Barbarie Civilisation. Full caption: It's all a matter of perspective. Caption: Though the process be costly, the road to progress must be cut. The British had just subdued the Dutch-descended Boers, in southern Africa. A Red-Letter Day. The caption is ominous: War on Earth. Good Will to Nobody., The Poet, the President & The White Mans Burden, Rudyard Kiplings poem that begins with the line Take up the White Mans burden was published in the United States in the February, 1899 issue of McClures Magazine, as the American war against the First Philippine Republic began to escalate. At the same time, however, the suppression of The War Prayer helps highlight the courage and critical edge that many political cartoonists brought to the very same subject of spreading death and destruction in the name of civilization and progress. By the end of 1898, a succession of U.S. military successes and territorial acquisitions reinforced the image of the United States standing side by side with Great Britain in bringing civilization and peace to the world. Orig. The language obviously resonated with the Kipling-esque imagery of white men bringing enlightenment to new-caught sullen peoples, half-devil and half-child. People of darkness was, moreover, a perception that missionaries (whom Twain excoriated) routinely applied to the heathen natives of non-Christian lands. Source:Bibliothque nationale de France, In this cartoon from the French special issue on concentration camps in the Boer War, a gaunt Britannia is the only living creature in a vast graveyard for dead British soldiers. The image argues that a crisis point has been reached and the caption states, Some One Must Back Up., Some One Must Back Up. Victor Gillam,Judge, December 8, 1900. Additional images from the issue depict barbaric behavior by the multinational force that intervened in China during the Boxer Uprising. Does the artist portray imperialism in a positive or negative light? Although applicable for all exam boards the. Source: Bibliothque nationale de France, British soldiers laugh at the spectacle of Boer prisoners of war being shocked by an electric fence. Written over the battle clouds on the right, the Spanish-American War would have inspired the depiction of Columbia as an emerging military power. From the Cape to Cairo. All are erstwhile British soldiers. All this for politicsis civilization advancing? Victor Gillam,Judge, February 3, 1900. Source:Library of Congress. Estimates of civilian fatalities, on the other hand, range from 200,000 to possibly well over a million. Anticipated U.S. exports appear on signs that advertise the rich market awaiting American manufacturers. 13, No. More about Copyright and other Restrictions. 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. Three savage turn-of-the-century conflicts defined the milieu in which such rhetoric flourished: the Anglo-Boer War of 18991902 in South Africa; the U.S. conquest and occupation of the Philippines initiated in 1899; and the anti-foreign Boxer Uprising in China that provoked intervention by eight foreign nations in 1900. Good Will to Nobody.Life, January 4, 1900, Source: Widener Library, Harvard University, UnlikePuckandJudge, Life was often highly critical of U.S. overseas expansion. Purpose In this activity, you will analyze and then create cartoons about imperialism. The Origins of the Boxer War: A Multinational Study(London, New York: RoutledgeCurzon, 2003). President McKinley at the Conference of Foreign Missions. The fallen man clasps the flag of the Philippine independence movement, inscribed with the words Give Us Liberty. His hat quotes the most famous phrase in the U.S. Having purchased the Philippines from Spain per the Treaty of Paris for $20 million, the Americans then had to fight Filipino resisters to benevolent assimilation. The Philippine-American War dragged on with a large number of Filipino fatalities, shocking Americans unused to foreign wars. 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. From the Cape to Cairo / Keppler. But rivalries for commercial privileges never abated even when an eight-nation Allied military force was forged between the world powers in the summer of 1900. All of the hastily organized camps, for whites and blacks alike, had inadequate accommodations, wretched sanitation, and unreliable food supplies, leading to tens of thousands of deaths from disease and starvation. John Bull Good 'evins! 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. More about Copyright and other Restrictions. Selling Empire: American Propaganda and War in the Philippines.TheAsia-Pacific Journal, Vol. Initially, the camps were conceived as shelters for women and children war refugees. 5:00 at 202-707-6394, and Press 3. Wrapped in Kerosene-Soaked Cotton and Roasted to Death., In this same horrified mode, the July 28 cover of Harpers Weeklya publication that carried the subtitle A Journal of Civilizationdepicted demonic Boxers brandishing primitive weapons, carrying severed heads on pikes, and trampling a child wrapped in the American flag. If you dont do it I shall have to. Udo Keppler,Puck, August 8, 1900. In the Rubber Coils. From the Cape to Cairo / Keppler. Address of Pope Barrow to the Daughters of the American revolution. Is the item digitized? 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. Numbers 14-15 and 18-20 wanting. (1902) From the Cape to Cairo / Keppler. Sitemap The U.S. entered the elite group of world powers with victories in the Spanish-American War (written in the clouds over the naval battle on the right). U.S. First created by the Frenkel brothers in 1935, who, despite their limited . The large Map of the United States and Neighboring Countries is dotted with U.S. flags marking newly-acquired territories. 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. Source: Library of Congress. 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. 'From the Cape to Cairo: Though the process be costly, the road of progress must be cut', cartoon depicting British colonialism as a civilising force - 1902 . By contrast, with the exception of Sudan, the burden Britain bears reflects backward older cultures that look forward to civilization or back, condescendingly, at those people, cultures, and societies deemed even closer than they to barbarism. Both visually and textually, the white mans burden was steeped in derision of non-white, non-Western, non-Christian others. 