Response on Imperialism

Many people are saying that the Europeans justified their colonies through the “white man’s burden”. Some are saying that the Europeans didn’t really believe in the white man’s burden, and were only using it as an excuse to for their imperialistic conquests. Although this is partially true some Europeans may have just used the “white man’s burden” to justify their actions, but others actually thought they had a duty to uphold. Evidence of this can be found in the movie the “Rabbit Proof Fence”. This is a movie about how white Europeans attempted to get rid of the dark skinned color of the Indians. They did not gain anything by attempting to teach the kids English and to read and write. They only did so because of their moral obligations. This proves that some Europeans did believe in the “white man’s burden”. More evidence of this comes from missionaries. Missionaries went out into various foreign countries attempting to spread their religion to the natives in order to protect them from “hell”. The people who traveled to these far away places didn’t get any material benefit out of them either. They just risked their lives and left their homes because they thought that they had a moral obligation to do it—“the White Man’s Burden”.