Colonialism replaced Enlightenment universalism with ideologies of inherent racial inferiority

Evidence

Muslims in the eighteenth century were not uniformly seen as inferior to Europeans. While some Enlightenment scholars did hold such a view, Blumenbach didn’t seem to have such an attitude toward the Turks, as noted above. To be “manly” and “serious” was virtuous in a sexist society where characteristics associated with femininity were considered inferior. At the most general level, Enlightenment thinkers sought to address humanity as a whole and saw in their own histories and social structures universal human traits. Christian universalism of the medieval period was replaced with a scientific or humanistic universalism. Historian Maxime Rodinson argues that this universalistic approach translated into a relativist position with regard to others: “In the eighteenth century, an unconscious sense of Eurocentrism was present but it was guided by the universalist ideology of the Enlightenment and therefore respected non-European civilizations and peoples.” However, as the nineteenth century progressed, Enlightenment universalism was replaced, in the context of colonialism, with an emphasis on difference between people and civilizations. Europe developed what race scholar Etienne Balibar calls an “imperialist superiority complex.” It is in this context that “race” as defined by inferiority would emerge in relation to Arabs, Muslims, and Asians. — Deepa Kumar, Islamophobia and the Politics of Empire, 130

Historian Maxime Rodinson argues that this universalistic approach translated into a relativist position with regard to others: “In the eighteenth century, an unconscious sense of Eurocentrism was present but it was guided by the universalist ideology of the Enlightenment and therefore respected non-European civilizations and peoples.” However, as the nineteenth century progressed, Enlightenment universalism was replaced, in the context of colonialism, with an emphasis on difference between people and civilizations. Europe developed what race scholar Etienne Balibar calls an “imperialist superiority complex.” It is in this context that “race” as defined by inferiority would emerge in relation to Arabs, Muslims, and Asians. — Deepa Kumar, Islamophobia and the Politics of Empire, 142

Categorization

• XREF: Parallels the shift from universalism to difference that appears in Marxist and postcolonial theory, and echoes Said’s Orientalism periodization. — connects to: Nineteenth-century racial Anglo-Saxonism coexisted with assimilationist cosmopolitanism — John Higham, Strangers in the Land: Patterns of…, 199; The racialization of Muslims was anchored in Enlightenment-era colonial ideologies — Deepa Kumar, Islamophobia and the Politics of…, 185; Colonialism replaced Enlightenment universalism with an imperialist superiority complex (+5 more)
• DEEPTHINKING: Packs a dense causal claim: universalism coexisted with Eurocentrism until colonial conditions inverted it into a superiority complex — a paradigm-shifting account of how race ideology emerges from material conditions rather than pure prejudice.
• corroborated: 2 independent passages support this claim — Deepa Kumar, Islamophobia and the Politics of…, 130; Deepa Kumar, Islamophobia and the Politics of…, 142

Broader Connections

• Colonialism replaced Enlightenment universalism with an imperialist superiority complex #expands (0.95)
• Colonialism replaced Enlightenment universalism with a racialized superiority complex toward Muslims. #expands (0.90)
• Colonial liberal assimilation differed fundamentally from later racialized exclusion #qualifies (0.80) — Benedict Anderson, Imagined Communities, 63
• Colonial rule systematically instills an inferiority complex in the colonized #expands (0.75) — Aimé Césaire, Discourse on Colonialism, 59
• Colonial universalism disguised European Christian values as transcendent truths #complicates (0.72) — David Theo Goldberg, The Racial State, 49