western leaders perspective on the white man's burden
Jones, Toby Craig. The Boer War Remembered.The Journal of Historical Review, Vol. Violence in the Name of Peace and Civilization. In often searing graphics, they challenged the complacent propagandists for Western expansion by addressing (and illustrating) a devastating question about the savage wars of peace. In the French cartoon Leur rve (Their dream), the globe is portrayed as a victim carried on a stretcher. The language obviously resonated with the Kipling-esque imagery of white men bringing enlightenment to new-caught sullen peoples, half-devil and half-child. People of darkness was, moreover, a perception that missionaries (whom Twain excoriated) routinely applied to the heathen natives of non-Christian lands. Now clad in armor and carrying a spear, she threatens to intervene to stop the anti-foreign, anti-Christian acts of anarchy, murder, and riot that have spread to Beijing. Few new vessels were commissioned until the 1880s when the first battleships were built,U.S.S. An exclamation point was added to the phrase, The White (!) The foothold in the Philippines brought China within reach. In his 1898 notes for the Treaty of Pariswhich ended the Spanish-American War with Spain surrendering Cuba and ceding territories including Puerto Rico, Guam, and the PhilippinesMcKinley made a prototypical statement of the civilizers responsibilities in the kind of rhetoric still used today: We took up arms only in obedience to the dictates of humanity and in the fulfillment of high public and moral obligations. The U.S. entered the elite group of world powers with victories in the Spanish-American War (written in the clouds over the naval battle on the right). Japan is introduced in this 1899 cartoon as the lone Asian nation in the imperialist circle of world powers. Kipling offered moral justification for the bloody war the U.S. was fighting to suppress the independent Philippine regime following Spanish rule. As Britain stepped up financial industries, shipping, and insurance to make up the deficit, global sea power took on additional significance. Anthropomorphizing nations and concepts meant that in an 1899 cartoon captioned The White Mans Burden, the U.S., as Uncle Sam, could be shown trudging after Britains John Bull, his Anglo-Saxon partner, carrying non-white nationsdepicted in grotesque racist caricaturesuphill from the depths of barbarism to the heights of civilization. Periodicals likeLifein the U.S. (predecessor to the later famous weekly of the same title), as well as French and German publications, printed both poignant and outraged visual arguments against the imperialist tide, often with acute sensitivity to its racist underpinnings. Uneasiness over the idea of using force to govern a country was overcome by tracing the issue of consent back through recent history. At the same time, the distinction the artist draws between Britains burden and Americas is striking. The imperialist rhetoric of civilization versus barbarism that took root during these years was reinforced in both the United States and England by a small flood of political cartoonscommonly executed in full color and with meticulous attention to detail. This unit examines cartoons from the turn-of-the-century visual record that reference civilization and its nemesisbarbarism. No blow has been struck except for liberty and humanity, and none will be., Is this Imperialism? Source:Wikimedia. The turn-of-the-century visual record tells us otherwise. Facebook. While the European powers favored Spain in the Spanish-American War, for example, neutral Britain backed the U.S. During the 1898 Battle of Manila Bay, British ships quietly reenforced the untried U.S. navy by blocking a squadron of eight German ships positioned to take advantage of the situation. Ugly and shocking scenes of violence in 19th-century American life are ironically captioned as refined and elegant to challenge the self-image of a nation contributing cash to save the heathen of foreign lands while ignoring its own barbarity. In the storm clouds on the left, the Eastern Question looms. At the time, however, Twains family, acquaintances, and publisher feared the piece would be denounced as both unpatriotic and sacrilegious, and urged him not to publish it. The caption, titled The First Duty, carries this subtitle: Civilization (to China)That dragon must be killed before our troubles can be adjusted. 