3 ms·

Before 20th century, very few Europeans ever saw anyone of a different race.

• jameshart 5y ago
  Must have been quite difficult to become colonial rulers of half the planet, and set up and maintain the transatlantic slave trade, without seeing anyone non-white. But even setting aside the massive European colonial machinery, the average stay-at-home 18th or 19th century European already had plenty of ideas about what people of non-European races were like, from the stories of colonial wars, tales of explorers' encounters with savagery, and general mythology and exoticism of what the rest of the world must be like. And those opinions were not, let's say, generally very enlightened. You can still be a racist even if you've never met someone of another race. If anything it's much easier that way.
  • xyzzyz 5y ago
    > Must have been quite difficult to become colonial rulers of half the planet, and set up and maintain the transatlantic slave trade, without seeing anyone non-white Yes, very small fraction of Europeans was involved in that. Overwhelming majority never left their country, and often their village.