The idea that Eastern peoples cannot self-govern developed in the Enlightenment and persisted.

Evidence

As we saw in Chapter 1, the notion of “Oriental despotism” was developed in the eighteenth century by writers like Montesquieu, who argued that the hot climate of the East made Orientals submissive and thus unable to resist tyranny. Orientalists put this theory on a seemingly sounder academic footing by stating that despotism was one of the core values of “Islamic civilization” and that political revolution and resistance to bad government was alien to Arab and Muslim cultures. Modernization theory made this notion more scientific by suggesting that “traditional” societies were characterized by hierarchical systems of power. Thus, change would never come from within, and it was the burden of the West to civilize, modernize, and democratize the East. — Deepa Kumar, Islamophobia and the Politics of Empire, 360

Categorization

• DEFINE: Traces the genealogy of ‘Oriental despotism’ from Montesquieu through Orientalist scholarship to modernization theory.
• XREF: connects to: Enlightenment mechanism denied man’s historical capacity for development. — Martin Jay, The Dialectical Imagination: A History…, 776; The Orientals-cannot-self-govern claim runs from Oriental despotism through modernization theory; British colonial officials claimed Orientals were incapable of self-government — Eve M. Troutt Powell, A Different Shade of Colonialism_…, 67 (+3 more)

Broader Connections

• The Orientals-cannot-self-govern claim runs from Oriental despotism through modernization theory #corroborates (0.92)
• British colonial officials claimed Orientals were incapable of self-government #exemplifies (0.85) — Eve M. Troutt Powell, A Different Shade of Colonialism_…, 67
• Orientalist and modernization theories deny Muslims a capacity for self-rule #corroborates (0.82)
• Empiricist assumptions locked Orientals into unescapable determining origins #expands (0.78)
• Even modernists drawn to Eastern wisdom retained Orientalist mistrust #expands (0.75)