How did imperialists justify imperialism?

Key terms:
                  -Social Darwinism: theory that persons, groups, or races share subject to the same laws of natural selection that Charles Darwin had proposed

                  -Manifest Destiny: the nineteenth century doctrine that the United States had the God-given right to control the entire continent no matter how many native Americans were killed or displaced.

An example of how the United Sates justified their imperialism. 

        This picture is an example of what is called "American Exceptionalism". American Exceptionalism is the belief that America as a whole is generally superior to other cultures and nations. That by occupying a different nation and controlling their government they are actually improving that nation as a whole. This is shown in the political cartoon above. The cartoon states that before the United States invaded, the Philippines, Hawaii, Puerto Rico, Cuba, and Panama, were in a terrible state. But because of the invasions these countries were better off.

      American Exceptionalism was a springboard for another important theory, Manifest Destiny.
Around the 19th century US settlers began to move westward on a quest for land and riches. This was especially prominent during the Californian gold rush. This movement began to be viewed as an example that America had the God given right to control the continent, no matter of the consequences.

White Man's Burden

  By Rudyard Kipling 

Take up the White Man’s burden—

Send forth the best ye breed—

Go send your sons to exile

To serve your captives' need

To wait in heavy harness

On fluttered folk and wild—

Your new-caught, sullen peoples,

Half devil and half child

Take up the White Man’s burden

In patience to abide

To veil the threat of terror

And check the show of pride;

By open speech and simple

An hundred times made plain

To seek another’s profit

And work another’s gain

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?”

Take up the White Man’s burden-

Have done with childish days-

The lightly proffered laurel,

The easy, ungrudged praise.

Comes now, to search your manhood

Through all the thankless years,

Cold-edged with dear-bought wisdom,

The judgment of your peers!

   

    This poem is an example of Social Darwinism, was a phrase that was first coined by scientist Herbert Spencer. The theory proposes that human beings are governed by the same laws of natural selection that were proposed by Charles Darwin. The humans that prospered were genetically superior to others who weren't as successful. This theory as shown in the poem above gave genetically superior responsibility to go and conquer the genetically inferior for their own good. 

Works Cited and Other Sources:

Rudyard Kipling, “The White Man’s Burden: The United States & The Philippine Islands, 1899.” Rudyard Kipling’s Verse: Definitive Edition (Garden City, New York: Doubleday, 1929).