Primary Documents: Imperialism
Directions: Read the three documents related to imperialism and answer the questions on a separate sheet of paper.
Stanley Searches for Livingstone in Africa – Henry M. Stanley (1871)
1. Traveling through Africa (often called “going on safari”) was often seen as a big adventure by Europeans. As Stanley’s journey was coming to an end and he marched toward the village in which he believed he would find Dr. Livingstone how did he seem to feel? Explain.
2. Why do you suppose Stanley made such a dramatic entrance as he approached the village?
3. Henry Stanley’s entire trip was paid for by the New York Herald. Why do …show more content…
How does Kipling describe the people of the Philippines in the first stanza?
5. The forth stanza outlines some of the difficulties that Europeans face when imperializing a nation; none of these problems were unknown to Europeans. How does this emphasize the importance of the White Man’s Burden in the eyes of Europeans?
6. Some people argue that Kipling and other Europeans during the Age of Imperialism believed that the people being colonized recognized that there were in fact benefits to colonization. How do the final stanzas of Kipling’s poem outline the benefits of colonization for the colonized?
The Black Man’s Burden – Hubert Harrison (1920)
7. In his first stanza, what is Harrison describing?
8. In his second stanza, what institutions does Harrison say control the victims of colonization?
9. Later in the poem, after graphically describing the brutality of imperialism, Harrison refers to the “fraud of freedom” perpetrated by the imperialists to “cloak [their] greediness”. What does he mean?
Comparing the Two …show more content…
Essentially, Kipling is urging the U.S. to continue to take on the “burden” of imperialism and bring “civilization to the savages” of the world. Some historians assert that Kipling wrote the piece as a satire, but many of his other works (including The Jungle Book) include pro-imperialist sentiments. Even if “The White Man’s Burden” was intended to be a satire, it is a valuable representation of the pro-imperialist attitudes of its