The white man's true burden: his ego

The various rulers of Europe all competed for the best imperial possessions. Many sought-after locations, such as Africa, brought little value to the home country, but no ruler wanted to miss out and lose an opportunity to improve their economy. Europeans saw the Africans, Chinese, and other foreigners as uncivilized and barbaric. However, these “barbarians” saw the Europeans in the same light- as savage and cruel. For the Europeans, using violence to civilize tribes was seen as a means to end. The Europeans didn’t see themselves as violent, they were simply “taming the beast”.

No one wanted to be left behind in the scramble of Africa. This goes to explain the impetuousness of Kaiser Willy. He was envious of the other countries and their acquisitions of new land, and he scrambled to join them and keep the balance of power equal between all of them. Bismarck, AKA Henry Clay reincarnated, makes a reappearance in this chapter to vie for lands in Africa. Originally, he viewed the African colonies as wasteful and unnecessary to the European economy. But Bismarck could be classified as a megalomaniac, although he was more obsessed with securing power for his state than for himself. This is why he changed his opinion on the usefulness of African colonies. He, like Kaiser Willy, didn’t want his country to fall behind economically or territorially.

Different than what was done in previous years, the colonization of new lands at this time also entailed civilizing and teaching the natives there. Many were inspired to migrate because of a missionary zeal or the disillusioned “white man’s burden” that it was the white man’s job to make everyone as awesome as them.

How all the missionaries felt about their work in these new colonies:

Countries got involved in investing their extra capital abroad because they had an excess of money. They did this instead of wasting their extra income on material goods, Inversely, Europeans migrated to different countries because they had a lack of money and needed to find more available jobs.

But why did foreigners migrate into Europe if they were against the presence of Europeans in their own countries? It’s simple: they went for the same reasons that Europeans migrated into their land: better opportunity, more jobs, and also economic freedom. The Europeans’ reaction to their arrival, as could be expected, was quite poor. It was even said that it would be better to allow flocks of sheep to vote than to let the Chinese partake in elections.

Rapid Review: 4 main reasons causes of World War I:

1.     Arms race between European countries, especially between Britain and Germany (Kaiser Willy threatened Britain by increasing the German naval presence)

2.     Imperialism

3.     Nationalism

4.     Alliances