The Instrumentalisation of the Humanities in the Process of Colonization of Africa

Abstract

In the 18th and 19th centuries, the scientific movements that emerged in Europe with the conviction that knowledge can be obtained with measurable methods and social life can be organized with correct knowledge, contributed to bring to light the secrets of nature, the earth, man and his environment. On the other hand, the efforts to dominate nature with this knowledge and to develop the resources it offers, have contributed directly or indirectly to colonization by providing a kind of legitimation. Although the scientific advances observed in the natural and human sciences were initially aimed at naming and classifying the living species in nature and on earth, they later turned to the classification and hierarchization of these species. Later a new theory of race emerged with the introduction of the positivist movement and the development of biology and sociology. According to this theory, societies were hierarchically divided into superior and inferior races where the firsts have rights and duties towards the seconds. By arguing that the African race would be inferior in terms of civilization, this theory and consequently these scientific advances have legally and politically legitimized colonial ideology over time. Thus, the colonization of the African continent in the name of civilization began in the late 19th century. In this paper we will examine how scientific advances in the 18th and 19th centuries served European colonialism through a macro historical perspective, by using and referring mainly to ancient and recent French sources.