Contrasting POV: Imperialist vs. Indigenous
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The Age of Imperialism
Lesson Plans by John Gillis
During the 19th and early 20th centuries, European powers set out to develop global empires and their efforts were largely successful. Imperialism reorganized international politics and had a major impact on the development of the global south.
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Storyboard Description
The History of Imperialism - Imperialist vs. Indigenous Point of View
Storyboard Text
- European Imperialist View
- Rudyard Kipling
- Africa
- British Parliament
- China
- Opium [is] probably less harmful thangin, and anyway it [is] the Chinese whoinsist[ed] on smoking it…
- Lord Kitchener
- India
- It is this consciousness of the inherent superiority of the European which has won for us India. However well educated and clever a native may be, and however brave he may prove himself, I believe that no rank we can bestow upon him would cause him to be considered an equal of the British officer.
- Indigenous View
- Kipling's poem encouraged the feeling that imperialism in places like Africa was a noble duty.
- Chief Machemba
- Take up the White Man's burden, Send forth the best ye breed Go bind 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.
- The idea that Britain had the right to export opium to China - a drug that was illegal in their own nation- is justified in this quote by British Prime Minister William Melbourne.
- Commissioner Lin Zexu
- The overt racism in Kitchener's view of India was common. This assumption of superiority guided policy-making in British India.
- Ram Mohan Roy
- I have listened to your words but can find no reason why I should obey you -- I would rather die first. If it should be friendship that you desire, then I am ready for it, today and always; but to be your subject, that I cannot be. I do not fall at your feet, for you are God's creature just as I am.
- Let us ask, where is your conscience? I have heard that the smoking of opium is very strictly forbidden in your country; that is because the harm caused by opium is clearly understood.
- The British Occupation is not ideal, but certainly some of the ideas of Europe are preferable to our antiquated ways.
- Image Attributions:TajMahal (https://www.flickr.com/photos/bbalaji/2554202841/) - Balaji Photography - 2,800,000 Views and Growing - License: Attribution (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0/)Dar es Salaam (https://www.flickr.com/photos/frankdouwes/3549914476/) - frankdouwes - License: Attribution (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0/)Forbidden City, Beijing (https://www.flickr.com/photos/ivanwalsh/4317317349/) - IvanWalsh.com - License: Attribution (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0/)kanji_peace_peace-PHOTOS-OLGA-LEDNICHENKO-PEACE-WORLD-IMAGES (https://www.flickr.com/photos/olga-lednichenko-photos-albums-images/6417934141/) - lednichenkoolga - License: Attribution (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0/)
- This famous quote from Chief Machemba of the Yao tribe is a good example of the enlightened intellect of many African leaders. Machemba is addressing a German military commander.
- In this letter to Queen Victoria, Government official Lin Zexu points out the hypocrisy of the British opium trade. The letter was ignored, and the British launched a military campaign.
- Ram Mohun Roy despised the British as a young man. Eventually he decided that some of the cultural practices in India like Sati and arranged child marriages were inferior to the British.
Image Attributions
- Dar es Salaam - frankdouwes - (License Attribution )
- Forbidden City, Beijing - IvanWalsh.com - (License Attribution )
- kanji_peace_peace-PHOTOS-OLGA-LEDNICHENKO-PEACE-WORLD-IMAGES - lednichenkoolga - (License Attribution )
- TajMahal - Balaji Photography - 2,800,000 Views and Growing - (License Attribution )
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