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. Vol. 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. This special issue of LAssiette au Beurre drew particular attention to the brutal tactics adopted by the British in the Boer War, including herding the families of the Boer opponent into concentration camps. Indeed, the visual record was, in its unique way, more powerfulmore literally graphicthan words alone could ever be. How does the "Prelude to the Scramble" (Visual Source 18.1) differ from "From the Cape to Cairo" (Visual Source 18.3)?, 2. What did the public back home know about the fighting of these far-off wars? Who, they asked, was the real barbarian? Uneasiness over the idea of using force to govern a country was overcome by tracing the issue of consent back through recent history. 4, pp. 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. Library of Congress Prints and Photographs Division Washington, D.C. 20540 USA, ppmsca 25696 //hdl.loc.gov/loc.pnp/ppmsca.25696. Gambone described the portraits as, a testament to the weakness of McKinley, the overarching power of Hanna, and the Trust interests that supported expansion of American business into the Pacific.. The graphics include pillage, rape, and wanton executions. Given the rhetoric of civilizing uplift used to justify expansion, training was expected as part of the incorporation of new territories into the U.S. New commodities also meant advances in weaponry that might give neighboring countriesin particular, Germanythe potential to strike Britain. The cause of the explosion is still undetermined. Silence). 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. Case Study: The Boxer WarThe Boxer Uprising.Online Encyclopediaof Mass Violence(July 23, 2008). N.Y.: J. Ottmann Lith. The distance from Capetown to Cairo, as the crow flies, is about 4200 miles. ), the Boer prisoners were gathered in large enclosures where, for the last 18 months, they found rest and quiet. (doi:10.1017/S0021875810000046). N.Y.: J. Ottmann Lith. Kipling offered moral justification for the bloody war the U.S. was fighting to suppress the independent Philippine regime following Spanish rule. Gillams sub-caption is All this for politicsis civilization advancing?. As the cartoon record of these turn-of-the-century years repeatedly demonstrates, moreover, it was taken for granted by the imperialists that the people on whom they were bestowing the light of civilization were literallyand often grotesquelyof various shades of darker complexion. British armies had difficulty stopping mounted Boer commandos spread out over large areas of open terrain. 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. title not id. 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. Rudyard Kiplings famous poem The White Mans Burden was published in 1899, during a high tide of British and American rhetoric about bringing the blessings of civilization and progress to barbaric non-Western, non-Christian, non-white peoples. "To the Person Sitting in Darkness." - The Cape to Cairo Railway was an unfinished project to create a railway line crossing Africa from south to north. Auto-Truck of Civilization and Trade: the Asia Market. 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). Commodore Deweys victory in Manila Bay in May not only paved the way for U.S. conquest of the Philippines, but also provided a valuable naval base for U.S. fleets in the Pacific. The French leftwing magazine LAssiette au Beurre (The Butter Plate) had a substantive run from April, 1901 to October, 1912. Raising money to Save the Foreign Devils recurs in the visual record. 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). 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. If you dont do it I shall have to., The First Duty. in: Puck, v . English. And they complain that drunken American soldiers insult the native women. Civilization warns Chinas passive emperor to stop the Anarchy, Murder, and Riot spread by Boxer insurgentsvisualized as a dragon crawling over the city wallattacking missionaries, Chinese Christians, and Westerners. An iron railing through which an electric current runs is the healthiest and safest of fences. 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). Le Royaume-Uni (United Kingdom) Jean Veber,LAssiette au Beurre, September 28, 1901. White man's burden--1900-1910, - 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. On February 15, 1898, the battleship U.S.S. Backed by the formidable Royal Navy, Britain could maintain a policy of splendid isolation independent of European alliances for much of the century. [Read Online], Vaughan, Christopher. "Major Grogan's Moves," EAS (15 November 1919), 7. On the magazines cover for August 8, 1900, the familiar feminized and godlike personification of the West points at a slavering dragon, labeled Boxer, crawling over the wall of the capital city. (Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 1938). Pucks caricature of Germanys Bible-quoting Kaiser Wilhelm II ready to machine gun foreign non-believers captures the role of Christianity in turn-of-the-century Western imperialism. However, brutally repressive policies followed that included accusations of genocide. 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. Uncle Sam and his English cousin have the world between them. Victor Gillam,Judge, January 7, 1899. 730-735 (2008). The Maine had been dispatched to Cuba to support an indigenous insurrection against Spain. Whoever falls into your hands is forfeited. Quarto 377 pages. the Prints and Photographs Reading Room. But just take a look at the class ahead of you, and remember that, in a little while, you will feel as glad to be here as they are! Louis Dalrymple,Puck, January 25, 1899. Transatlantic dimensions of the American Anti-Imperialist Movement, 1899-1909.Journal of Transatlantic Studies. Includes bibliographical references and index. 2 vols. Anthropomorphizing nations and concepts meant that in an 1899 cartoon captioned The White Mans Burden, the U.S., as Uncle Sam, could be shown trudging after Britains John Bull, his Anglo-Saxon partner, carrying non-white nationsdepicted in grotesque racist caricaturesuphill from the depths of barbarism to the heights of civilization.