Close behind them lie corpses from the Franco-Prussian War, Russia and Turkey, Napoleon and Austria. Far off in the distance, with labels reading Roman Wars and Alexandria, the artists carries his viewers back to ancient times, when the civilization myth first emerged to mask the brutal realities of politically-motivated conflicts. Families were burned out of their homes and imprisoned in concentration camps. Wilhelm points ahead, where the inhabitants flee. He is greeted with open arms by a mandarin and Wanted signs articulating prodigious opportunities for business. Eighteen months before Steinlens disturbing mural, another German artist, Thomas Theodor Heine, published a similarly blood-soaked rendering of the barbarities perpetuated abroad by Western military forces. (Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 1938). Within a barred room, its walls painted blood-red, a cohort of five army officers headed by a sword-wielding Major General Elwell Stephen Otis (1838-1909), military governor of the Philippines, forces a manacled war correspondent to write only approved dispatches. Religion played a major role in the characterization of others as heathens in need of salvation through education, conversion, and civilizing in the ways of Christian culture. The phrase White Mans Burden caught on with many imperialists to justify the policy as noble. Periodicals likeLifein the U.S. (predecessor to the later famous weekly of the same title), as well as French and German publications, printed both poignant and outraged visual arguments against the imperialist tide, often with acute sensitivity to its racist underpinnings. And the third was the anti-foreign Boxer Uprising in China in 18991901, which led to military intervention by no less than eight foreign nations including not only Tsarist Russia and the Western powers, but also Japan. Study with Quizlet and memorize flashcards containing terms like White Man's Burden, East India Company, Opium War and more. Philippines, Hawaii, Cuba, Porto Rico. A Native American reads a book upside down and a prospective Chinese pupil stands in the doorway. The cause of the explosion is still undetermined. Uncle Sam is to be Sacrificed: Anglophobia in Late Nineteenth-Century Politics and Culture.American Nineteenth Century History. The expedition met with unexpectedly fierce opposition from Boxers and Qing dynasty troops and was forced to retreat. This early outburst of what we refer to today as clash-of-civilizations thinking did not go unchallenged, however. Britain stepped in to defend the rights of the immigrants, known asuitlanders(foreigners) to the Boers. Colossal goddess figures and other national symbols were overwritten with the message on their clothing and the flags they carried. Blocking its uphill path, the Chinese dragon crawls downhill bearing a Boxer waving a bloody sword and banner reading 400 Million Barbarians. The image puts progress and primitivism on a collision course at the edge of a cliff. Now there are thirteen on this one street! Western missionaries had penetrated the interior, and the missions they established disrupted village traditions. The caption, titled The First Duty, carries this subtitle: Civilization (to China)That dragon must be killed before our troubles can be adjusted. A tiny female China peers at the scene from behind a wall. In a run of 13 lithographs published in the July 4, 1900 issue of the French periodicalLAssiette au Beurre, the cartoonist Ren Georges Hermann-Paul was especially incisive in calling attention to this grim reality. Their diverse identities, however, reflect the global reach and ethnic diversity of the British empireand the extent to which England relied on colonial subjects to fight its imperialist wars. The cartoon takes its title from Rudyard Kiplings poem The White Mans Burden. Published in February, 1899 in response to the annexation of the Philippines by the United States, the poem quickly became a famous endorsement of the civilizing missiona battle cry, full of heroic stoicism and self-sacrifice, offering moral justification for U.S. perseverance in its first major and unexpectedly prolonged overseas war. Ships for American commerce a speciality., Right: Uncle Sam proudly displays his new steamship and a sign that reads, Uncle Sam the ship builder re-established with great success in 1893. Regarding the Philippines in particular, he continues: without any desire or design on our part, the war has brought us new duties and responsibilities which we must meet and discharge as becomes a great nation on whose growth and career