STATION 1: The White Man’s Burden
Directions: Work independently to read and analyze the primary sources below by answering the questions
in complete sentences
Picture #1: Use picture #1 to answer these questions
1. What do you see in this picture? How are the children dressed?
2. What does this picture tell you about the purpose of European schools in Africa? Explain your answer
using evidence from the picture.
3. What does this picture tell you about the opinions Europeans had of traditional African values, beliefs
and customs? Explain your answer using evidence from the picture.
Picture #2: Use picture #2 to answer these questions
4. What do you see in the advertisement? How does the man look, how is he dressed, and what is he
doing?
5. What does this advertisement tell you about the fears of Europeans living in Africa? Explain your
answer using evidence from the advertisement.
6. What does the advertisement tell you about the attitudes Europeans had of Africans? Explain your
answer using evidence from the advertisement.
7. What was meant by the phrase the “White Man’s
Burden”? Use your notes if you do not remember.
8. Rudyard Kipling was a British author and poet. Who is
the intended audience of this poem? Use evidence from
the poem to support your answer.
“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.”
From The White Man’s Burden,
by Rudyard Kipling
breed – have young children or reproduce
bind – forced to do something out of obligation or
duty
exile – to send someone away from the home or
country
captive – a person who is confined
sullen – dark and dull
9. Who does Kipling describe as “half-devil and half child”? Use evidence from the poem to support your
answer.
10. How does Kipling’s poem support racist attitudes and beliefs Europeans had of Africans? Use evidence
from the poem to support your answer.
PICTURE #1
PICTURE #2
Station 2: The Berlin Conference
Directions: Work independently to read and analyze the sources below by answering the questions in
complete sentences
Held from 1884 to 1885, the Berlin Conference was a meeting at which representatives of European
countries agreed upon the rules for the European colonization of Africa. Because many European countries
were looking to control different parts, it was agreed that a peaceful conference would be the best way to
divide up the continent. No representatives from any African tribes were invited to attend the conference.
1. What was the goal of the Berlin Conference?
a. To ensure African tribes would be able to keep control of their land.
b. To peacefully divide up the continent amongst different European countries and set new
borders.
c. To establish terms for peace following a long and bloody war for control of the continent.
d. To hear complaints and grievances from representatives of various African tribes.
2. Why was it important that no representatives from any African tribes were invited to the conference?
3. What do you see in this cartoon? What are the
Leaders of different European countries doing?
4. How does this cartoon explain the need for the
Berlin Conference? Use evidence from the cartoon
and the reading above to support your answer.
Use the map comparisons to answer these questions
5. Looking at the Map of Africa in 1884,what do you see? What sections of the continent are occupied by
European powers?
6. Was Africa organized by any clearly-drawn borders in 1884? Use evidence from the map to support
your answer.
7. Looking at the map of Africa in 1913, what do you see? What sections of the continent are now
occupied by European powers?
8. Was Africa organized by any clearly drawn borders in 1913? Use evidence from the map to support
your answer.
9. What effect did the Berlin Conference have on Africa? Use evidence from the map to support your
answer.
MAP OF AFRICA, 1884
MAP OF AFRICA, 1914
Station 3: Reactions to Belgian Imperialism in the Congo
Directions: Work independently to read and analyze the primary sources below by answering the questions
in complete sentences
Following the Berlin Conference the European country Belgium controlled all of the African territory Congo.
Belgium King Leopold II allowed companies to operate that brutally abused Africans by forcing them to
collect sap from rubber plants. The rubber was used in Belgian factories. At least 10 million Congolese
died due to the abuses inflicted during King Leopold’s rule.
1. What do you see in the picture? What
animal does King Leopold II resemble and
what is he doing to the African worker?
King
Leopold II
2. What natural resource did Belgians want
from the Congo. Use evidence from the
picture and reading to support your answer.
3. What is the main idea of this picture? Use
evidence from the picture and reading to
support your answer.
4. In your own words, summarize the incident
Williams saw and described to King Leopold?
In 1890 an African American journalist
named George Washington Williams visited
the Congo and was horrified by what he saw.
Williams wrote a letter to King Leopold II
describing the atrocities he saw. Listed
below is an excerpt from Washington’s letter:
5. What do you think was the purpose of
Williams’ letter to King Leopold?
“Two Belgian army officers saw…a native in
a canoe…The officers made a wager of $5
that they could hit the native with their rifles.
Three shots were fired and the native fell
dead, pierced through the head.”