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Recent centuries saw the European domination of the world through colonialism and imperialism. Colonial ideas were closely connected to racism and slavery, on one hand, and to religious missionary efforts on the other. These three ideas or beliefs were intimately related both in theory and in practice. Missionaries accompanied colonial armies that enslaved or turned native peoples into bonded laborers.
In the colonial era, many Europeans thought that the white race was superior to all other races that were savages, particularly dark-skinned people, whose very skin color indicated something evil. They similarly thought that Christianity, the religion of the white man, was superior to all the religions of other races, which were primitive, polytheistic and unholy. Dark skinned people and devil worship were even equated in the popular mind. The civilization of white Europe was considered to be true civilization while civilizations even of venerable ancient cultures like India and China were deemed barbaric, akin to the superstitions of tribal peoples.
Today in most of the world, we have discarded colonialism and recognized its errors at least as an overt policy (often it continues in subvert economic forms, however). We have even more severely criticized racism and tried to eliminate it (though it also continues in various forms). Countries like South Africa that continued racist policies into the post-war era met with global scorn until they changed. The idea of the supremacy of the white race that was commonly accepted in intellectual, cultural and political circles in the West in the last century is now looked upon as backward and bigoted. However, the third component of colonial expansion-religious exclusivism-still flourishes much as it did in the previous centuries, though sometimes with a tarnished image, and is in many places as aggressive and intolerant as ever.
Author - David Frawley
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