Even colonial experts privately called the civilizing mission utilitarian egoism masquerading as philanthropy

Evidence

We proclaim ourselves the universal educator of these primitive peoples whose capacity for producing and consuming we wish to increase, out of utilitarian egoism masquerading under the name of philanthropy or social responsibility. Officially this process is called civilizing, and after all, the term is apt, since the undertaking serves to increase the degree of prosperity of our civilization. — Alice L. Conklin, A Mission to Civilize_ The Republican…, 194

Categorization

• XREF: Echoes anti-imperialist critiques familiar from later postcolonial scholarship; connects to reader’s broader theme of how civilizing rhetoric masked extraction.