DBQ: Non-Europeans as Viewed by Europeans

842 Words2 Pages

European views of non European people reflect the intellectual changes from 1760s to the 1910s. European views of non-European people in the 1760s through 1910s were largely based off of the idea of survival of the fittest, the education of the non-europeans to Europeans, and the thought of Europeans as being superior. These three factors show how intellectual changes in Europe shape the way Europeans viewed non-europeans. The idea of survival of the fittest goes back to Darwin in his evolutionary theory, and Europeans used the same analogy to describe them and other nations. In document 6, William Schallmayer says that “competition makes some nations and races powerful and brings other, backward nations and races into decline”. In this statement, …show more content…

When they first saw the native americans lack of technology and politics, they thought of themselves as superior. In document 4, this thought is enforced by the prime minister of french. He says,” superior races have a duty to civilize inferior races,” and that France should “spread her influence over the world.” This shows how this mindset of Europeans correlated with European views of non Europeans, and how Europeans felt a duty as the superior race to enforce themselves upon non-europeans. In document 7, a british consul general shares his views of the Egyptians as the ruler of the country. He states that,” Egyptians lack initiative and without europeans will lose the veneer of civility.” This general feeling of superiority of europeans compared to non-europeans is felt through many europeans, and shows why the thought of how Europeans are superior results in their views of other civilizations. In document 2, a medallion is shown of a black man on his knees in chains, with the appearance of him begging. This shows how Europeans are the dominant race at the time, and how other races are being treated as the result of european views of non-europeans, and how this view of them being superior can influence the treatment of other civilizations by

Show More
Related

  • Different Creation Views Among Native Americans and Europeans

    785 Words  | 2 Pages

    Many things were influenced when the Native Americans and Europeans encountered one another for the first time. There views on humankind’s relationship to nature, the relationship of men and women to each other, and the relationship between different groups of human beings were influenced. They were influenced by the stories that the Native Americans passed down from generation to generation, the story that the Europeans believed from the Bible, and the views of Aristotle.

    Read More

  • Racial Struggles Throughout the History of American Society

    2018 Words  | 5 Pages

    The beginnings of colonialism, allowed Europeans to travel the world and meet different kinds of people. Their first encounter with the New World and these new peoples, created the opening ideas of inequality. These new people were called indigenous people and alien like. Europeans began to question if these people were really human and had the same intellectual capacity as Europeans did. “Alternative ideas about the origins and identities of indigenous peoples also began to appear early in the 16th century...

    Read More

  • European Imperialism in Africa

    1417 Words  | 3 Pages

    Europe, in the late 1800’s, was starting a land grab on the African continent. Around 1878, most of Africa was unexplored, but by 1914, most of Africa, with the lucky exception of Liberia and Ethiopia, was carved up between European powers. There were countless motivations that spurred the European powers to carve Africa, like economic, political, and socio–cultural, and there were countless attitudes towards this expansion into Africa, some of approval and some of condemnation. Europe in this period was a world of competing countries. Britain had a global empire to lead, France had competition with Britain for wealth and so did other nations like Germany and Russia.

    Read More

  • Kemet

    568 Words  | 2 Pages

    So many Americans today are in the dark about the true origin of the African descent. From my past experiences in history classes, the teacher of coarse job is to teach from the textbook. The problem with that is the whole truth does not lie between those pages of how African culture became about. I will discuss the first king of Egypt and how his story applies today.

    Read More

  • Analysis Of 'Different But Equal'

    1080 Words  | 3 Pages

    “Different but Equal” is a video in which Basil Davidson, the narrator, attempts to expand and heighten the understanding that Western civilization has about Africa. Often thought of as underdeveloped or uncivilized, Basil focuses mainly on the accomplishments of Africans throughout the years and uses them to contrast the surprisingly popular belief of African inferiority. Just a few of the main issues being brought up are how Europeans routinely discredited African accomplishments, the often disputed race of the Egyptians and their society, and why the thought that Africans are ‘uncivilized’ isn’t accurate. The video uses science, archaeology and history combined with the input of well-known researchers to give a more accurate depiction of

    Read More

  • Imperialism In King Leopold's Ghosts

    1181 Words  | 3 Pages

    The perceptions that European had toward Africa is that of an empty space with people with primitive culture because people lived in huts, they were naked, practiced polygamy, and some tribes even practiced cannibalism.

