Imperialism

The White Man’s Burden.

“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. . . .”

This stanza from Kipling’s poem is most closely associated with the belief that it was the duty of Western colonial powers to

• learn from the people they conquered

• teach their colonies how to produce manufactured goods

• civilize the people they controlled

• welcome less developed countries as equals

The White Man’s Burden.

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. . . .”

An historian would find this poem most useful to understand

• a point of view that opposed Kipling’s claims

• a point of view concerning imperialism supported by some Europeans

• the economic reasons the Europeans supported imperialism

• the effects of Kipling’s poem in the 20th century

An Excerpt from the Treaty of Nanjing

ARTICLE III. It being obviously necessary and desirable, that British Subjects should have some Port whereat they may careen and refit their Ships, when required, and keep Stores for that purpose, His Majesty the Emperor of China cedes [gives] to Her Majesty the Queen of Great Britain, etc., the Island of Hongkong, to be possessed in perpetuity [forever] by Her Britannic Majesty, Her Heirs and Successors, and to be governed by such Laws and Regulations as Her Majesty the Queen of Great Britain, etc., shall see fit to direct.

Based on the excerpt above, what did the British gain as a result of the Treaty of Nanjing?

• Unlimited coal resources

• An island to use as a port

• Control of all of Japan

• The right to make the Queen of Great Britain the Empress of China

Based on this political cartoon, which statement best describes the author’s point of view?

• Africa was not affected by imperialism.

• Europeans wanted to spread Christianity in Africa.

• European countries colonized Africa for natural resources.

• African people welcomed European colonists.

. . .As late as the 1870s, only 10% of the continent was under direct European control, with Algeria held by France, the Cape Colony and Natal (both in modern South Africa) by Britain, and Angola by Portugal. And yet by 1900, European nations had added almost 10 million square miles of Africa—one-fifth of the land mass of the globe—to their overseas colonial possessions. Europeans ruled more than 90% of the African continent. . . .

Which event most directly influenced the change referred to in this passage?

• outbreak of the Boxer Rebellion

• meeting of the Berlin Conference

• signing of the Munich Pact

• collapse of the Ottoman Empire