Colonial ideology combined fiscal self-interest with Enlightenment trade beliefs.

Evidence

By the nineteenth century, however, this Enlightenment universalism was rapidly being replaced by an emphasis on differences between people and civilizations. Europe developed what Etienne Balibar calls an “imperialist superiority complex.” — Deepa Kumar, Islamophobia and the Politics of Empire, 119 (#qualifies, via linked claim)

Many Orientalists, however, developed images of Muslim and Arab peoples that either perpetuated medieval stereotypes or else reflected more contemporary assumptions, bolstered at times by appeals to science, about the intrinsic cultural and even racial superiority of Europeans over Muslims. An example of the latter type of thinking can be found in the work of Ernest Renan, a French philologist and scholar of religion. In many ways, he represented the growing tendency in much of nineteenth-century Orientalism to move away from Enlightenment universalism, which tended to stress commonalities between all human beings (including Muslims), and toward a worldview that emphasized the fundamental differences between civilizations, with Western civilization seen as inherently superior to Islamic civilization. — Green, Todd H, The Fear of Islam_ An Introduction to…, 193 (#qualifies, via linked claim)

Categorization

• XREF: connects to: Nineteenth-century Europe traded Enlightenment universalism for imperialist superiority — Deepa Kumar, Islamophobia and the Politics of Empire, 119; Nineteenth-century Orientalism traded Enlightenment universalism for a hierarchy of civilizations. — Green, Todd H, The Fear of Islam_ An Introduction to…, 193; Commercial self-interest initially tempered Anglican missionary zeal in British India (+1 more)

Related

• Eighteenth-century thinkers believed in one universal French-inspired civilization. (similarity 0.88)
• Colonial expansion and Orientalist essentializing emerged together in the nineteenth century. (similarity 0.88)
• Nineteenth-century Orientalism traded Enlightenment universalism for a hierarchy of civilizations. (similarity 0.87)
• Colonialism replaced Enlightenment universalism with a racialized superiority complex toward Muslims. (similarity 0.85)
• Nineteenth-century Europe traded Enlightenment universalism for imperialist superiority (similarity 0.84)
• The colonized colonizer outlook emerged fully by the 1870s (similarity 0.83)
• Nineteenth-century Orientalism essentialized Muslims as intrinsically inferior during colonial expansion. (similarity 0.83)
• Orientalist scholarship expanded in tandem with European imperial conquest. (similarity 0.83)
• Even the most learned, sympathetic Orientalists converged on Islam’s latent inferiority (similarity 0.83)
• Colonialism replaced Enlightenment universalism with ideologies of inherent racial inferiority (similarity 0.82)
• The belief that Muslims had different needs enabled colonial indifference. (similarity 0.82)
• Western imperial particularism was disguised as universal civilization (similarity 0.82)
• Colonial expansion widened geographic knowledge but kept Europe at the privileged center (similarity 0.81)
• Colonial administrators framed imperialism as enlightened cosmopolitanism (similarity 0.81)
• Colonization was not Islam-specific but Orientalism shaped its distinct form (similarity 0.80)

Broader Connections

• Nineteenth-century Europe traded Enlightenment universalism for imperialist superiority #qualifies (0.50) — Deepa Kumar, Islamophobia and the Politics of Empire, 119
• Nineteenth-century Orientalism traded Enlightenment universalism for a hierarchy of civilizations. #qualifies (0.50) — Green, Todd H, The Fear of Islam_ An Introduction to…, 193