1. The White Man’s Burden
HIST 1004
3/13/13

2. Rudyard Kipling ( )
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.

3. “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?

4. The White Man’s Burden
The Journal (Detroit, 1898),

5. The White Man’s Burden
Time Magazine (1899)

6. The White Man’s Burden
Magazine ad (1890’s)

7. 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 ( ): On the
Origin of the Species
“natural selection”
“survival of the fittest”
Herbert Spencer ( ),
pseudo-scientific belief that racial
differences are product of biology
rather than history.

8. 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.

9. 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.

10. 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

11. 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.

12. 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

13. 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

14. 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

15. 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 agricultural
output.

16. 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.

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

18. Stanley and King Leopold II
Stanley persuades King Leopold II
of Belgium to invest his fortunes in
“opening up” equatorial Africa.
: 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

19. 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 existing
trade 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.

20. 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

21. 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

22. 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.

23. 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.