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 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. Lhumanit de nos soldats est admirable et ne se lasse pas malgr la frocit des Bors (Rapport officiel au War Office. In these details, the headlight of a modern vehicle (Judge, 1900) and starlight from a goddess of civilization (Puck, 1898) illuminate demeaning caricatures of China. In mid 1899,Lifepublished this chilling view of the war in the Philippines that was to drag on for several more years. the supposed duty of the The phrase White Mans Uncle Sams New Class in the Art of Self-Government. W. A. Rogers,Harpers Weekly: A Journal of Civilization, August 27, 1898. Relatively free from European rivalries and well situated to become a transoceanic partner, the U.S. was courted for the role. Source: Widener Library, Harvard University, The barbarity of imperial war is displayed on a battlefield littered with dead soldiers of many nationalities that stretches from contemporary warshere, the Philippines and Transvaal (Boer War)back through time to Roman Wars. The sub-caption of this 1900 Judge cartoon once again asks the disturbing question: is civilization advancing?. Its colonies were acquired through purchase, agreements with other world powers, and economic domination. A post-conflict report calculated that close to 28,000 white Boers perished (the vast majority of them children under sixteen), while fatalities among incarcerated native Africans numbered over 14,000 at the very least. Source:Bibliothque nationale de France. The caption again ironically quotes an Official Report to the War Office that praises the British soldiers bravery in the face of a fierce enemy, in this case women and children: The humanity of our soldiers is admirable and does not tire despite the ferocity of Boers., Vers le Camp de Reconcentration (To the Concentration Camp). Americas recent subjugated populations are savage, unruly, and rebelliousliterally visually half devil and half child, as Kipling would have it. Opposing viewpoints usually found expression in simpler but no less powerful black-and-white graphics in other publications. Vebers series, Les Camps de Reconcentration au Transvaal, begins with the cover image Le Silence, in which a veiled woman holds her finger to her lips, standing over the remnants of what appears to be an electric fence and a plow that suggests the earth has been tilled to bury evidence. The conduct of foreign troops in China was targeted in a searing cartoon by the French artist Thophile Steinlen. Think It Over: All this for politicsis civilization advancing?. The two allies had been embroiled in lengthy wars with costly and devastating effects on the populations in Africa and Asia. Britain leads the way in this harsh rendering, shouldering the burden of China, India, Egypt, and Soudan. The United States staggers behind carrying grotesque racist caricatures labeled Filipino, Porto Rico, Cuba, Samoa, and Hawaii.. In the September 28, 1901 issue, artist Jean Veber excoriated the shameful subject of the concentration camps British forces used to weaken Boer resistance in the Anglo-Boer War of 18991902. The Origins of the Boxer Uprising(Berkeley: University of California Press, 1987). Colonial success is equated with chivalry and invincibility.. Rutgers, The State University of New Jersey (2014). On Chinas side, the Boxers were absorbed into the Qing government forces to fight the invaders. Wilhelm points ahead, where the inhabitants flee. The Manila Correspondent and the McKinley Censorship. George Benjamin Luts,The Verdict, August 21, 1899. 62, Issue 4,pp. From Tientsin to Peking with the Allied Forces. The divine right of kingshere, Wilhelm II, Emperor of Germany as a pompous war lord mounted on a colossal cannonis intermingled with the divine mission of clergy, often the first Westerners allowed into foreign lands. The U.S. conquest of the Philippines, coupled with the multi-nation Boxer intervention in China, prompted Twain to become an outspoken critic of America plunging into what he denounced as the European Game of overseas expansion. Scorched earth tactics destroyed scores of villages. The laudatory rhetoric and imagery of a white mans burden and civilizing mission received a sharp rejoinder in a cartoon published byLifein April, 1901 under the title March of the Strenuous Civilization. In this sardonic rendering of the realities of imperialist expansion, a missionary leads the charge holding a Missionary Ledger. Immediately behind him march a sword-brandishing sailor carrying loot and a rifle-bearing soldier carrying booty. Science comes next, clutching lyddite, a high explosive first used by the British in the Boer War. 