The White Man’s Burden

"The White Man's Burden" is a phrase associated with a poem by Rudyard Kipling published in 1899. The poem asserts that it is the moral duty of Western nations to bring civilization to non-Western peoples, whom Kipling described as "half devil and half child".1

The concept implies a duty for white people to manage the affairs of non-white people they believed to be less developed. This idea was particularly relevant during the U.S. Senate's debate on ratifying the Treaty of Paris, which would have transferred governance of the Philippines to the United States. Kipling favored this annexation.1

Kipling, an English writer born in India, is known for his celebration of British imperialism. He received the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1907. While his work was immensely popular, it has also been criticized for its imperialistic and jingoistic themes.2