Aimé Cesaire's essay addresses the European hypocrisy that has existed for many years throughout European history. Cesaire studied the liberal ideas that arose in the period of the Enlightenment or the Age of Reason, a period in which many new ideas arose. Reason was used to guide the actions of people and nations; religion was no longer the main force. Science became extremely important because it provided answers to questions. With the Enlightenment came the ideas of liberalism. Before the Age of Reason, monarchies ruled the people. There was great poverty and disparity between social classes; people were disillusioned. People wanted change and the Enlightenment provided ideas of liberalism. People wanted the rights they deserved as people. This era inspired the drafting of the Declaration of Independence in the United States and the Declaration of the Rights of Man and of the Citizen in France; inspired other countries to fight for their rights. These ideas in Europe stated that the individual has the right to liberty, civil liberties, and the right to govern himself; that's what liberalism is about. The Age of Reason brought industrialization and technological innovation to the fore. Industrialization began in the late 18th century with Britain giving it a 50-year technological lead and spread to the rest of Europe. What industrialization did was give those industrialized countries great advantages over nonindustrialized countries in military, transportation, and communications. For example, the cotton gin allowed for more cotton production than had ever been done manually. The assembly line idea allowed for greater productivity which allowed for faster production of weapons. T...... middle of paper...... When people wanted to civilize themselves like the white man wanted by getting roads and ports, the Europeans would deny them roads and ports. These people who claimed to want to civilize them were preventing them from doing so; and these heinous acts committed against these non-white people dehumanized the colonizer. Aimé Césaire had every reason to think that capitalism was, ultimately, a devil. When Hitler tried to conquer European countries, European countries were outraged but his actions. What Hitler did to them was the same thing that other Western Europeans did to non-Europeans. The only reason they were outraged was because it was being done to them. (Aime Cesaire 36) Imperialism and colonization had lasting consequences due to the concept of white man's superiority which helped foster racism which still exists today albeit on a smaller scale.