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The Era of Global Empire (ca. 1870–1914)

Rudyard Kipling published “The White Man’s Burden” in 1899, during the period when global empire had reached its height. Britain in particular had colonized so much territory around the world that its defenders could state, with great pride, “The sun never sets on the British Empire!” Although the history of imperialism is too long and complex to summarize here, it’s important to note that the first European imperial ventures began in the fifteenth century. These ventures were generally centered on trade or else focused on the discovery of new lands rich in resources that could be expropriated and sent back to the center of empire. Either way, the aims of early European imperial endeavors were essentially economic. As European nations continued to expand their empires, their motivations remained fundamentally tied to profit. However, by the nineteenth century, it became increasingly necessary to find a way to justify the obvious violence involved in maintaining a global empire. Thus, by the late nineteenth century it became fashionable to conceive of imperialism not as a financial venture but as a “civilizing mission.” It is precisely such a civilizing mission that Kipling refers to with his phrase, “the White Man’s burden.”

U.S. Imperialism and the Philippine-American War

Although Kipling wrote in a general context where imperialism was conventionally thought of as a “civilizing mission,” the poem’s publication also coincided with a particular event related to U.S. imperialism in the Pacific Ocean. In the final years of the nineteenth century, the United States formally acquired the Philippine Islands as part of the 1898 Treaty of Paris. This same treaty, which the Unites States signed with Spain at the conclusion of the Spanish-American War, also resulted in the annexation of Guam and Puerto Rico. In 1899, following the Treaty of Paris, a war of resistance broke out in the Philippines, with Filipino nationalists attempting to win their independence. It was in this specific context that Kipling first published “The White Man’s Burden,” to which he added the subtitle, “The United States and the Philippine Islands.” The poem appeared in the popular and influential magazine McClure’s, and it was widely read by general readers as well as U.S. politicians. Kipling’s poem thus issued a rousing call in favor of U.S. imperial expansion. Its success as a piece of poetic propaganda may be seen in the fact that the phrase “White Man’s burden” soon became a euphemism for empire.

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