Which of the following best describes a historian's likely interpretation of the situation in which the excerpt was produced in the early 1800s?

The European views of non-European peoples and cultures reflected the intellectual changes of the time period from 1760-1910 as there is a remarkable shift in the perspective, before 1859. During this time period, the majority of Europeans see themselves as predominant. Prior to 1859, Europeans tended to romanticise the nature of less "developed" civilizations in their "natural form," while post-1859, Europeans believed they were culturally superior through the theory of Social Darwinism and must either teach those of other cultures European ways or allow them to perish.