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“The White Man’s Burden” is a lyric poem written by Rudyard Kipling, an English short-story writer, novelist, and poet who achieved enormous success and acclaim during his lifetime. The poem was published simultaneously in The Times newspaper in England and in McClure’s Magazine in the United States in February 1899. Directly under the title appeared the words, “The United States and the Philippine Islands,” a reference to relations between the two countries that would soon lead to the Philippine-American War (February 1899–July 1902). The poem urges the United States to become an imperial power and take control of the Philippines. In a wider sense, the poem is an endorsement of U.S. and British imperialism, which it presents as a moral duty that the white race must assume to bring advancement to nonwhite peoples in Asia and Africa. The speaker of the poem warns, however, that the colonized people will express no gratitude for the benefits that the imperialist power has brought them.
Kipling, who lived many years in India, is often regarded as the poet of British imperialism. While many at the time endorsed the views expressed in “The White Man’s Burden,” there were dissenting voices also, including Mark Twain, who published a satirical anti-imperialist essay in 1901.
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By Rudyard Kipling
Asian History
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Colonialism & Postcolonialism
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Colonialism Unit
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Short Poems
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Victorian Literature
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Victorian Literature / Period
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