Teoria de las Relaciones Internacionales

Short Essay

Angela Palacio

2020
HOW DOES SCIENTIFIC RACISM IN AFRICA CONTRIBUTED TO THE WEST
ASCENCE?

The international order as we know it today is the direct result of historical events that have

shaped the world and allowed western nations to rise. One of the main elements that

contributed to this is was “Scientific Racism” which is a political hierarchy based on

biological markers and bloodline were people with lighter skin inhabited the highest on the

evolutionary ladder and the darker skin were at the bottom (Lawson, pg.48) . This ideology

allowed not just west to become historically a leader in economy but also allowed its

ideologies to spread over the world, this was known as “Scramble of Africa” or a time

between the 1880s and the start of World War I were European claims to African territory.

(Lawson pg.49)

According to Curtin (pg.43) “God created men unequal. Their inequality had a

purpose. We whites were made intelligent so that we could wisely direct the labor of

others”. This reflect the ideal of scientific racism and how it was use by western nations

specially during imperialism to legitimize the economic exploitation of colonies in order to

their own benefits, with the excuse that they were helping them develop. Some notable

examples of this are: Firstly, how the cocoa industry of the Portuguese flourish thanks to

slavery in the islands of Sao Thome or the use of west British colonies to fight war against

the Germans in Africa to have control over cocoa in Nigeria.(Dubois, pg.425) As having

more territory implied more profit , this European nations exploded to the fullest African

colonies allowing them to gain fully though trade and profits from this colonies and leaving

poorness and extreme inequalities in Africa.

 As well they use tactics to control Africans from turning against them such as

“England in Sierra Leona has done legally and suavely so that the negroes themselves

sometimes doubt of their own senses: segregation, disfranchisement” (Dubois, pg.434).

Thus Europeans in the scramble of Africa use this tactics to legitimize slavery and hide its

truly intentions of using Africa for its own economic benefits that at the end truthy worked

and allowed them to acquire according to Lawson(pg.50) “an advantage in high-value in

exports and finance”. This essay allowed me develop my analytic and research skills as I

had to develop deep and clear ideas while using authors that specifically support my

analysis. In a future I would be more discipline and organize with my ideas.

SOURCES:

Curtin, P.D (1960) Scientific racism and the British theory of empire. Journal of the
Historical Society of Nigeria. 2(1), 40-51.doi: 129.213.78.141.

Dubois, W. E. (1925). Worlds of Color. Foreign Affairs, 3(3), 423-435.

doi:10.2307/20028386

Lawson, G. (2020) ‘The rise of modern international order’, in Baylis, J., Smith, S.,
Owens, P. (eds) The globalization of world politics - an introduction to international
relations, seventh edition.