Read this excerpt from Rudyard Kipling's poem "The White Man's Burden" and then answer the question that follows:

Take up the White Man's burden -
Send forth the best ye breed -
Go, bind your sons to exile
To serve your captives' need;
To wait, in heavy harness,
On fluttered folk and wild -
Your new-caught, sullen peoples,
Half devil and half child.

Take up the White Man's burden -
In patience to abide,
To veil the threat of terror
And check the show of pride;
By open speech and simple,
An hundred times made plain,
To seek another's profit
And work another's gain.

According to the poem, how did the imperial powers justify the colonization of African and Asian nations?

A. The imperial powers believed that they would eventually be able to bring democracy to Africa and Asia.
B. The imperial powers believed that they could use African and Asian territory as military bases.
C. The imperial powers believed that they were spreading a superior culture in Africa and Asia.
D. The imperial powers believed that they needed African and Asian resources to grow their economies.