I found this story to be pretty obvious in its intent. It may be satire, but if it is then Twain does not do a very good job with it as far as I am concerned. He is criticizing Imperialism as a whole and condemns America's participation in it. At first I thought that the phrase "A Person Sitting in Darkness" might refer to the blacks that inhabited Africa, the most imperialistically active place in the world. After reading a ways into the story however, I came to realize that he wasn't referring to blacks, but to all "uncivilized beings" be them in China or Africa.
I think the thing that infuriates Twain the most and is most responsible for his writing this story is not the fact that America was an Imperial power, but that they first claimed to liberate the prospective nation and then openly went against their word and put them back under foreign rule.
So Twain refers to America as the Master of the game of imperialism (though I'm not sure why with the relatively few colonies they held), and he uses Great Britain (through the voice of Mr. Chamberlain) as the example that the US follows. I understand that Great Britain was the best at the capture of colonies, and everyone else at the time must have too. So why does Twain refer to America as the master of the game?
At one point, Great Britain controlled the largest empire the world had ever known. However, Take a look at a map (link: http://www1.assumption.edu/users/mcclymer/His130/P-H/burden/default.html) to see how much of the world was controlled by the European powers. In case you did not notice, this map is 1914. If you are paying reasonably close attention to Twain's essay, you realize that he has pointed to most of these European powers. It is easy to forget how different society was at this time. We will be talking a good bit more about it in class.
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