Editing New Imperialism (section)

===Humanitarianism===
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One of the biggest motivations behind New Imperialism was the idea of [[humanitarianism]] and "civilizing" the "lower" class people in Africa and in other undeveloped places. This was a religious motive for many Christian missionaries, in an attempt to save the souls of the "uncivilized" people, and based on the idea that European Christians were morally superior. Most of the missionaries that supported imperialism did so because they felt the only "true" religion was their own. Similarly, French, Spanish and Italian Catholic missionaries opposed the Protestant British, German, and American missionaries. At times, however, imperialism did help the people of the colonies because the missionaries ended up stopping slavery in some areas. Therefore, Europeans claimed that they were only there because they wanted to protect the weaker tribal groups they conquered. The missionaries and other leaders suggested that they should stop such "savage" practices as [[Human cannibalism|cannibalism]], [[idolatry]] and [[child marriage]]. This humanitarian ideal was described in poems such as the ''White Man's Burden'' and other literature.

In many instances, the humanitarianism was sincere, but often with misguided choices. Although some imperialists were trying to be sincere with the notion of humanitarianism, at times their choices might not have been best for the areas they were conquering and the natives living there. As a result, some modern [[Historical revisionism|historical revisionists]] have suggested that new imperialism was driven more by the idea of racial and cultural [[supremacism]], and that claims of "humanitarianism" were either insincere or used as pretexts for territorial expansion.<ref>[[Winks, Robin W.]] "Imperialism." ''[[Encyclopedia Americana]]''. Grolier Online, 2010. Web. 18 November 2010.</ref>