Capitalism capped the reach of Enlightenment emancipation through racialized colonial rule

Evidence

In the late eighteenth century, numerous revolutions brought forth notions of human equality, secularism, anti-slavery, and democracy and ushered in a process where capitalism would shape global relations. While Spain had held sway during the era of mercantile imperialism, Britain would lead the transition to capitalist imperialism and assume dominance in the imperial arena, building a vast empire in the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries that spanned the globe. It is in this context that Orientalism as a body of thought tied directly to the project of colonial control was elevated. While equality was enshrined as a principle fought for in various revolutions, the now “free” colonizing nations denied democratic rights to the people they subjugated. This was the context for the racialization of Muslims. It was built on the notion that civilizations had an “essence” that marked the evolution of people across time producing races of people with fixed and immutable characteristics. Their inability to grow beyond a certain point justified colonial intervention, which, it was claimed, would lead to upliftment. Moreover, capitalism set limits on the expansion of rights. As economist Samir Amin has observed, “Enlightenment thought offer[ed] us a concept of reason that is inextricably associated with that of emancipation. Yet, the emancipation in question is defined and limited by what capitalism requires and allows.” — Deepa Kumar, Islamophobia and the Politics of Empire, 185 (#expands, via linked claim)

Racialism emerged in the eighteenth century as the dominant expression of European expansion and the transcontinental domination which the racialism justified. Colonial rule after the Berlin Conference was saturated with racialism. Lévy-Brühl, an armchair anthropologist (rather than a philosopher), posits that there is a radical difference between the West and “primitive” peoples. The West, for example, is characterized by a history of intellectual and spiritual reasoning, whereas the life (Weltanschauung) and thinking of “primitives” were viewed as inferior or as having nothing in common with the West (Mudimbe 1988, pp. 135–136). — Frans Dokman, Beyond Bantu Philosophy_…, 513 (#corroborates, via linked claim)

Categorization

• XREF: connects to: The Enlightenment laid the basis for modern ideas of race; The racialization of Muslims was anchored in Enlightenment-era colonial ideologies — Deepa Kumar, Islamophobia and the Politics of…, 185; Racialism pervaded Western consciousness before and beyond capitalism (+10 more)

Broader Connections

• Colonial racial ideology required actual imperial power and capitalism to mature. #corroborates (0.88)
• The racialization of Muslims was anchored in Enlightenment-era colonial ideologies #expands (0.87) — Deepa Kumar, Islamophobia and the Politics of Empire, 185
• Enlightenment race theory about Muslims required colonial dominance and liberal societies #expands (0.85) — Deepa Kumar, Islamophobia and the Politics of Empire, 105
• European racialism justified colonial expansion and rule #corroborates (0.85) — Frans Dokman, Beyond Bantu Philosophy_…, 513
• Enlightenment environmentalism furnished a rationale for colonial hierarchy #expands (0.82) — Benedict Anderson, Imagined Communities, 232
• Capitalism conserving non-capitalist modes produces racial and colonial ideologies. #expands (0.82)
• Capitalist accumulation was built on colonial conquest and enslavement. #corroborates (0.82) — Roxanne Dunbar-Ortiz, An Indigenous Peoples’ History of the…, 82
• Colonial racial ideology shaped gendered relations under colonial capitalism. #expands (0.80)
• The Enlightenment was instrumental in building empire and colonization projects #corroborates (0.80) — Wael Hallaq, Restating Orientalism, 587
• Colonialism replaced Enlightenment universalism with an imperialist superiority complex #qualifies (0.78)
• Colonial domination doctrine reduces humanity to fixed racial essences #expands (0.78)
• Racialism pervaded Western consciousness before and beyond capitalism #qualifies (0.75)