The author is using the word burden as a synonym for the word work. This is what the white men have to do. When the author stated, “Send forth the best ye breed” he was actually referring to the soldiers. They sent their soldiers to foreign countries to secure and maintain their land. A. The Europeans and Americans perceived people from other regions of the world pretty lowly, even referring to them as, “Sullen People.” Sullen People may be described as people down in the dumps. B. This, in turn, would cause the white men to treat them with less respect and treat them lower than themselves. The white men perceived the non whites pretty low, even comparing them to the devil (half devil and half child).
American Imperialism is the influence of the United States economics, military, and culture among other countries, such as Cuba, Puerto Rico, etc.) This helps us understand what the white man’s burden was, seeing as how the white man’s burden was the burden of having to develop the non-white countries. It means that the white men should talk to those who are non-white in a very simple manner, referring to them as dumb and lower than them.
According to the Stanza, it appears that the conquered people hate the soldiers. They are ungrateful to all the help they are receiving. They probably felt as if the white men believed they were better than them. They could’ve used this poem to prove as to how white countries should conquer non-white countries for their own benefit by showing people they are incapable of developing a nation by themselves but instead need help from already developed countries.
In Stanza 5 of the poem it states, “The blame of those ye better, The hate of those ye guard, The cry of hosts ye humour (Ah slowly) to the light:”Why brought ye us from bondage.” This shows some tones of racism by showing the conquered people believed that the white men were better than themselves. The white men also looked down upon the non-whites, potentially because of skin color? An example of paternalism would be when the poem implies the white men are doing the non-whites a favor by running there country for them.
This can be justified when they say it’s for the better good. The causes and effects of imperialism are stated within the first stanza of the poem in which it states, “Go bind your sons to exile, to sure your captives’ needs.” This can be interpreted as the white men wanting to capture the conquered people, so they could send their children overseas in which they’d send their imperial cultural in return, which they had believed would civilize their population.
Another example would be the second stanza in which it states, “To seek another’s profit, and work another’s gain.” This is referring to the practice that is colonizing new land, in which imperialists would take use of the natural resources and profit off of it. Developed countries may not be bound by law to help undeveloped nations, but it should be seen as their responsibility, seeing as how they have the power to do so.
We all live on the same planet, and we all use the same resources, so isn’t it the moral thing to do? There are many reasons as to why developed countries may help undeveloped ones, these reasons include humanitarian reasons (these include spiritual and religious beliefs), influence the government of the country, or even to get control of that countries natural supplies.
First off, we have the humanitarian reasons. A country’s religious beliefs may include promoting human welfare in other countries. Many countries believe it’s there moral responsibility to help other countries dealing with struggles such as war, disease, drought, etc. These countries giving to other countries due to moral beliefs can be comparable to people who donate to charities.
