European Imperialism
Imperialism, the practice of taking over other lands, was heavily practiced by Europe starting in the sixteenth century. As most individuals know, the colonies in the United States were one of the regions that the Europeans tried to control from overseas. They also overtook lands in Africa. They believed both Africa and the Americas to be primitive societies based on hunting and farming, and felt that they needed to take over these nations in order to bring them up to speed with modern technologies.
Traces of this sense of European ethnocentrism are still evident today. For example, in schools in Europe, world studies courses tend to focus almost solely on the history of the United States and Europe, and largerly ignore other parts of the world.