White Man's Burden

Discipline: Political Science

Phrase coined by English writer Rudyard Kipling (1865-1936).

The government and development of empire is a burden, dutifully accepted by white Europeans, but unappreciated by those over whom they exercise their paternal power.

Kipling's poetic expression neatly encapsulates a theory of imperialism which was often more assumed than articulated.

Source:
A P Thornton, Doctrines of Imperialism (London, 1965)

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