What were the ideas about racial difference constructed during the period of European

global exploration, and why did they persist?

During European global exploration, which began in the 1400s, the modern racist ideas in which we see today were constructed. These thoughts can be particularly attributed to Spanish explorers, who referred to the Indigenous groups of South America as barbarians. Forming the idea of the noble savage, Spaniards believed that Indigenous peoples were "pure" and had not yet been corrupted by reaching civilization. The concept of the noble savage denotes a lack of sophistication and intelligence amongst Indigenous communities.

This idea persisted throughout the following centuries as trade between distant parts of the world and Europe increased, allowing further contact between different cultures. Europeans viewed foreign culture, typically cultures of people of color, as typically uncivilized, or lesser. This developed into Social Darwinism in the 1800s, in which many intellectual figures believed that people of color were inherently inferior because they "lacked civilization." Social Darwinism persisted largely into the 1900s, and still exists in the modern day, due to lack of proper cultural education.

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