How does the poem "The White Man's Burden" relate to imperialism?

To be able to properly answer this question, it is important to know what imperialism means. According to the Merriam-Webster Dictionary, imperialism is "the policy, practice, or advocacy of extending the power and dominion of a nation especially by direct territorial acquisitions or by gaining indirect control over the political or economic life of other areas."

Rudyard Kipling was born in 1865 in India. At the time, England was one of the world's most imperialistic nations, and India was subjugated under and ruled by England. Kipling left India when he was five years old to obtain his education in the United Kingdom. He then returned to India as a journalist, so he experienced England's imperialism firsthand both as a child and as an adult.

Kipling was a great proponent of imperialism, believing in the obligation of white civilizations to educate and improve what he considered lesser third-world peoples. There is evidence of this in "The White Man's Burden," when he calls native people "half devil and half child," "those ye better," and "silent sullen peoples." To Kipling, what he refers to as the white man's burden is the obligation of imperialism. He considers it a necessary sacrifice that white people must make to send their sons into exile, work for the well-being of the people they have conquered, put up with the resentment and hatred of their oppressed subjects, and even die in faraway lands for a supposedly noble cause.

This poem was originally titled "The White Man's Burden: The United States and the Philippine Islands." It is an exhortation to the government and people of the United States to become an imperialist power over the people of the Philippines, just as England has become such a power over India and numerous other territories. To Kipling, imperialism was not just an option but rather a moral obligation.

This poem relates to imperialism because it is a warning to the United States about what it should expect when it sets out to become an imperial power.  Kipling felt that the US was embarking on its first real imperial action when it took control of the Philippines after the Spanish-American War.  As a British person, Kipling felt that he knew what having an empire entailed.  He was warning the Americans of the problems involved with having an empire.

According to Kipling, an imperial power is in for a very hard time.  It is going to have to work very hard to try to bring civilization to the people it conquers.  The imperial power is told to

Go bind your sons to exile
To serve your captives' need;
To wait in heavy harness…

What all of this means is that the work of civilizing the imperialized peoples will be very difficult.  In addition, it will be a very thankless task.  The imperial power will have to work hard to

Fill full the mouth of Famine
And bid the sickness cease;

Even as it works hard, it will not see the benefit of what it does.  Instead, Kipling warns that

And when your goal is nearest
The end for others sought,
Watch sloth and heathen Folly
Bring all your hopes to nought.

In short, what this poem is doing is warning the United States about what Kipling sees as the perils and difficulties of imperialism.  For this reason, it is very closely connected to imperialism.

How does the poem "The White Man's Burden" portray imperialized people?

This is certainly a very controversial poem. The writer views the imperialized people as devoid of wisdom and true purpose in life.

In the poem, the writer states that the white man's efforts will be met with little appreciation. He laments that the white man's burden consists of thankless work: the task of supposedly freeing the imperialized people from their ignorance and spiritual degradation, which is met with "blame," "hate," and the "cry of hosts."

Take up the White Man’s burden—
And reap his old reward:
The blame of those ye better
The hate of those ye guard—
The cry of hosts ye humour
(Ah slowly) to the light:
"Why brought ye us from bondage,
“Our loved Egyptian night?”

The writer views the imperialized people as helpless and needy creatures who need to be saved from themselves. He seems utterly convinced that the latter are hybrid creatures, both diabolical and naive in nature ("half devil and half child"). The writer admits that saving the imperialized people from themselves will be a difficult undertaking. However, he maintains that the white man must persevere in his efforts. He must put aside his desire for "The lightly proffered laurel, / The easy, ungrudged praise" and instead, pursue the thankless work of reforming a backward people.

Certainly, the poem is at once insulting as well as eye-opening. 

The writer's attitudes were common for his time. The work of imperializing the Third World was considered a genuine mission of mercy, one that sought "another's profit" and worked "another's gain." This poem, although controversial, reveals a rationale behind European empire-building.

In “The White Man’s Burden,” Rudyard Kipling takes a very negative view of imperialized people. He clearly thinks that they are inferior to white people and have many shortcomings.  Let us look at things he says to describe them in this poem.

In the first stanza, he calls them “fluttered folk and wild” as well as “half-devil and half-child.  This shows us pretty well what he thinks about imperialized people.  They are not quite human, being partly devil. Even to the extent that they are people, they are very immature and uncivilized.  They are “wild,” showing that they are uncivilized in his eyes. They are also “fluttered,” which implies that they are flighty and not very serious or mature. This same idea is conveyed when he says that they are half-child.

In the third stanza, Kipling says that the imperialized people display “sloth and heathen folly.  Sloth is laziness, so he is saying these people do not want to work.  He also says that they are foolish. Finally, in calling them “heathen,” he is using a term that implies that they are not civilized.

In the fifth stanza, Kipling calls the imperialized people “those ye (the British and Americans) better.”  In saying this, he is explicitly saying that the imperialized people are not as good as the white people.  In the rest of the stanza, he says that these are people who prefer to be ignorant, saying that they would rather live in their “loved Egyptian night.”

In all of these ways, Kipling shows that he has a low opinion of the imperialized people.  He thinks that they are lazy, immature, uncivilized, and possibly not fully human.

Imperialized or colonized people in the Philippines (and elsewhere) are viewed in "The White Man's Burden" as inferior people who need to be taught the benefits of white, European civilization. Kipling in this poem characterizes native peoples as "sullen," childlike, "half devils," and primitive. Their religious beliefs are dismissed as heathenish, and their own culture is seen as having no value.

According to Kipling, the colonized are not grateful for the sacrifices the white man takes on in trying to civilize them. Nevertheless, Kipling urges whites to assume this thankless duty as their "burden." Even if the natives threaten them with terror, the whites should persist in the task of teaching these lesser peoples the ways of white culture and religion.

Kipling shows very little capacity, if any, to view the colonial experience from the point of the view of the colonized, who did not want foreign invaders to take over their land or disrupt their culture. He does not seem to realize that the natives might question the assumptions of European cultural superiority.

What is the author's view of imperialism in the poem "The White Man's Burden"?

To the author of this poem, imperialism is a very difficult task that white people are called on to undertake.  Imperialism forces them to work hard to help other people (wait in heavy harness on fluttered folk and wild).  It forces them to do this even though the people will still hate them and will not appreciate what they do.

So imperialism is a difficult duty.  White people have to go out and civilize the world because that is the white man's burden.  It is sort of like being a parent -- not always easy, not always appreciated, but it's your duty.