from the beginning the ruler of nations has plainly written the high command and pledge of civilization. (doi:10.1093/cjip/pol005), Faunce, Rev. Le Royaume-Uni (United Kingdom) Jean Veber,LAssiette au Beurre, September 28, 1901. However, brutally repressive policies followed that included accusations of genocide. To the Person Sitting in Darkness.. In this rendering it is the Bible-toting white invader (The Stranger) who is ridiculed. Advance Agent of Modern Civilization: Religion & Empire. It evoked both the fact that the bulk of the U.S. force was made up of units from the Midwestern states. Hawaii and Porto Rico are model female students. Our Civilized Heathen asks what is civilized and who are the heathen. [View Extract]. In Kiplings often-quoted phrase, this noble mission required willingness to engage in savage wars of peace.. White people who out of the goodness of their hearts decide to volunteer to do charity work for minority communities or 3rd world countries, or even Western organizations who do charity work are accused of being white saviors by the Left. Newspapers carried pictures of corpses and stories of rape and plunder, notably in the wealthy merchant city of Tongzhou just before troops reached Beijing. In a post-Bismarck era, Germany was a late-comer to the colonial land grab in Africa and the Pacific. Ricard, Serge. Oer The Land of the Free and the Home of the Brave? Original publication of Rudyard Kiplings poem, The White Mans Burden.McClures Magazine, February, 1899 (Vol. The human and financial cost of these extended conflicts was large. The poem acknowledged the thanklessness of a task rewarded with The blame of those ye better, The hate of those ye guard and sentimentalized the savage wars of peace as self-sacrificial crusades undertaken for the greater good. The image is ironically paired with a quote attributed to an Official Report to the War Office that says iron railing through which an electric current runs makes the healthiest and safest fences., Les Progrs de la Science (The Advances of Science). the supposed duty of the This superiority, obviously leads to a moral responsibility of the superior to uplift and civilize the inferior. In mid 1899,Lifepublished this chilling view of the war in the Philippines that was to drag on for several more years. At the time, however, Twains family, acquaintances, and publisher feared the piece would be denounced as both unpatriotic and sacrilegious, and urged him not to publish it. Tough the Process Be Costly, The Road of Progress Must Be Cut. Udo Keppler,Puck, December 10, 1902. Think It Over: All this for politicsis civilization advancing?. Source:Library of Congress. Long-standing personifications and visual symbols for countries were used by cartoonists to dramatize events to suit their message. Mott, Frank Luther. Although protested by some commanders, no single approach prevailed among these competitive armies thrown together in a loose coalition. 19th Century Editorial Cartoons and the Business of Race., Thompson, Roger R. Reporting the Taiyuan Massacre from, Tuffnell, Stephen. The message suggests that the indigenous man will be brought out of ignorance through the inescapable march of progress in the form of Western civilization. Elliott, Jane E. SomeDid It for Civilisation, Some Did It for Their Country: A RevisedView of the Boxer War(Hong Kong: The Chinese University Press, 2002). The sign on the shores of England reads, John Bull The old reliable ship builder since 1861. The image exhibits a racist hierarchy that places a dominant white American male in the center, and on the fringes, an African-American washing the windows and Native-American reading a primer upside down. Europeans, this reads, Pour the Blessings of Their Culture over the Globe.. 1900. Lifes satire of the white mans burden mystique offers a procession of the supporters of the new imperialism beginning with missionaries and ending with the traveling salesman. In a strikingJudgegraphic, an Auto-Truck of Civilization and Trade lights a pathway through the darkness, leading with a gun and the message: Force if Necessary. Overladen with manufactured goods and modern technology, the vehicle is driven by a resolute Uncle Sam. Ugly and shocking scenes of violence in 19th-century American life are ironically captioned as refined and elegant to challenge the self-image of a nation contributing cash to save the heathen of foreign lands while ignoring its own barbarity. Twains most celebrated anti-imperialist essay, To the Person Sitting in Darkness, was published in the February, 1901 issue of theNorth