The Opium War

The opium war was a war between Great Britain and China that began in 1839 as a conflict over the opium trade and ended in 1842 with the Chinese session of Hong Kong to the British, and opening of five Chinese ports to foreign merchants, and the grant of other commercial and diplomatic privileges in the Treaty of Nanking.The captains of the defeated Chinese junks feared that their failure would be viewed by higher authorities as a disgraceful act of cowardice. The captains therefore reported to Commissioner Lin that they had won a victory and had sunk a British ship.The British won.

The White Man's Burden

The poem is tryin to say that white people dont rule people not just for the honor or pride. They thought its more of thier job or thier duty to rule other countries and civilize them. According to them they had to do it and they were doing it. it wasnt that easy but they kept on conquering. they wanted everyone to be like them. they belived thier race was the best and they wanted it to stay that way so they started ruling other races so they always stay on the top . they said ruling wasnt always wasnt this easy you cans say it was like a burden. they had a responsibilty of all the countrys they were ruling so they cant make no mistakes or they will loose the control on them so it was like a heavy burden on them and this is what the poem is trying to say