Teresa Lee

Abstract

Imperialism has existed under many different names and for a variety of purposes from the colonization of the " New World " to the contemporary spread of American freedom in the Middle East. Imperialism has grown new faces to accommodate changing world sentiments and evolved to better suit national values. Yet, the underlying establishment on which imperialism survives and flourishes remains fundamentally the same. While imperialism utilizes specific instruments for the oppression and aggressive governing of other peoples, it also requires the approval and encouragement from the citizens at home in order to succeed. Particularly, the intellect and conscience of the imperialist nation need to be convinced of the imperialist cause. In essence, people support imperialism from behind an illusion of concrete " knowledge " and justifying " morality ". Specifically, the old imperialism of the nineteenth (and part of the twentieth) century was made possible behind the knowledge of scientific racism, as studied in Matthew Jacobson's Barbarian Virtues, and selfless humanity, as expressed by Rudyard Kipling's " The White Man's Burden ". In my paper, I intend to highlight how Chinua Achebe's novel Things Fall Apart exposes and dismisses the imperialist reason investigated by Jacobson and exercised by Kipling. It is important to note that Jacobson explores the knowledge of imperialism from an outside, academic perspective, whereas Kipling actually participates in the old imperialist reason. Achebe illustrates two types of white conquerors: an anthropological Commissioner and the preaching missionaries. The characters represent the intellectual and moral justifications of imperialism presented by Jacobson and Kipling, respectively. Published in the 1950s during the height of 1