Orientalism’s institutional growth tracked European colonial expansion from 1815 to 1914

Evidence

The period of immense advance in the institutions and content of Orientalism coincides exactly with the period of unparalleled European expansion; from 1815 to 1914 European direct colonial dominion expanded from about 35 percent of the earth’s surface to about 85 percent of it. — Edward W. Said, Orientalism, 130

Categorization

• XREF: The 35-to-85-percent expansion figure is a concrete quantitative anchor connecting Orientalist knowledge to material empire—useful grounding for later Islamophobia readings on knowledge-power.
• corroborated: 2 independent passages support this claim — Edward W. Said, Orientalism, 130