730-735 (2008). I relegated an escort. The caption applies the motto united we stand to the Anglo-Saxon brotherhood spreading Western civilization abroad. In the caption, Uncle Sam lectures: (to his new class in Civilization): Now, children, youve got to learn these lessons whether you want to or not! The Pigtail Has Got to Go. Louis Dalrymple,Puck, October 19, 1898. The humanity of our soldiers is admirable and does not tire despite the ferocity of the Boers (Official Report to the War Office. Probably the oldest perspective on Even the language of Lifes caption is subversive, for it picks up a famous pro-imperialist speech by Theodore Roosevelt titled The Strenuous Life. Delivered on April 10, 1899, two years before Roosevelt became president, the most famous lines of the speech were these: I wish to preach, not the doctrine of ignoble ease, but the doctrine of the strenuous life, the life of toil and effort, of labor and strife; to preach that highest form of success which comes, not to the man who desires mere easy peace, but to the man who does not shrink from danger . Were we to transport an army more than half way around the earth merely to listen to peace propositions? AHistory of American Magazines. Bickers, Robert A. and R. G. Tiedemann, editors (Lanham: Rowman & Littlefield, 2007). Postwar industrialization and the introduction of new commodities such as steel and electricity gradually transformed the agrarian nation. Within a barred room, its walls painted blood-red, a cohort of five army officers headed by a sword-wielding Major General Elwell Stephen Otis (1838-1909), military governor of the Philippines, forces a manacled war correspondent to write only approved dispatches. Matthews, Roy T. Britannia and John Bull: From Birth to Maturity.The Historian,Vol. 18, No. Colonial success is equated with chivalry and invincibility.. 13, No. The U.S. is newly victorious in 1898 naval victories over the Spanish at Manila and Santiago de Cuba. Source: Widener Library, Harvard University, U.S. President William McKinley is depicted as a preacher standing on a dead Filipino, grinding his heel into the mans face. It is all too easy to assume that Americans, English, and others on the home front could not see what their nations were doing overseas. Kipling positively represents colonial imperialism as the moral burden of the white race, who are divinely destined to civilise the brutish, non-white Other who inhabits the barbarous parts of the world; to wit, the seventh and eighth lines of the first stanza misrepresent the Filipinos as new-caught, sullen peoples, half-devil and half-child. Louis Dalrymples exceptionally detailed 1899 Puck graphic includes racist and denigrating depictions within a schoolhouse metaphor to demonstrate the right to govern newly acquired territories without their consent. The U.S. must govern its new territories with or without their consent until they can govern themselves.. The blackboard contains the lessons learned from Great Britain on how to govern a colony and bring them into the civilized world, stating, By not waiting for their consent she has greatly advanced the worlds civilization. The satirical weekly,Simplicissimus, flourished from 1896 to 1967 with a hiatus from 1944 to 1954. History in Three Keys: The Boxers as Event, Experience, and Myth(New York: Columbia University Press, 1997). In the United States, the Boer War, conquest of the Philippines, and Boxer Uprising prompted large, detailed, sophisticated, full-color cartoons inPuckandJudge. Lasting from June 20 to August 14, 1900, the siege was the catalyst for a rescue mission by the Allied forces of eight major world powers. The Presidents Speech. William Bengough,Life, May 24, 1900. 2 vols. For example, the light of civilization literally illuminated vicious, helpless, or clueless barbarians. View Copy of White Man's Religion played a major role in the characterization of others as heathens in need of salvation through education, conversion, and civilizing in the ways of Christian culture. Stark images such as these helped make public a subject that was generally suppressed. Though black Africans did not fight in the war, over 100,000 were rounded up and confined in camps separate from the white internees. The argument follows Englands example, as spelled out on the blackboard, that By not waiting for their consent, she has greatly advanced the worlds civilization. An African-American washes windows. The book on the desk reads: U.S. Gillams sub-caption is All this for politicsis civilization advancing?. Prisoners will not be taken! These more critical graphics did not exist in a vacuum. Even the Civil War is referenced, in a wall plaque: The Confederate States refused their consent to be governed; but the Union was preserved without their consent. Refuting the right of indigenous rule was based on demonstrating a populations lack of preparation for self-governance. Source: Widener Library, Harvard University. Uncle Sam and President McKinley countered the assault under another American flag on which was inscribed Life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness under treaty rights. The cartoon caption reflected Americas self-image as a reluctant civilizer: Is This Imperialism? The Native: Ever since my home was burned to the ground and my wife and children shot. Frederick Thompson Richards,Life, October 18, 1900. American Imperialism (New York: Arno Press, 1970). A mound of scribbled papers from an overflowing wastebasket testifies to the coercion exerted upon him to induce cooperation. 