American Review. The burgeoning mass media helped promote jingoistic foreign policies by printing disparaging depictions of barbarous-looking natives from countries benevolently assimilated by the U.S. A brash Uncle Sam was shown coming under the wing of the older, more experienced empire builder, John Bull. The wall sign overhead reads: The Confederate States refused their consent to be governed; but the Union was preserved without their consent. The class holds schoolbooks labeled Alaska, Texas, Arizona, California, New Mexico. Blackboard text: The consent of the governed is a good thing in theory, but very rare in fact. Civilization and progress are inseparable, a train and telegraph drawn in her robes. The image appeared in the June 27, 1901 issue ofLAssiette au Beurreby Steinlen titled, A Vision de Hugo, 18021902. The full mural decries the bloodshed of colonial warfare in Turkey, China, and Africa. Daggett, Aaron Simon. From the Cape to Cairo. A Red-Letter Day. Painting carried a portfolio inscribed Light. This military dimension of the multi-ethnic United Kingdom is often forgotten. This special issue illustrated by Thophile Steinlen comprises a particularly gruesome mural depicting the bloodshed of contemporary colonial wars in Turkey, China, and Africa. The Laureate of Empire., Klein, Thoralf. Geopolitics, Vol. The Pigtail Has Got to Go. Louis Dalrymple,Puck, October 19, 1898. Western leaders eagerly embraced the doctrine of the white man's burden because it was a convenient justification for their expansionist policies. T he two main themes in The White Mans Burden are the duty and altruism of colonization, and the challenge of colonization. First Lessons in Self Government. The paper on desk reads: The New Class. Warships steam over the horizon of their chests flying banners of great waterways that would ideally open the world to commerceSuez Canal (completed in 1869) and Managua Canal (projected through Nicaragua to link the Caribbean and Pacific oceansan undertaking later transferred to Panama). As the military governor until May 1900, Otis inflated Filipino atrocities and prevented journalists, Red Cross officials, and soldiers from reporting American atrocities, though ghastly accounts slipped through. In the storm clouds on the left, the Eastern Question looms. The feminine representations of imperial nations pictured here include Russia, Turkey, Italy, Austria, Spain, and France. Columbia Studies in the Social Sciences (New York: Columbia University Press, 1955). GlobalResearch Center for Research on Globalization. The foothold in the Philippines brought China within reach. 202-212 (September 2010). In his 1898 notes for the Treaty of Pariswhich ended the Spanish-American War with Spain surrendering Cuba and ceding territories including Puerto Rico, Guam, and the PhilippinesMcKinley made a prototypical statement of the civilizers responsibilities in the kind of rhetoric still used today: We took up arms only in obedience to the dictates of humanity and in the fulfillment of high public and moral obligations. 11, Issue 40, No. For example, the light of civilization literally illuminated vicious, helpless, or clueless barbarians. 367-373 (1998). How such uncivilized behavior fit the rhetoric of the civilizing mission is the subject of theLifecartoon, A Red-Letter Day. Against a backdrop of distant flames, a Filipino mansympathetically drawn as tall, handsome, and heroic in contrast to the usual caricature of a tiny, expressionless savage in a grass skirtis questioned by a clergyman. Lasting from June 20 to August 14, 1900, the siege was the catalyst for a rescue mission by the Allied forces of eight major world powers. Beyond commercial and military prowess, the two nations formed a natural brotherhood within attitudes later labeled as social Darwinism. Death to all Schools but Ours. The last marcher holds up Drummers Samples, referring to the traveling salesmen of business and commerce. The poem The White Mans Burden was written by Rudyard Kipling partly as an appeal for the United States to intervene in the Philippines and transform the islands into Jean Veber,LAssiette au Beurre, September 28, 1901. 