Racism from the Enlightenment to the Age of Imperialism

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.