62, Issue 4,pp. Source:Bibliothque nationale de France, In this cartoon from the French special issue on concentration camps in the Boer War, a gaunt Britannia is the only living creature in a vast graveyard for dead British soldiers. First Lessons in Self Government. The paper on desk reads: The New Class. Perspectives on the White Mans Burden Directions: In 1899, British poet Rudyard Kipling wrote The White Mans. Many peasants vaguely suspected of being Boxers were executed. The influx of cheap Western goods eroded generations-long trading patterns, while telegraph and railroad lines were constructed in violation of superstitions, eliciting deep resentment among Chinese. In all likelihood, it was an internal malfunction, but many Americans blamed the Spanish and rallied behind the slogan Remember theMaine, to Hell with Spain. The United States declared war on Spain on April 20, and the fury kindled by the sinking of theMainewas appeased by a great U.S. naval victory on the other side of the world two and a half months later. 13, No. The message suggests that the indigenous man will be brought out of ignorance through the inescapable march of progress in the form of Western civilization. Source:Library of Congress, Left: John Bull gapes at a new American steamer. wotever ll become of my ship-building monopoly, if that there Yankee is going to turn out boats like that right along? Louis Dalrymple,Puck, July 24, 1895. Fears that China would descend into chaos and xenophobia justified intervention to safeguard the spread of modernity, civilization, and trade. After Many Years. The larger objective, to gain control of the Boer territories, was part of Britains colonial scheme for Cape to Cairo hegemony in Africa. It allows prisoners to enjoy the view from the outside and have the illusion of freedom (Official Report to the War Office. Expansionism promulgated under the banner of civilization could not escape being carried out in global military campaigns, referred to as the savage wars of peace in the third stanza: Such avowed paternalism towards other cultures recast the invasion of their lands as altruistic service to humankind. Three savage turn-of-the-century conflicts defined the milieu in which such rhetoric flourished: the Anglo-Boer War of 18991902 in South Africa; the U.S. conquest and occupation of the Philippines initiated in 1899; and the anti-foreign Boxer Uprising in China that provoked intervention by eight foreign nations in 1900. We may have burnt certain villages, destroyed considerable property and incidentally slaughtered a few thousand of their sons and brothers, husbands and fathers, etc., but what did they expect? Priests Horribly Tortured. It ought to be a Happy New Year, the caption reads. 14-27 (May-June 1999). 202-212 (September 2010). Turning to China, his stinging indictment extended beyond the two Anglo powers to target the Kaisers Germany plus Tsarist Russia and France. Scorched earth tactics destroyed scores of villages. In the United StatesPuck,Judge, and the first version of a pictorial magazine titledLife; in FranceLAssiette au Beurre; and in Germany the acerbicSimplicissimuspublished masterful illustrations that ranged in opinion and style from partisan to thoughtful to gruesome. (Shannon: Irish University Press, 1972)(New York: Barnes & Noble Books, 1972). W. H. P. Signs of Promise., Jones, Toby Craig. The white man's burden poem was written by Rudyard Kipling. That dragon must be killed before our troubles can be adjusted. Take up the White Mans burden Ye dare not stoop to less Nor call The silent, sullen peoples Shall weigh your Gods and you. Analysis The men selected for the task must do it efficiently. Additional images from the issue depict barbaric behavior by the multinational force that intervened in China during the Boxer Uprising. White Man's Burden: The social, religious and cultural excuses to justify imperialism and gunship diplomacy Posted on March 31, 2014 by JL Admin European imperialism of the last few centuries were heavily centered on the perceived moral responsibility of its leaders toward other supposedly backward regions of the world. The caption, From the Cape to Cairo. The 2. 1898 poster promotes the U.S.