March 11

Imperialism became broadly popular in Europe because of the growth of mass nationalism. In 1869 steam-driven ships which moved through the Suez Canal were completed, which allowed Europeans to reach Asian and African ports in a faster manner and to penetrate interior rivers. As quinine was discovered, malaria was prevented and European deaths in the tropics were reduced. In Europe, religious superiority was replaced by or fused with a secular arrogance. African societies were demoted in the nineteenth-century by Europeans and were viewed as tribes led by chiefs. The prestige and apparatus of science were increasingly used by Europeans to support their racial preferences and prejudices. Moral development, destiny, and human intelligence were determined by race.