19th Century American Imperialism Dbq

Before the period between 1760 and 1910, Europeans had dominated the global landscape, The columbian exchange and other such exploitations changing the lives of people in other countries. During the end of the 18th century and the beginning of the 19th, slavery was becoming less popular. Social Darwinism was still prevalent, and imperialistic views dominated European thoughts.
Because of the colonization of the previous centuries, Europeans came into contact with many new people. This started appearing in their art (Doc 5). In this close contact, the Europeans started to discover that many of the “inferior” peoples were less savage than previously thought. While Europeans still viewed non Europeans as beneath themselves, they started to see that they had potential, as long as they were converted to Christianity and taught by Europeans. Then they had to resist “the desire of returning to the wilderness” (Doc 3). If they did that, they could become quite civilized. The slave trade was also on the decline during the late 18th and 19th century, with many advocating for the …show more content…
“The European is a close reasoner… he is a natural logician; he loves symmetry in all things… The mind of the Oriental, on the other hand… is eminently wanting in symmetry. His reasoning is the most slipshod description” (Doc 7). Europeans believed themselves to be intellectually superior to other races and other people living in different regions. This belief led to Europeans looking down upon other “inferior” people. “Competition makes some nations and races powerful and brings other, backward nations and races into decline” (Doc 6). Europeans used their believed superiority to explain colonization. The Europeans assumed that other races were inferior, which is why they were able to colonize their