-British rapprochement as A Union in the Interest of Humanity Civilization, Freedom and Peace for All Time. Multiple representations symbolize the two Anglo nations: national symbols (the eagle and lion); flags (the Stars and Stripes and Union Jack); female personifications (Columbia and Britannia); male personifications (Uncle Sam and John Bull); and national coats of arms (eagle and shield for America; lion, unicorn, crown, and shield for Great Britain). Two years ago the main street of Manila did not possess a single saloon. McKinley also mentions profit, free trade, and the open door in Asia: Incidental to our tenure in the Philippines is the commercial opportunity to which American statesmanship cannot be indifferent. The Stranger: How long have you been civilized? The artist George Benjamin Luts offered an exceptionally scathing rendering of the linkage of conquest, commerce, and censorship in an 1899 cartoon titled The Way We Get the War News: The Manila Correspondent and the McKinley Censorship. Published in a short-lived radical periodical,The Verdict, the cartoon shows a war correspondent in chains, writing his story under the direction of military brass. Oer The Land of the Free and the Home of the Brave? Anti-imperialist protesters were often feminized as weak nervous Nellies and, in a play on words, as aunties. Antiwar graphics, on the other hand, informed the public about the darker side of imperial campaigns. The link between U.S. conquest of the Philippines and the lure of the China market was widely acknowledged at the time, and no one rendered this more vividly, concisely, and admiringly than the cartoonist Emil Flohri. In May 1900, for example, artist William Bengough scathingly debunked a speech by President McKinleyonce again justifying the U.S. actions in taking of the Philippines by forceby depicting him as a parson standing on the face of a dead Filipino. Elliott, Jane E. SomeDid It for Civilisation, Some Did It for Their Country: A RevisedView of the Boxer War(Hong Kong: The Chinese University Press, 2002). Imperialism was not only economic and political, but also cultural. Anti-imperialists condemned this view and felt that it was racist and condescending toward people from other countries. Miller, Bonnie M. The Image-Makers Arsenal in an Age of War and Empire, 1898 1899: A Cartoon Essay, Featuring the Work of Charles Bartholomew (of theMinneapolis Journal)and Albert Wilbur Steele (of theDenver Post). Journal of American Studies, 45, pp 53-75 (Cambridge University Press). However, these came at a huge price for the people of these regions. New Forces in Old China: An Inevitable Awakening(New York: F.H. In these details, the headlight of a modern vehicle (Judge, 1900) and starlight from a goddess of civilization (Puck, 1898) illuminate demeaning caricatures of China. 203228. Missionaries preaching the Gospel in rural China violated local religious practices. 4, pp. As the American West was absorbed and the continent consolidated, the mandate of Manifest Destiny shifted from territorial to commercial expansion beyond contiguous borders. Chinas hapless young Manchu emperor, traditionally and exotically robed, sits passively in the foreground. A more earthly approach is taken in the graphic Some One Must Back Up that heads this essay. Commodore Deweys victory in Manila Bay in May not only paved the way for U.S. conquest of the Philippines, but also provided a valuable naval base for U.S. fleets in the Pacific. Accusations of atrocities against civilians on the ten-day march to Beijing were made in first-hand accounts of the mission. In mid 1899,Lifepublished this chilling view of the war in the Philippines that was to drag on for several more years. But rivalries for commercial privileges never abated even when an eight-nation Allied military force was forged between the world powers in the summer of 1900. Brown, Arthur Judson. Britain is digesting China, Egypt, Australia, Africa, Canada, and India. Vebers series, Les Camps de Reconcentration au Transvaal, begins with the cover image Le Silence, in which a veiled woman holds her finger to her lips, standing over the remnants of what appears to be an electric fence and a plow that suggests the earth has been tilled to bury evidence. Raising money to Save the Foreign Devils recurs in the visual record. [Read Online]. 11, Issue 40, No. Mother countries would often build schools, railroads, and improved communication, along with new medicines and treatments. The large Map of the United States and Neighboring Countries is dotted with U.S. flags marking newly-acquired territories. The British people had a long history of supporting imperial wars and as the conflict escalated, criticism in cartoon form declined and was supplanted by patriotic messages. Cullinane, M. Patrick. When rich tracts of gold were discovered, an influx of large numbers of British immigrants threatened to overturn Boer rule over these republics. The campaign was stepped up to target the civilian population that provided crucial support for guerrilla fighters in both the Transvaal and Orange Free State republics. Brewer, Susan. Esherick, Joseph. Families were burned out of their homes and imprisoned in concentration camps. Most viewers will probably agree that there is nothing really comparable in the contemporary world of political cartooning to the drafting skill and flamboyance of these single-panel graphics, which appeared in such popular periodicals as Puck and Judge. ColumbiaMother! Louis Dalrymple,Puck, June 15, 1898. The U.S. policy of benevolent neutrality supported Britain in the Boer War with large