Excerpt from Cecil Rhodes' Confession of Faith (1877) |
DBQ: Document-Based Questions on the Era of Imperialism in World History - Scroll Down to Print (PDF) |
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| "I contend that we are the first race in the world, and the more of the world we inhabit, the better it is for the human race…. It is our duty to seize every opportunity of acquiring more territory and we should keep this one idea steadily before our eyes that more territory simply means more of the Anglo-Saxon race, more of the best, the most human, most honourable race the world possesses." |
Document-based questions: 1. Cecil Rhodes was responsible for British settlements in
southern Africa; the country of Rhodesia (now Zimbabwe) was even
named after him. Rhodes writes here that the human race is
improved by having greater numbers of Britons living throughout
the world. How might a native African react to this statement?
Explain. 2. Rhodes is expressing the view that the English are
Anglo-Saxons, and that Anglo-Saxons are the "best" race. This
sort of flawed logic regarding unscientific, biased views of
human beings (divided into "races"), became extremely popular as
imperialism grew. Why and how did racism grow as imperialism
grew? Click here to print. |
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