• Most anthropological volumes published in the US and UK from 1870 until 1910 employed evolutionary schemes in which white Anglo-Saxons were ranked “higher” than dark-skinned people in colonized parts of the world. As formal democracies with colonial holdings, both countries were in a contradictory position. The logic of democracy implies that colonized people have a voice in their governance, yet that would almost certainly lead to their independence. Alternately, colonized societies might be annexed as states, in which case they would have a voice in Congress. Both alternatives horrified political and military leaders.
• Evolutionary theory played a vital role in resolving this contradiction. To