Nobility’s conquest doctrine split France into two peoples before race-thinking emerged

Evidence

Colonial racism was a major element in that conception of ‘Empire’ which attempted to weld dynastic legitimacy and national community. It did so by generalizing a principle of innate, inherited superiority on which its own domestic position was (however shakily) based to the vastness of the overseas possessions, covertly (or not so covertly) conveying the idea that if, say, English lords were naturally superior to other Englishmen, no matter: these other Englishmen were no less superior to the subjected natives. Indeed one is tempted to argue that the existence of late colonial empires even served to shore up domestic aristocratic bastions, since they appeared to confirm on a global, modern stage antique conceptions of power and privilege. — Benedict Anderson, Imagined Communities, 571 (#corroborates, via linked claim)

Categorization

• XREF: connects to: Race-thinking supplied a natural aristocracy to replace the feudal nobility; England built its history on racial duality while France long asserted national homogeneity; Racism as full ideology was forged in France by a frustrated nobleman (+6 more)

Related

• Race-thinking supplied a natural aristocracy to replace the feudal nobility (similarity 0.91)
• Feudal concepts reaching lower classes made English race-thinking inheritance-obsessed (similarity 0.85)
• England built its history on racial duality while France long asserted national homogeneity (similarity 0.84)
• Colonial racism generalized aristocratic superiority to justify empire and shore up domestic class rule (similarity 0.84)
• Imperialism would have invented racism even without prior race-thinking (similarity 0.83)
• Fabled kinship narratives guaranteed the nation’s homogeneity and continuous power (similarity 0.82)
• Racial exclusion could prefigure colonial-native relations within a single nation (similarity 0.81)
• Racism as full ideology was forged in France by a frustrated nobleman (similarity 0.81)
• Late-nineteenth-century racial theory was nearly undisputed in European culture (similarity 0.81)
• The modern race concept was modeled on aristocratic caste ideas (similarity 0.80)
• The Third Estate inverted the Frankish conquest thesis against noble privilege (similarity 0.80)
• Tracing feudalism’s origins to religious-racial war legitimated the social order externally (similarity 0.80)
• Race-thinking preceded and differs from racism as a full ideology (similarity 0.79)
• Racial ideology entered English statecraft through governing India, not the colonies (similarity 0.79)
• Early racial theories based superiority on historical conquest, not physical traits. (similarity 0.79)

Broader Connections

• Racism as full ideology was forged in France by a frustrated nobleman #corroborates (0.85)
• Race-thinking supplied a natural aristocracy to replace the feudal nobility #corroborates (0.82)
• Colonial racism generalized aristocratic superiority to justify empire and shore up domestic class rule #corroborates (0.80) — Benedict Anderson, Imagined Communities, 571
• The Third Estate inverted the Frankish conquest thesis against noble privilege #responds-to (0.78)
• Race ideology turned the inner self into a site of historical conflict #expands (0.78)
• England built its history on racial duality while France long asserted national homogeneity #complicates (0.75)
• Tracing feudalism’s origins to religious-racial war legitimated the social order externally #qualifies (0.74) — Michel Foucault, Society Must Be Defended, 141
• The French Revolution reactivated Rome and Charlemagne as historical legitimation #exemplifies (0.72) — Michel Foucault, Society Must Be Defended, 225