What Role Did Scientific Racism Play in the Internal and External Politics of Late Nineteenth-Century European States?
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- Date Submitted: 05/03/2011 03:39 AM
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What Role Did Scientific Racism Play in the Internal and External Politics Of Late Nineteenth-century European States?
The British imperialist expansion is great evidence of the role scientific racism played in the politics of late nineteenth century European states. It can be argued that race is a fundamental aspect of some of the most important social, political and cultural developments of the 18th century through to the present. Through the 19th century there was a growing national obsession and debate over the idea of how race affected the politics of the European imperialists.
As European powers expanded through their colonial campaigns the notion of race became more prevalent, increased interactions as a result of imperial expansion encouraged constant comparisons between Europeans and other races. Law and science were then used to argue that characteristics such as skin colour or facial structure was a window on internal characteristics like intelligence and how civilised a race is. Skulls were measured in attempts to find a scientific answer to why non white Europeans were superior. These skulls went on to go to museums all over Britain and compared with what they believed to be more evolved European skulls, all in an attempt to show the people back home that these natives or blacks are not fully human. Scholars argued that European imperial powers used a distortion of social Darwinism to abdicate European responsibility moral responsibility for their actions throughout the 19th century. Robert Knox describes race as “everything” in terms of many social and political aspects of the 19th century including many of the working class revolutions. This interest in race developed into racial science in the 19th century. Scientific racism is the findings and methods to investigate differences between races. The European powers often used science to support or validate racist attitudes and worldviews. Scientific ideas and racism resulted in the Politics of...
The British imperialist expansion is great evidence of the role scientific racism played in the politics of late nineteenth century European states. It can be argued that race is a fundamental aspect of some of the most important social, political and cultural developments of the 18th century through to the present. Through the 19th century there was a growing national obsession and debate over the idea of how race affected the politics of the European imperialists.
As European powers expanded through their colonial campaigns the notion of race became more prevalent, increased interactions as a result of imperial expansion encouraged constant comparisons between Europeans and other races. Law and science were then used to argue that characteristics such as skin colour or facial structure was a window on internal characteristics like intelligence and how civilised a race is. Skulls were measured in attempts to find a scientific answer to why non white Europeans were superior. These skulls went on to go to museums all over Britain and compared with what they believed to be more evolved European skulls, all in an attempt to show the people back home that these natives or blacks are not fully human. Scholars argued that European imperial powers used a distortion of social Darwinism to abdicate European responsibility moral responsibility for their actions throughout the 19th century. Robert Knox describes race as “everything” in terms of many social and political aspects of the 19th century including many of the working class revolutions. This interest in race developed into racial science in the 19th century. Scientific racism is the findings and methods to investigate differences between races. The European powers often used science to support or validate racist attitudes and worldviews. Scientific ideas and racism resulted in the Politics of...