Medieval European history gave little basis for claims of superiority

Evidence

The history of Europe for the millennium following the fifth century of the Christian era had not been markedly unilinear. That immense span of time had contained little if any basis for teleological certainty. Indeed, there had been eras such as the eighth century when the very presence of Western high culture had been faint, preserved in scattered outposts whose own fate was made doubly uncertain by barbarian invasion and the pathetic social and material conditions of the pagan societies that surrounded them. — Cedric J. Robinson, Black Marxism_ The Making of the Black…, 511

Categorization

• XREF: Contradicts the Whig-teleological European narrative Robinson is dismantling; echoes Fernand Braudel-style longue duree.