from article in its modern form racism evolved in tandem with european exploration conquest and colonization of much of the rest of the world and especially after christopher columbus reached the americas as new peoples were encountered fought and ultimately subdued theories about race began to develop and these helped many to justify the differences in position and treatment of people whom they categorized as belonging to different races see eric wolf's europe and the people without history some people like juan gines de sepulveda even argued that the native americans were natural slaves there is nothing new or modern about this have a look at roman egyptian jewish babylonian etc history how about how the aztec's interacted w other tribes spade oct utc