Page 136 - Encyclopedia Of World History Vol III

imperialism 955

The blame of those ye better,
The hate of those ye guard—
The cry of hosts ye humour conquest and legal seizure of princely states when the
(Ah, slowly!) toward the light:— heirs died without a successor. By the mid-1800s the
“Why brought he us from bondage, British were in control of almost all of India, through
Our loved Egyptian night?” either direct rule or “indirect rule” whereby princes re-
Take up the White Man’s burden— tained their states, but the company directed foreign and
Ye dare not stoop to less— trade policies. This gradual conquest led to questions
Nor call too loud on Freedom over the purpose of British involvement in India. People
To cloke your weariness; raised moral questions as the missionary movement
By all ye cry or whisper, wanted to make more attempts at conversion, and some
By all ye leave or do, people objected to the increasing exportation of opium
The silent, sullen peoples grown in India to China, an exportation that led to the
Shall weigh your gods and you. Anglo-Chinese Opium War. This war dramatically dem-
Take up the White Man’s burden— onstrated the technological superiority of Europeans and
Have done with childish days— helped lead to an important strain of thought in modern
The lightly proferred laurel, imperialism: that technological superiority implies cul-
The easy, ungrudged praise. tural and eventually racial superiority.
Comes now, to search your manhood The outbreak of the Great Mutiny in India in 1857 led
Through all the thankless years people to reassess the goals of imperialism.The EIC was
Cold, edged with dear-bought wisdom, removed as the governing power, and India was placed
The judgment of your peers! under Crown rule.With trade no longer the top priority,
Source: Kipling, R. (1899). The white man’s burden. Retrieved from http://www. the concept of a civilizing mission took over, whereby the
online-literature.com/kipling/922/
British would bring the benefits of their technology, gov-
ernment, and culture to India while still exploiting
India’s resources. This shift was crucial for the New
Britain and India Imperialism because now the “civilizing” aspects of impe-
Britain had become the dominant power in India rialism would be the prime justification for conquest.
through a series of wars with both local powers and the
French.The British East India Company (EIC) had been
chartered to solidify the British trade position in Asia, The Scramble for Africa
particularly in the tea trade. Increasingly as a result of The slave trade led Europeans to hold a number of con-
military conquests and political maneuvers, the EIC cepts about Africans.The first of these concepts was that
became a governing body over large sections of India, Africans were an inferior race, thus justifying the practice
particularly in Bengal, by the end of the eighteenth cen- of slavery.The second was that Africa was an uncivilized
tury. The mission of the company was heavily ques- “dark continent” waiting for exploration and exploita-
tioned in the aftermath of corruption scandals that tion.The primary obstacle to greater European penetra-
attracted parliamentary investigation. The British gov- tion of Africa was the tropical disease belt that took a
ernment was also under pressure to allow more mis- heavy toll on European settlers, traders, and missionaries.
sionary activity, something resisted by the EIC for fear Advances in medicine, particularly the discovery of qui-
that such activity would anger the Hindu and Muslim nine, which gave a resistance to malaria, allowed for
populations in India. greater European activity in central Africa during the
Through the first half of the nineteenth century the 1860s. Dr. David Livingstone was perhaps the most im-
EIC expanded its political control over India through portant of the new explorers. Livingstone was a Scottish