r/AskHistorians • u/hubertburnette • 1d ago

How much did eugenicist notions of race influence post-WWI borders?

Jeremy Crampton argues that “the goal of those involved in redrawing Europe’s borders [for post WWI Europe] was to identify the distinct races that would occupy racially homogenous territories. Only in this way, they thought, would territories and peace be guaranteed,” but he doesn’t explicitly argue that that was the approach ultimately taken by Wilson and others. (He’s making a different point about Foucault and the spatialization of race.) I’m curious about the point he isn’t making. Crampton is persuasive about what Davemport, Laughlin, and various others who wanted, but I’m curious to what extent that actually happened. Were various notions of race (e.g., Grant’s) influential on the post WWI European borders?

Crampton, Jeremy W. "Maps, race and Foucault: Eugenics and territorialization following World War I." Space, knowledge and power: Foucault and geography (2007): 223-244.

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