“The White Man’s Burden”
In February 1899, British novelist and poet Rudyard Kipling wrote a poem entitled “The White
Man’s Burden: The United States and The Philippine Islands.” In this poem, Kipling urged the
U.S. to take up the “burden” of empire, as had Britain and other European nations. Published in
the February of 1899 issue of McClure’s Magazine, the poem coincided with the beginning of
the Philippine-American War and U.S. Senate ratification of the treaty that placed Puerto Rico,
Guam, Cuba, and the Philippines under American control.
Theodore Roosevelt, soon to become vice-president and then president, copied the poem and
sent it to his friend, Senator Henry Cabot Lodge, commenting that it was “rather poor poetry, but
good sense from the expansion point of view.” Roosevelt believed that the poem summarized
what the average American thought about how we should interact with other countries. However,
not everyone was as favorably impressed as Roosevelt. This poem implies that the United States
should have an imperialistic foreign policy because people of other races and ethnicities in other
countries could not be trusted, or run their own countries properly.
The Poem:
Take up the White Man’s burden—
Send forth the best ye breed—
Go send 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
Take up the White Man’s burden
In patience to abide
To veil the threat of terror
And check the show of pride;
By open speech and simple
An hundred times made plain
To seek another’s profit
And work another’s gain
Take up the White Man’s burden—
And reap his old reward:
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,
“Our loved Egyptian night?”
Take up the White Man’s burdenHave done with childish daysThe lightly proffered laurel,
The easy, ungrudged praise.
Comes now, to search your manhood
Through all the thankless years,
Cold-edged with dear-bought wisdom,
The judgment of your peers!
Reading-Check Question:
According to this poem, why should the United States become involved in the affairs of other
countries? Site a quote from the poem to support your answer.
A Speech by Senator Albert J. Beveridge: An Example of Nationalism
“MR. PRESIDENT, the times call for candor. The Philippines are ours forever,
"territory belonging to the United States," as the Constitution calls them. And just
beyond the Philippines are China's illimitable markets. We will not retreat from either.
We will not abandon our opportunity in the Orient. We will not renounce our part in
the mission of our race, trustee, under God, of the civilization of the world. And we
will move forward to our work, not howling out regrets like slaves whipped to their
burdens but with gratitude for a task worthy of our strength and thanksgiving to
Almighty God that He has marked us as His chosen people, henceforth to lead in the
regeneration of the world.
But to hold it will be no mistake. Our largest trade henceforth must be with Asia. The
Pacific is our ocean. Where shall we turn for consumers of our surplus? Geography
answers the question. China is our natural customer. She is nearer to us than to
England, Germany, or Russia, the commercial powers of the present and the future.
They have moved nearer to China by securing permanent bases on her borders. The
Philippines give us a base at the door of all the East.
Lines of navigation from our ports to the Orient and Australia, from the Isthmian
Canal to Asia, from all Oriental ports to Australia converge at and separate from the
Philippines. They are a self-supporting, dividend-paying fleet, permanently anchored
at a spot selected by the strategy of Providence, commanding the Pacific. And the
Pacific is the ocean of the commerce of the future. Most future wars will be conflicts
for commerce. The power that rules the Pacific, therefore, is the power that rules the
world. And, with the Philippines, that power is and will forever be the American
Republic. . . .”
Reading-Check Question:
According to this poem, why should the United States become involved in the affairs of other
countries? Site a quote from the poem to support your answer.