The History Cat: Age of Imperialism: European Imperialism

The White Man's Burden was another name for Imperialism. It was an ethnocentric idea that emerged from Darwin's Theory of Evolution to explain why white people were living in what they believed were more advanced civilizations than people of color. It was used to justify Europeans' efforts to colonize other parts of the world in a misguided belief that they were improving the lives of the colonized people.