Well known as a poet and the author of The Jungle Book, among other tales, British author and unapologetic imperialist Rudyard Kipling commemorated the United States’ acquisition of the Philippines as a colony in 1899 with the poem titled “The White Man’s Burden: The United States and the Philippine Islands.” Kipling celebrated America joining the ranks of other Western nations as an imperial power tasked with the responsibility of “civilizing” the generally darker-skinned inhabitants of colonies located in Asia, Africa, and Latin America with the building of schools and hospitals, promotion of Christianity, and establishment of modern Western government. This purported “burden” seemingly obscured the access to raw materials, expanding markets, and increased prestige that colonization provided the Western empires.