war loans, exports of military supplies, and diplomatic assistance for British POWs. In this French cartoon from a special issue titled, La Guerre (War), a missionary and a Red Cross representative lament the violent and un-Christian behavior of Westerners overseas. Mott, Frank Luther. In Vebers rendering of Les Progrs de la Science (The Advancement of Science), Boer prisoners of war are being shocked by an electric fence to the amusement of British troops on the other side. BritanniaDaughter! [p. 199], The Way We Get the War News. Source:Library of Congress. Un treillage de fer travers par un courant lectrique est la plus saine et la plus sre des cltures. Tough the Process Be Costly, The Road of Progress Must Be Cut. Udo Keppler,Puck, December 10, 1902. The Great Rapprochement describes a shift in the relationship of the U.S. and Great Britain that, in the 1890s, moved from animosity and suspicion to friendship and cooperation. In an 1895Puckcartoon, A Rival Who Has Come to Stay, John Bull gapes while Uncle Sam proudly displays his prowess as Uncle Sam the Ship Builder. The U.S. Navy moved up from twelfth to fifth place in the world. Whoever falls into your hands is forfeited. Global Research Civilization and its Discontents: The Boxers and Luddites as Heroes and Villains.Theory and Society16(5):675 (1987). During the last decade of the 19th century, the antagonistic relationship between Great Britain and the United Statesrooted in colonial rebellion and heightened in territorial conflicts like the War of 1812grew into a sympathetic partnership. Long-standing personifications and visual symbols for countries were used by cartoonists to dramatize events to suit their message. An Atlantic Triangle in the 1900s: Theodore Roosevelts special relationships with France and Britain., Spencer, David R. No Laughing Matter. As the disturbance escalated, so did news coverage around the world. A pair of 1898 graphics offer before and after snapshots related to two major events. Three overlapping turn-of-the-century conflicts in particular stirred the righteous rhetoric of the white imperialists. The noble rhetoric that buttressed overseas expansion, as Twain presented it, was largely for Home Consumption, and stood in sharp contrast to the Actual Thing that the Customer Sitting in Darkness buys with his blood and tears and land and liberty. Where the Philippine temptation in particular was concerned, he cited press reports of atrocities by American troops. Robert L. Gambone in his 2009 book,Life on the Press: The Popular Art and Illustrations of George Benjamin Luks, describes the cartoon as follows: The Way We Get Our War News (The Verdict, August 21, 1899, front cover) excoriates military press censorship, a supremely ironic development given the appeals to freedom used to justify the war. 799820 (June 2000). Source: Beinecke Rare Books & Manuscripts, Yale University, A white, feminine personification of Civilization (written on her cloak) radiates light over the aged figure of China (written on his hem) running away and shielding himself with a parasol. The archetypal dominance of Civilization over Barbarism is conveyed in a 1902Puckgraphic with the sweeping white figure of Britannia leading British soldiers and colonists in the Boer War. The march of civilization against barbarism is a late-19th-century construct that cast imperialist wars as moral crusades. In this rendering, progresseconomic, technological, and culturalis spread through global military aggression. In order to fully get along in society, indigenous populations had to assimilate to the colonists culture and many times abandon their own. Their diverse identities, however, reflect the global reach and ethnic diversity of the British empireand the extent to which England relied on colonial subjects to fight its imperialist wars. This superiority, obviously leads to a moral responsibility of the superior to uplift and civilize the inferior. The U.S. follows Britains imperial lead carrying people from Barbarism at the base of the hill to Civilization at its summit. The Boxers, China, and the World(Lanham: Rowman & Littlefield, 2007). Cartoons endorsing imperialist expansion depicted a beneficent West as father, teacher, even Santa Clausbearing the gifts of progress to benefit poor, backward, and childlike nations destined to become profitable new markets. (doi:10.1093/cjip/pol005), Faunce, Rev. The scene above turns the tables on theHarpers Weeklycover (above) and accuses foreign troops and missionaries of atrocities during the Boxer Uprising in China. On May 1, the U.S. Navy scored its first major victory in foreign watersfar from assured given the weakness of the American fleet at the timeby defeating Spanish warships defending their longtime Pacific colony in the Battle of Manila Bay. If you wish to use copyrighted material for purposes other than "fair use" you must request permission from the Original publication of Rudyard Kiplings