Question

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 White Man's Burden,"
Rudyard Kipling

According to this stanza, what is the purpose of imperialism?

to benefit colonial peoples
to benefit the most talented Europeans
to spread industrialization
to spread native cultures

Answer 1

to benefit colonial peoples

Kipling frames imperialism as a paternal "burden" to send your best to serve and civilize the "new-caught" peoples — a claimed duty to help (paternalistically) the colonized.