Skip to main content

Racism from the Enlightenment to the Age of Imperialism

  • Chapter
Racism and Colonialism

Part of the book series: Comparative Studies in Overseas History ((CSOH,volume 4))

Abstract

Whatever may be the differences of opinion as regards racism, its origin, the principal factors that led to its acceptance and even the use of the term itself, with its biological connotations, to describe an entirely sociological phenomenon, it will be generally agreed that in its modern form, as a value-judgement bailed out by science, racism goes back to the eighteenth century. In this chapter, I will describe how these arrogant notions were translated, with the establishment of anthropology, inti scholarly language. Considering the immensity of the field of study, I will limit myself to the history of ideas and not hesitate to reveal the extravagances of some figureheads of the Enlightenment who are all too often left concealed.

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this chapter

Subscribe and save

Springer+ Basic
$34.99 /Month
  • Get 10 units per month
  • Download Article/Chapter or eBook
  • 1 Unit = 1 Article or 1 Chapter
  • Cancel anytime
Subscribe now

Buy Now

Chapter
USD 29.95
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Available as PDF
  • Read on any device
  • Instant download
  • Own it forever
eBook
USD 129.00
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Available as EPUB and PDF
  • Read on any device
  • Instant download
  • Own it forever
Softcover Book
USD 169.99
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Compact, lightweight edition
  • Dispatched in 3 to 5 business days
  • Free shipping worldwide - see info
Hardcover Book
USD 169.99
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Durable hardcover edition
  • Dispatched in 3 to 5 business days
  • Free shipping worldwide - see info

Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout

Purchases are for personal use only

Institutional subscriptions

Preview

Unable to display preview. Download preview PDF.

Unable to display preview. Download preview PDF.

Similar content being viewed by others

References

  1. Oeuvres, ed. Moland, vol. 12, p. 192.

    Google Scholar 

  2. Cf. Les discourse secrets de Himmler aux généraux S.S., notamment le discours de Posnanie du 4 Octobre 1943.

    Google Scholar 

  3. Oeuvres, vol. 11, p. 7.

    Google Scholar 

  4. Oeuvres choisies... du prince de Ligne (Geneva, 1809), vol. 1, p. 48.

    Google Scholar 

  5. J. Roger, Les sciences de la vie dans la pensée du XVIHe siècle (Paris, 1963), p. 558 et passim.

    Google Scholar 

  6. “Histoire naturelle de l’Homme”, in Histoire naturelle..., vol. 3 (Paris, 1749).

    Google Scholar 

  7. Ibid., “De la dégénération des animaux”, pp. 311–74.

    Google Scholar 

  8. Ibid., pp. 374–75.

    Google Scholar 

  9. Sylvain Zac, “Kant et le probleme du judaisme”, Les nouveaux cahiers (Paris) 49 (1977):33

    Google Scholar 

  10. Cf. Vermischte Schriften, ed. F. Cross (Leipzig, 1921), pp. 389–90. Otto Weininger (1880-1904) achieved a lightning notoriety with his antifeminist tract Geschlecht und Charakter, which extended the Manichaean distinction between man and woman, to that between Aryan and Jew. Hitler, who was an ardent reader of Weininger’s, considered him “the only Jew who deserved to live”.

    Google Scholar 

  11. Wilhelm Mühlmann, Geschichte der Anthropologie (Frankfurt a.M., 1968), p. 57.

    Google Scholar 

  12. Cf. trad. fr. M. Foucault, Anthropologie du point de vue pragmatique (Paris, 1964), p. 160.

    Google Scholar 

  13. Published in Les nouveaux cahiers 50 (1977). The document is to be found in the University Library of Geneva.

    Google Scholar 

  14. “Sylvain Zac répond”, in ibid., 79.

    Google Scholar 

  15. P. Cabanis, Rapports du physique et du moral chez l’homme, ed. (Paris, 1824), t. 1, pp. 133–34.

    Google Scholar 

  16. L. Poliakov, The Aryan Myth: a History of Racist and Nationalist Ideas in Europe, trans. Edmund Howard (London, 1974), pp. 98–105.

    Google Scholar 

  17. Ibid., p. 100.

    Google Scholar 

  18. “For myself, I accept the view that the peoples of Germany have never contaminated themselves by intermarriage with foreigners, but remain of pure blood, distinct and unlike any other nation.” Germania, vol. 4, p. 1.

    Google Scholar 

  19. H. Heine, Zur Geschichte der Religion und Philosophie in Deutschland (1832), Erstes Buch.

    Google Scholar 

  20. Poliakov, Aryan Myth, p. 17.

    Google Scholar 

  21. Michelet, L’Histoire romaine (Paris, 1827), Introduction.

    Google Scholar 

  22. E. Renan, Histoire générate et système comparé des Langues sémitiques (Paris, 1855), 63 m, in Oeuvres complètes (Paris, 1947-1961), vol. 8, pp. 580–81. As regards the dispute with Lassen in priority, cf. ibid., p. 146.

    Google Scholar 

  23. Renan, Oeuvres completès, vol. 2, pp. 722–24.

    Google Scholar 

  24. L’idée de race dans la pensée politique française contemporaine, CNRS (Paris, 1977).

    Google Scholar 

  25. L. Valensi, “Nègre/Negro”, “recherches...”, in ibid., p. 166; and M. Simon, “Portraits coloniaux des vietnamiens (1858-1914)”, in ibid., p. 230.

    Google Scholar 

  26. P. Broca, Recherches sur l’hybridité animale..., p. 521.

    Google Scholar 

  27. Ibid.

    Google Scholar 

  28. D. Hume, “On National Characters”, in Essays, Moral, Political and Literary (London, 1875), pp. 244–258.

    Google Scholar 

  29. Cf. Michael Banton, The Idea of Race (Cambridge, 1977), pp. 31 and 48.

    Google Scholar 

  30. Cf. Karl Koehne, “Disraeli als Vorläufer und Anreger Gobineaus, Untersuchungen...” Archiv für Rassen- und Gesellschaftsbiologie 18 (1926): 370–96.

    Google Scholar 

Download references

Authors

Editor information

Robert Ross

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

Copyright information

© 1982 Martinus Nijhoff Publishers, The Hague/Boston/London

About this chapter

Cite this chapter

Poliakov, L. (1982). Racism from the Enlightenment to the Age of Imperialism. In: Ross, R. (eds) Racism and Colonialism. Comparative Studies in Overseas History, vol 4. Springer, Dordrecht. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-009-7544-6_4

Download citation

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-009-7544-6_4

  • Publisher Name: Springer, Dordrecht

  • Print ISBN: 978-94-009-7546-0

  • Online ISBN: 978-94-009-7544-6

  • eBook Packages: Springer Book Archive

Publish with us

Policies and ethics