Nott gave this lecture in the United States 35 years before the official beginning of colonialism. Nott, a medical doctor, goes on to assert that the black, white, and “red” races are categorically different from one another and could not possibly be related. According to a lecture given the USA, 35 years before the official start of colonialism, the so-called inferiority of Africans was evident in the “deep-rooted intellectual and physical differences seen around us, in the White, Red, and Black Races, are too obvious and too important in their bearings, to be longer overlooked…”(Nott 3). Africans were considered culturally inferior, an idea that was supported by scientific racism. The sentiments expressed in “White Man’s Burden” were not uncommon during this time. It was Kipling’s belief that Africans must be pulled toward the “light” in order to see the error of their, in his view, savage nature. Kipling bemoans that the African people will come “slowly to the light” and would lament their release from “bondage.” In essence, Kipling believed that these non-white racial groups were so backward that they would be unable to comprehend the benefits of Europeanization.
The lines following this initial declaration reveal the prevailing attitude in regards to how such a civilizing mission would proceed. The idea of the White Man’s Burden was to better (“seek another’s profit”) an ostensibly backward people (anyone who was not white). Fifteen years following the Berlin Conference, the supposed imperative of civilizing non-whites was expressed in Rudyard Kipling’s poem published in 1899 in McClure’s Magazine entitled “White Man’s Burden”: One of the justifying principles behind colonialism was the need to civilize the purportedly backward peoples of Africa. In 1884, the Berlin Conference marked the official beginning of colonialism in Africa. The philosophy underpinning the “White Man’s Burden” consisted of the “Three C’s of Colonialism: Civilization, Christianity, and Commerce.” Map of Colonial Africa However, the leaders spearheading the movement cited the “white man’s burden,” a term popularized in Rudyard Kipling’s poem to morally justify imperialist expansion. In reality, European colonization devastated traditional African societies and economies. As the imperial powers of Europe set their sights on new geographic regions to expand their spheres of influence in the 19 th century, Africa emerged as a prime location for colonization due to its wealth of natural resources and purportedly undeveloped economies ripe for exploitation.
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