal• British and French agents raises taxes to pay off Egypt’s debts which

increases discontent.• Uprising by Egyptian military under Arabi Pasha threatens Western

access to the Suez Canal.• 1882: British send army into Egypt to protect canal and other

interests, stay for 70 years, but leave Egyptian government in place.• Forces British to intervene in Sudan• Charles “Chinese” Gordon (1885)• 1902: Aswan Dam, first dam across the Nile, increases agriculturaloutput.

Expansion into the Interior

• French wish to expand up the Senegal River and connect with the Niger River.

• Build a railroad to connect interior river basins.• Open up interior to French merchants.• Involves military conquest and exploration of interior.

Dr. Livingstone I presume…

• Exploration of the interior of Africa had been happening throughout 19th century.

• Dr. David Livingstone: Scottish missionary who traced the Zambezi River scouting sites for missionaries.

• Henry Morton Stanley: American journalist. Meets Livingstone on the Congo River in 1871. Describes

finding “lost” missionary to great sales.• Sensationalist reporting encourages further exploration.

Stanley and King Leopold II

• Stanley persuades King Leopold II of Belgium to invest his fortunes in “opening up” equatorial Africa.• 1879-1884: Stanley establishes trading posts along the southern bank of the Congo River.• Savorgnan de Brazza: Italian serving in the French army, obtains a treaty giving the French the right of “protection” over the north bank of the Congo.• Congo Free State

Berlin Conference (1884)• In response to competition over the Congo.• Must show “effective occupation” to claim rights in Africa.• Effective occupation is expensive.• West Africa: Overthrow Muslim rulers, make use of existingtrade networks and force heavy taxation.• Equatorial Africa: Farm huge pieces of land out to private companies who forced inhabitants to provide cash crops.• Rubber boom in Congo Free State most oppressive.

The Rubber Terror“We begged the white men to leave us alone, saying we could get no more rubber, but the white men and their soldiers said: “Go. You are only beasts yourselves, you are only meat.” We tried, always going further into the forest, and when we failed and our rubber was short, the soldiers came to our towns and killed us. Many were shot, some had their ears cut off; others were tied up with ropes around their necks and bodies and taken away.” – report by Congolese refugee to British consul

The Rubber Terror“The baskets of severed hands, set down at the feet of the European post commanders, became the symbol of the Congo Free State. ... The collection of hands became an end in itself. Force Publique soldiers brought them to the stations in place of rubber; they even went out to harvest them instead of rubber... They became a sort of currency. They came to be used to make up for shortfalls in rubber quotas…the Force Publique soldiers were paid their bonuses on the basis of how many hands they collected.” – historian Peter Forbath

Responses to Colonialism• Africa was not empty before the arrival of Europeans.• Some saw Europeans as allies in local struggles.• Sought work with colonial powers and sent children to

missionary schools.• Pastoral and warrior cultures fought back (Zulu, Ndebele,

Herero) and were met with violent responses.• Muslim states organized jihad against colonizers.

Responses to Colonialism• Rich commercial states also resisted.• Asante of the Gold Coast rise up in 1874, 1896, and 1900 before

being overwhelmed.• Benin destroyed in a “punitive expedition” in 1897.• Ethiopia: Long tradition of trading with Europeans.Stuck between Muslim Sudan and French and Italian colonies. • 1896: Ethiopians defeat 20,000 Italian troops.