poem, The White Mans Burden.McClures Magazine, February, 1899 (Vol. Hanna was a wealthy businessman with investments in coal and iron who financed McKinleys 1896 election campaign with record-breaking fundraising that led to the defeat of opponent William Jennings Bryan. Beyond commercial and military prowess, the two nations formed a natural brotherhood within attitudes later labeled as social Darwinism. The Laureate of Empire., Klein, Thoralf. In the West, China was often characterized as befuddled and archaic under the rule of an inscrutable crone, the Empress Dowager. This ca. The regular army was dissolved after the war and the ironclad warships gradually fell into disrepair. Competency (trait) perspective. Uncle Sam is to be Sacrificed: Anglophobia in Late Nineteenth-Century Politics and Culture., Twain, Mark. Uncle Sam, armed and dangerous, cocks an eyebrow as he displays his handiwork: countless dead Filipino soldiers laid out in rows. Moral clarity aside, the parallel between America's pursuit of manifest destiny a century ago and its new global sense of mission has a lot to teach us. White people who out of the goodness of their hearts decide to volunteer to do charity work for minority communities or 3rd world countries, or even Western organizations who do charity work are accused of being white saviors by the Left. Lucky Filipinos: the Philippine-American War. The phrase White Mans Burden caught on with many imperialists to justify the policy as noble. But just take a look at the class ahead of you, and remember that, in a little while, you will feel as glad to be here as they are!. (ISSN 1961-9898). Vultures hover above the procession, and the artifacts of past civilization are trampled underfoot at the rear. In the background, the artist placed a large portrait of a large man, Marcus Hanna, next to a miniature of President William McKinley to show their relative influence on policy. "The White Man's Burden" is a poem by the British Victorian poet and novelist Rudyard Kipling. Mans Burden William H. Walker, cover illustration,Life, March 16, 1899. Though the Process Be Costly, The Road of Progress Must Be Cut, states that progress must be pursued despite suffering on both sides. To the Person Sitting in Darkness.The North American Review. Udo Keppler, a Puck cartoonist who was still in his twenties at the time, was more benign in his rendering of the great rapprochement. To the Person Sitting in Darkness.. Rutgers, The State University of New Jersey (2014). Other graphic techniques were used by cartoonists to communicate this message. The cartoonist targets capitalists as the true power behind the policies and practices in the Pacific, with a portrait of businessman Marcus Hannaa dollar sign elongating his earthat dwarfs a portrait of President William McKinley. The enlarged detail below reveals that the flags of the opponents say the same thing in different words, each justifying their wars to uphold the principle of the Golden Rule., Are our teachings, then, in vain? Udo Keppler,Puck, October 3, 1900. U.S. regiments were transported from the Philippines to join the Allied force. May 26, 2022. Think It Over: All this for politicsis civilization advancing?. Painting carried a portfolio inscribed Light. Although Wilhelm II was famous for introducing the concept of a yellow peril, Germanys major colonial possessions were in Africa. Case Study: The Boxer WarThe Boxer Uprising.Online Encyclopediaof Mass Violence(July 23, 2008). The conduct of foreign troops in China was targeted in a searing cartoon by the French artist Thophile Steinlen. The cause of the explosion is still undetermined. Historical perspective. Jean Veber,LAssiette au Beurre, September 28, 1901. The cartoon takes its title from Rudyard Kiplings poem The White Mans Burden. Published in February, 1899 in response to the annexation of the Philippines by the United States, the poem quickly became a famous endorsement of the civilizing missiona battle cry, full of heroic stoicism and self-sacrifice, offering moral justification for U.S. perseverance in its first major and unexpectedly prolonged overseas war. It ends with a stranger entering the church and delivering a devastating description of the carnage experienced by invaded countries. And they complain that drunken American soldiers insult the native women. Opposing viewpoints usually found expression in simpler but no less powerful black-and-white graphics in other publications. Despite several victories in the battle for Tianjin, chaotic Chinese forces melted away before the Allied advance. In a post-Bismarck era, Germany was a late-comer to the colonial land grab in Africa and the Pacific. Western leaders eagerly embraced the doctrine of the white man's burden because it was a convenient justification for their expansionist policies. Free Books! The Philippines are diminished as Only the Stepping-Stone that enables the U.S. to reach the eagerly anticipated China market.