The “Scientific” Roots: Nineteenth-Century Racism

Abstract

Not all racists were imperialists, nor were all imperialists racists of the most radical variety; but racism pervaded nineteenth-century European thought about the world overseas. From the 1870’s into the 1920’s and beyond, virtually every European concerned with imperial theory or imperial administration believed that physical racial appearance was an outward sign of inborn propensities, inclinations, and abilities. The selections that follow are therefore far too few to be truly representative, but they illustrate some of the common tendencies of the period.¹