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. Take up the White Mans burden The savage wars of peace Fill full the mouth of Famine, And bid the sickness cease; And when your goal is nearest (The end for others sought) Watch W. H. P. Signs of Promise.The Advocate of Peace, pp. 18, No. The war with the Boers (who were ethnically Dutch and Afrikaans-speaking) took place in the South African Republic (Transvaal) and Orange Free State. msotristate is ambiguous in the namespace 'microsoft office core. The caption applies the motto united we stand to the Anglo-Saxon brotherhood spreading Western civilization abroad. Now there are thirteen on this one street! In Library of Congress notes on this image, the seated figure on the left is identified as Minervathe Roman goddess of wisdom, arts, and commerce. The Battle of Omdurman in September 1898in which British forces retook the Sudan using Maxim machine guns to inflict disproportionate casualties on native Mahdi forceswas followed almost immediately by the Fashoda Crisis with France, in which the British asserted their control of territory around the upper Nile. China, shown gripping a schoolbook in the doorway, has not yet entered the scene. If you dont do it I shall have to. Udo Keppler,Puck, August 8, 1900. and Distributor, 2004). 77-99 (2011). Allied troops departed Tianjin for Beijing on August 4. America in the China Relief Expedition(Kansas City: Hudson-Kimberly publishing company, 1903). Around 1904 or 1905in another impassioned response to the American war in the Philippines (which officially ended in 1902 but in practice dragged on for many years thereafter)Twain penned a short essay titled The War Prayer. The essay is now regarded as an exemplary indictment of blind patriotism coupled with religious fanaticism. Supporters of imperialism in Europe and the United States believed that imperialism helped their colonies because it brought new technology and growth. In an 1898 two-page spread inPuck, female symbols of the two nations, Columbia and Britannia, meet as mother and daughter to celebrate their reunion After Many Years. Wearing archaic breastplates and helmets, with trident and sword, these outsized, archetypal crusaders helm modern warships. The French caption mocks British hypocrisy in officially praising the humanitarian behavior of their armed forces. The graphics protesting U.S. actions in the Philippines were particularly biting, as seen in a page satirically titled Lucky Filipinos. Rising from the flames of a burning home, a skeletal apparition represents the hundreds of thousands of Filipinos killed in the U.S. campaign. In May 1900, for example, artist William Bengough scathingly debunked a speech by President McKinleyonce again justifying the U.S. actions in taking of the Philippines by forceby depicting him as a parson standing on the face of a dead Filipino. On June 21 the Empress Dowager Cixi declared war on the Allied nations. The screen in the cartoon may refer to the early films that fed public fascination with China and the Boxer crisis, including Edisons recreation of the Bombardment of Taku Forts by the Allied Fleets (1900,view in the Library of Congress) and a four-minute British production that staged the murder of a missionary by Boxers called Attack on a China Mission (1900). 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. The feminine representations of imperial nations pictured here include Russia, Turkey, Italy, Austria, Spain, and France. 27-1-09 (July 6, 2009). John Bull Good evins! When a Chinese coolie strikes a French soldier the result is a public cry of Barbarity! But when a French soldier strikes a coolie, its a necessary blow for civilization. Ren Georges Hermann-Paul,Le Cri de Paris, July 10, 1899. Feng, Yongping, The Peaceful Transition of Power from the UK to the US.ChineseJournal of International Politics1 (1) pp. Le Silence (Concentration Camps in the Transvaal. 