The Philippines are ours forever. They are not capable of self-government. How could they be? They are not a self-governing race.
I contend that we are the finest race in the world and that the more of the world we inhabit the better it is for the human race. Just fancy those parts that are at present inhabited by the most despicable specimens of human beings what an alteration there would be if they were brought under Anglo-Saxon influence, look again at the extra employment a new country added to our dominions gives.
Despotism is a legitimate mode of government in dealing with barbarians, provided the end be their improvement.
The law has no claim to human respect. It has no civilizing mission; its only purpose is to protect exploitation.
Providence has given the United States the duty of extending Christian civilization. We come as ministering angels, not despots.
As our commerce spreads, the flag of liberty will circle the globe and the highway of the ocean–carrying trade to all mankind–will be guided by the guns of the republic. And as their thunders salute the flag, benighted people will know the voice of liberty is speaking, at last, for them ... that civilization is dawning at last, for them.
I repeat that superior races have a right [to establish colonies], because they have a duty. They have the duty to civilize inferior races.
I believed that English-speaking people had a divine mission to civilize the world by making it western, democratic and Christian.
The Philippines are ours forever. We will not repudiate our duty in the archipelago. We will not abandon our opportunity in the Orient. We will not renounce our part in the mission of our race, trustee, under God, of the civilization of the world. He has marked the American people as His chosen nation to finally lead in the regeneration of the world. This is the divine mission of America.
The first Western attempt to save Africa from itself was in the late 19th century. It was led by Christian missionaries who claimed to be seeking to end poverty, disease and the slave trade.
I contend that we are the first race in the world, and that the more of the world we inhabit the better it is for the human race... If there be a God, I think that what he would like me to do is paint as much of the map of Africa British Red as possible...
Every empire, however, tells itself and the world that it is unlike all other empires, that its mission is not to plunder and control but to educate and liberate.
For centuries, Europeans dominated the African continent. The white man arrogated to himself the right to rule and to be obeyed by the non-white; his mission, he claimed, was to "civilize" Africa. Under this cloak, the Europeans robbed the continent of vast riches and inflicted unimaginable suffering on the African people.
I went down on my knees and prayed to Almighty God for light and guidance and one night late it came to me this way. We could not leave (the Philippines) to themselves-they were unfit for self-government-and they would soon have anarchy and misrule over there worse than Spain's was. There was nothing left for us to do but take them all and educate the Filipinos, and uplift and Christianize them.
Remember, imperialism is always presented as humanitarian: the white man's burden, the cross going round the world, the poor benighted natives, the sun never sets. . . So you have to be very careful about humanitarianism.
The aspiration to such uniformity and order alerts us to the fact that modern statecraft is largely a project of internal colonization, often glossed, as it is in its imperial rhetoric, as a 'civilizing mission'.
To open to civilization the only part of our globe where it has yet to penetrate, to pierce the darkness which envelops whole populations, it is I dare to say, a crusade…
Referring to European colonization of Africa.