83-108 (2006). Prisoners will not be taken! The Forbidden Book: The Philippine-American War in Political Cartoons(San Francisco: TBoli Pub. This unit examines cartoons from the turn-of-the-century visual record that reference civilization and its nemesisbarbarism. Militarily beneath notice by the major European powers, and able to resolve conflicts with Britain in the Western Hemisphere diplomatically, there was little pressure for a strong military in the U.S. With minimal military expenditures, the U.S. economy grew rapidly. The enlarged detail below reveals that the flags of the opponents say the same thing in different words, each justifying their wars to uphold the principle of the Golden Rule., Are our teachings, then, in vain? Udo Keppler,Puck, October 3, 1900. Embracing Technologies of Domination: The Rise of Popular Imperialism in the U.S., 1898-1904. Paper presented at the annual meeting of the International Communication Association, Dresden International Congress Centre, Dresden, Germany, Jun 16, 2006. The scene above turns the tables on theHarpers Weeklycover (above) and accuses foreign troops and missionaries of atrocities during the Boxer Uprising in China. Were we to transport an army more than half way around the earth merely to listen to peace propositions? We had no design of aggrandizement and no ambition of conquest. Cohen, Paul A. "'The White Man's Burden' and Its Critics" Jim Zwick is an American Studies scholar and author of Confronting Imperialism: Essays on Mark Twain and the Anti-Imperialist League and Mark Twain's Weapons of Satire: Anti-Imperialist Writings on the Philippine-American War, as well as numerous book chapters and journal and magazine articles about the Anti-Imperialist Jesus, In an 1899 cartoon, Ren Georges Hermann-Paul attacked the hypocrisy of spreading civilization by force by juxtaposing the words Barbarie and Civilisation beneath Chinese and French combatants who alternate as victor and victim. The Harvest in the Philippines. Frederick Thompson Richards,Life, July 6, 1899. Appelbaum, Stanley. On Chinas side, the Boxers were absorbed into the Qing government forces to fight the invaders. The "white man's burden" refers to the duty of Westerners to the rest of the world. Comment on Global Research Articles on our Facebook page, Disclaimer: The contents of this article are of sole responsibility of the author(s). Despite several victories in the battle for Tianjin, chaotic Chinese forces melted away before the Allied advance. Boxers practiced spirit-possession rituals, often meeting in Buddhist temples, and attacked Christian missionaries and Chinese converts. Study Resources. So, if we do our duty aright in the Philippines, we will add to that national renown which is the highest and finest part of national life, will greatly benefit the people of the Philippine Islands, and, above all, we will play our part well in the great work of uplifting mankind. The Great Rapprochement describes a shift in the relationship of the U.S. and Great Britain that, in the 1890s, moved from animosity and suspicion to friendship and cooperation. The imperialist rhetoric of civilization versus barbarism that took root during these years was reinforced in both the United States and England by a small flood of political cartoonscommonly executed in full color and with meticulous attention to detail. Even the Civil War is referenced, in a wall plaque: The Confederate States refused their consent to be governed; but the Union was preserved without their consent. Refuting the right of indigenous rule was based on demonstrating a populations lack of preparation for self-governance. [p. 199], The Way We Get the War News. Accusations of atrocities against civilians on the ten-day march to Beijing were made in first-hand accounts of the mission. Now clad in armor and carrying a spear, she threatens to intervene to stop the anti-foreign, anti-Christian acts of anarchy, murder, and riot that have spread to Beijing. The Philippines are diminished as Only the Stepping-Stone that enables the U.S. to reach the eagerly anticipated China market. In the background, the artist placed a large portrait of a large man, Marcus Hanna, next to a miniature of President William McKinley to show their relative influence on policy. The Centre of Research on Globalization grants permission to cross-post Global Research articles on community internet sites as long the source and copyright are acknowledged together with a hyperlink to the original Global Research article. Cullinane, M. Patrick. The banners of both side pronounce fidelity to the golden rule., Boxer banner (Chinese forces flags): Do not do unto others what you would not that others should do unto you. Labeled as Social Darwinism Red-Letter Day the land of the immigrants, known asuitlanders western leaders perspective on the white man's burden foreigners to. White Mans Burden leads to a moral responsibility of the governed is a good thing theory. 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