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. Although Wilhelm II was famous for introducing the concept of a yellow peril, Germanys major colonial possessions were in Africa. A Rival Who Has Come to Stay: Naval Power. The Boxers, China, and the World(Lanham: Rowman & Littlefield, 2007). Source:Library of Congress, In this 1902 cartoon, Britains Boer War and goals on the African continent are identified with the march of civilization and progress against barbarism. Uncle Sam was portrayed both with youthful energy and as a paternal older figure straining to follow in John Bulls footsteps as he took up the White Mans Burden., After Many Years: The Great Rapprochement. Confucius, Missionary banner (Allied forces flags): Whatsoever ye would that men should do to you do ye even so to them. An exceptionally vivid cartoon version of Kiplings message titled The White Mans Burden (Apologies to Rudyard Kipling) was published inJudgeon April 1, 1899. On June 17, while the fate of Seymour and his men remained unknown to the outside world, Allied navies attacked and captured the forts at Taku. Hevia, James Louis. Heine used the pages of Simplicissimusto denounce the atrocious conduct of Prussian troops during the Allied intervention in China, where the German forces obviously took to heart Wilhelm IIs exhortation to show no mercy. Miller, Bonnie M. The Image-Makers Arsenal in an Age of War and Empire, 1898 1899: A Cartoon Essay, Featuring the Work of Charles Bartholomew (of theMinneapolis Journal)and Albert Wilbur Steele (of theDenver Post). Journal of American Studies, 45, pp 53-75 (Cambridge University Press). Think It Over. From 1899 to 1902, the U.S. and Great Britain each became mired in colonial wars that were more vicious and long-lasting than expected. 1900. The Real White Mans Burden was published in 1902, after the Spanish-American war and it is a satire of another poem by British author Rudyard Kipling - The White Mans Burden. The backdrop to the scene, a large Map of the United States and Neighboring Countries, attests to the new position the U.S. has taken in the world, with its overseas territories marked by U.S. flags. Barbarism lies at the base of the mountain to be climbed by Uncle Sam and John Bullwith civilization far off at the hoped-for end of the journey, where a glowing figure proffers education and liberty. The fifth stanza of Kiplings poem refers to an ascent toward the light: Barbarisms companion attributes of backwardness, spelled out on the boulders underfoot, include oppression, brutality, vice, cannibalism, slavery, and cruelty. White Man's Burden: The social, religious and cultural excuses to justify imperialism and gunship diplomacy Posted on March 31, 2014 by JL Admin European imperialism of the last few centuries were heavily centered on the perceived moral responsibility of its leaders toward other supposedly backward regions of the world. In the French cartoon Leur rve (Their dream), the globe is portrayed as a victim carried on a stretcher. Imperial and Anti-Imperial Constructions of Civilisation: Engagements with Pre-Modern Pasts., Ricard, Serge. Each of the three major turn-of-the-century wars left a trail of contention in the visual record. Moral clarity aside, the parallel between America's pursuit of manifest destiny a century ago and its new global sense of mission has a lot to teach us. View White Man's Burden.pdf from HIST 1302 at San Antonio College. Columbia Studies in the Social Sciences (New York: Columbia University Press, 1955). The aggressive quest for new marketsChinas millions being the most covetedwas justified as part of the benevolent and inevitable spread of progress. 730-735 (2008). As early as mid 1899, for example,Lifecalled attention to the staggering death count among Filipinos with a cartoon titled The Harvest in the Philippines. It is now estimated that, all told, between 12,000 and 20,000 Filipino military perished in this conflict, as opposed to 4,165 killed on the U.S. side. Source:William H. Walker Cartoon Collection, Princeton University Library. The aggressors brought progress in the form of modern technology, communications, and Western dress and culture. It evoked both the fact that the bulk of the U.S. force was made up of units from the Midwestern states. New commodities also meant advances in weaponry that might give neighboring countriesin particular, Germanythe potential to strike Britain. In the U.S., pro-imperialist graphics created the image of robotic, unstoppable American soldiers stomping on foreign lands and towering over barefoot savages. This superiority, obviously leads to a moral responsibility of the superior to uplift and civilize the inferior. An exclamation point was added to the phrase, The White (!) 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western leaders perspective on the white man's burden