    Read More

  • The Art of Benin

    1044 Words  | 3 Pages

    Over time concepts of ‘Race’, defined as a distinct group with a common linage, and ‘Primitive’ which pertains to the beginning or origin, , have been inextricably linked with the perception of Africa. The confusion of the two in the minds of people at the end of the 19th centaury, and some of the 20th, caused a sense of superiority amongst the ‘White Races’ that affected every aspect of their interaction with ‘the Black’. The ‘Civilisation’ of Africa by conquest and force was justified by these views.

    Read More

  • Slave Trade within Europe in the 1800's

    1419 Words  | 3 Pages

    “In the history of the Atlantic slave trade, the French turned four times as many Africans into slaves as the Americans did, they continued the slave trade -- legally -- until 1830, long after the rest of Europe had given it up” (“French Slavery”). The negatives and positives of slave trade come to a stalemate because slave trade both increased the economies of France and Britain, while undermining the human work force. As slave trade began to be questioned by morality, France became the dominant slave trade power. While European political leaders encouraged the colonization of Africa in order to collect cheap labor to compete with neighboring countries, British and French societies suffered from internal disputes, leading to the termination of slave trade in Europe.

    Read More

  • Edward Said's Orientalism

    1010 Words  | 3 Pages

    Orientalism is never far from what Denys Hay ahs called the idea of Europe, a collective notion identifying ‘us’ Europeans as against all ‘those’ non-Europeans, and indeed it precisely what made that culture hegemonic both in and outside Europe: the idea of European identity as superior one in comparison with ass the non-European peoples and cultures (7).

    Read More

  • Analysis Of Basil Davidson's 'Different But Equal'

    815 Words  | 2 Pages

    In the first segment of his film series, Different but Equal, Basil Davidson sets out to disprove the fictitious and degrading assumptions about African civilization made by various Western scholars and explorers. Whether it is the notion that Africans are “savage and crude in nature” or the presumed inability of Africans to advance technologically, these stereotypes are damaging to the image and history of Africa. Although European Renaissance art depicts the races of white and black in equal dignity, there was a drastic shift of European attitudes toward Africa that placed Africans in a much lower standing than people of any other culture. The continent of Africa quickly became ravished by the inhuman slave trade and any traditional civilization

    Read More

  • Colonization of America

    619 Words  | 2 Pages

    It appears that the majority of the actions of the Native Americans towards the new European colonists were in peace and acceptance. Unfortunately the colonists dreams conflicted with the views of the Native Americans. The ‘free living’ philosophy of the Native American’s left them open to an unexpected overtaking by the colonists. The Europeans believed in making a new world out of America while completely disregarding the fact that there was already an Old World.

    Read More

  • Dalton Conley You May Ask Yourself Summary

    506 Words  | 2 Pages

    The term “ethnocentrism,” meaning the sense of taken-for-granted superiority in the context of cultural practices and attitudes, described the way Europeans looked at their “culture” as though they were superior to all others. Westerns even stated that non-Westerns had no culture and that they were inferior to the culture that was building in Europe.

    Read More

  • Nationalism in Europe

    915 Words  | 2 Pages

    ... nations of the time saw their expansion and imperialism as a profoundly nobly pursuit. The native people of Asia and Africa were considered to be savages and uncultured. The influence of European ideals and ways of life would, in the minds of their conquerors, help these people achieve better lives and a lead them to a better existence.

    Read More

  • Edward Said's Orientalism

    894 Words  | 2 Pages

    Europe is always in a position of strength, The Oriental is irrational, depraved, childlike, "different", thus the European is rational, virtuous, mature, "normal".

    Read More

  • The Psychological Impact of Colonialism on the Victimization of Africans

    1070 Words  | 3 Pages

    Africa’s struggle to maintain their sovereignty amidst the encroaching Europeans is as much a psychological battle as it is an economic and political one. The spillover effects the system of racial superiority had on the African continent fractured ...

    Read More

More about DBQ: Non-Europeans as Viewed by Europeans

Open Document