The poem ‘White Man’s Burden’ focuses on the support of the United States’ intention to colonize the Philippines, but had cultural implications extending beyond that particular conflict. The white man’s burden was used to justify imperial policies as it "helped" traditional cultures become integrated into the modern, European cultural and economic world. By depicting traditional cultures as "backwards," imperial powers attempted to justify policies that destroyed traditional ways of life were justified in the pursuit of progress. By figuring their imperialist plundering in this manner, European colonizers were thus the burdened party, doing what needed to be done, as opposed to, say, violent, greedy imperialist forces pillaging countries and murdering the inhabitants for natural resources and trade goods.

The British colonial rule of India lasted from 1858 to 1947. The British Raj was run by the Viceroy to India, representing the British Crown and was served by a coalition of Indian Princes, loyal to the crown. The mid-19th century marked the height of power for the British Empire with wealth extraction from India providing a great boon for British coffers. The British not only extracted wealth from India, but set up a colony that imposed British society, administration, and culture upon the native populations.

Between 1865-1909 King Leopold II ruled Congo Free State as a megalomaniacal foreign ruler. During his control of this territory, he approved for the use of brutal tactics to force the local populations to extract rubber, ivory, and minerals from the land. There are estimates that between 2 and 10 million people died in Congo Free State during King Leopold II’s rule.

The Berlin West Africa Conference was held in Berlin to outline the rules for colonization of the African continent. The conference produced rules on how to claim land and trade regulations for the region. The conference highlighted justifications for colonization that included bringing religion and European civilization to the region, points related to the "white man’s burden." No Africans represented African interests at the conference.

French Indochina, officially known as the Indo-Chinese Federation was a grouping of French colonial possessions in Southeast Asia. The three countries that made up this territory, as they are known today, are Vietnam, Cambodia, and Laos. The countries of this territory eventually gained independence in 1954 after a tumultuous century of French rule marked by foreign aggressions and internal rebellions.

The Italian invasion of Ethiopia in 1895 was a huge failure. The Italian army expected they would easily defeat the army of Ethiopian ruler Menelik II. Full scale war erupted in 1895 and the Italians were defeated in 1896. Ethiopia was one of the only regions in Africa to remain independent of colonial rule during this period. In 1935 Italy launched another invasion of Ethiopia and successfully occupied the territory on this attempt.

Direct imperial rule employed citizens of the colonial power to oversee all government and market functions. Direct rule employed strict management of law and order and divided naturally aligned kin groups to disrupt potentially powerful rebellions. Direct rule was characteristic of French and Belgian colonies.

Indirect imperial rule was a hybrid system that used a blend of strong foreign influence and well educated indigenous elites to rule a population. The purpose of this type of rule was to provide some agency to locals while attempting to indoctrinate them with the ruling power’s political philosophy. This type of rule was seen in many British colonies, though it led to future conflicts in some colonies and was abandoned in others in favor of direct imperial rule.

James Cook landed on the Australian coast in 1770. Within two decades, the British came back to settle the land, using it as a penal colony. The land masses of Australia and New Zealand eventually became a colony for ordinary citizens as well as prisoners. The settlers wiped out mass numbers of indigenous people on these lands through warfare and disease.

The Dutch exploration of Indonesia started with the Dutch East India Trading company, who extracted spices from the islands. In the 1800s, the lands controlled by the Dutch East India Trading company came under the control of the Dutch government. The period of colonization of Indonesia by the Dutch is marked by accusations of democide in genocide, most notably in the late 1800s where the Dutch army is accused of massacring the Aceh people on the island of Sumatra.