- The White Man's Burden was a common idea during imperialism, as it justified the many terrible things done during that time.
- The idea was that the more "civilized" people of Europe had to "educate and civilize" people in lesser developed countries.
- This meant pushing their own beliefs and cultures onto the people.
- This usually led to monocultures, destroying diversity and disregarding people's own beliefs, languages and ways of life.
- For example Great Britain’s idea that it had to civilize the Indian people in it's own colonies and many Britons viewed them as stupid and inferior (despite that clearly not being the case).
- A cartoon depicting the so called "White Man's Burden", showing John Bull and Uncle Sam, which were personifications of Great Britain and the United States respectively, carrying the world's people of color to civilization.
- The cartoon shows John Bull and Uncle Sam stepping over various stones, such as ignorance, brutality, barbarism, superstition, oppression and so forth; illustrating the process.
- Notice how the people in the baskets are depicted as silly and naive.
Image Sources
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_White_Man%27s_Burden