According to Kipling, what was the "White Man's Burden"?

The "White Man's Burden" was a paternalistic attitude taken by British imperialists towards indigenous people from Asia and Africa.  Kipling, an ardent British imperialist, thought that the British way of life was best.  He saw industrialism as the height of progress and British manners as the ideal way to act.  He wanted America, which before 1898 had mainly stayed on the North American continent, to expand its reach overseas in order to carry on this...

The "White Man's Burden" was a paternalistic attitude taken by British imperialists towards indigenous people from Asia and Africa.  Kipling, an ardent British imperialist, thought that the British way of life was best.  He saw industrialism as the height of progress and British manners as the ideal way to act.  He wanted America, which before 1898 had mainly stayed on the North American continent, to expand its reach overseas in order to carry on this "civilizing task."  In the poem "The White Man's Burden," Kipling shows the native people in these undeveloped countries as little children who need a country like Britain (or America) to show them the right way to live.  Just like little children, they may rebel and fight the colonists, but Kipling said that it was British duty to make these people learn Western ways.  America would use this poem in order to partially justify their imperialism before WWI.