"Kipling-esque" captures it perfectly. There's room for true nobility and heroism on all scales, but also lots of exploitation, sometimes excused as the burden of bringing (imposing) civilization (our government and religion, plus unfavorable terms for you in both) to the benighted savages (people at a slightly lower tech level than you). "The Man Who Would Be King" could be made into a Traveller adventure with virtually no changes at all.
Speaking of which, there's a beautiful, entirely apocryphal story from the British Raj that I've always thought had the sound of a good Traveller adventure. A coastal Indian principality, recently and tenuously brought under British rule, has been stirring up trouble with its neighbors. Unfortunately, there are a dozen ongoing crises on the subcontinent at the time, and Her Majesty's armed forces are spread very thin. So a single gunboat is dispatched to the kingdom, carrying an ambassador. The captain of the ship and the ambassador are given the same orders: If negotiation can bring the prince to heel, then all well and good; but if not, they are to withdraw without further action.
So the gunboat anchors in the harbor, with a nice line of fire to the prince's palace. The ambassador comes ashore and gets his meeting with the prince, laying out the case for ceasing to cause trouble in the region. The prince listens, and then asks "And if I refuse?"
The ambassador bows his head gravely, gesturing toward the harbor. "Then the captain of that ship will be forced to carry out the second part of his orders."
The prince backs down, and the day is saved for England. :)