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Summary Grade 11 Focus History - History
Well written summary of Grade 11 History: Ideas of race (Australia and Nazi Germany).
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Ideas of race in the late 19th and 20th centuriesEurope and America started using racial superiority to justify discriminatory practices in
their countries.
Social scientists, anthropologists used physical differences between people to justify their
view that whites were superior to everyone else.
Even though they claimed to use scientific methods they ignored evidence that contradicted
their research.
These theories became known as ‘scientific racism’
Scientific racism used science and scientific experiments to promote the idea that human
beings can be divided into different racial groups with a hierarchy of races.
These theories were subjective and based on false arguments and principles, this is known
as pseudo-scientific racial theories.
These ideas became popular in the West to justify colonial policies.
Johann Blumenbach (German)
In 1795, he divided humankind into five groups (based on geographical areas).
Negro - Africa
Mongolian - Asia
Malay - Southeast Asia
American Indian - the Americas
Caucasian - Europe
He believed the white group was the ‘beautiful race’ and all other races were a ‘degeneration
from the original type’.
Many Western societies accepted his theories as fact.
Samuel Morton (American)
In the mid 1800s, he investigated physical differences between human groups as he believed that
each group was created separately with different abilities.
He believed intelligence was linked to brain size.
, He measured human skulls from around the world, found that Caucasian skulls were “bigger”
than others (African Americans, Native Americans)
His scientific findings had a powerful impact when they became public. His work shaped the
thinking of politicians, journalists and religious leaders.
He encouraged the belief of racial differences and white superiority.
People accepted them as true, as they were led to believe his findings were based on scientific
methods.
Eugenics
What is Social Darwinism?
Herbert Spencer invented the philosophy, in which he adapted Charles Darwin’s recent and
groundbreaking research on evolution in the animal kingdom and he applied it to human
beings.
Darwin discovered animal species were evolving in a competitive environment in which only the
strongest survived.
Spencer stated that some human beings were biologically superior to others.
His belief was that those who were ‘fit’ were at the top of society, while the weak and unfit were
at the bottom.
It was therefore “natural” for the strong to thrive at the expense of the weak.
(Principle known as “survival of the fittest”)
Spencer taught that human society was in a constant evolutionary process in which the
fittest would inevitably dominate.
Social Darwinism had terrible consequences on international politics, economic and social
development across the globe.
Social Darwinists developed a hierarchy of human society.
White, wealthy, powerful groups at the top.
Poor, black, jews, minorities at the bottom.
Social Darwinism appealed to the rich and powerful people of society as it explained and
justified social inequalities.
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