What was the meaning of the expressions the white mans burden?
“White man’s burden” was a phrase originally coined by Rudyard Kipling in one of his poems. It was taken as a phrase to sum up imperialist thought through a Western-centric viewpoint. Essentially, it argues that whites had the right and obligation to rule over and try to improve “lesser” cultures by converting them to Western ways. For a parallel, look at the idea of being a “city upon a hill,” or any case of cultural imperialism.
