European chauvinism only emerged with industrialization around 1800

Evidence

Development is another boundary of difference. This derives from earlier ideas of progress, viewed as a single-track path with less and more advanced peoples and civilizations. The eighteenth-century Scottish Enlightenment set forth a schema of evolutionary stages, from primitivism, savagery, and barbarism to civilization. These were combined with modes of production: hunters and gatherers, agriculture and crafts, and industrial society. The development gap only arose when the difference in technological capacity between Europe and non-Western countries became significant - from the turn of the eighteenth century onward, with the onset of industrialization. Prior to that time, Europeans had looked up to other civilizations and been inspired by their example (see Nederveen Pieterse, 1994). European chauvinism only dates from that period. — David Theo Goldberg, John Solomos, A Companion to Racial and Ethnic Studies, 198

Categorization

• XREF: Reverses the common assumption that Europeans always saw themselves as superior; echoes the ‘development’ critique in postcolonial theory and Frank’s dependency school.
• SEED: Article angle: the pre-industrial era when Europeans actually looked up to other civilizations — what changed economically and discursively at the turn of the 19th century.