Final answer:
European colonialism utilized ethnocentrism to justify exploitative practices like colonial rule and the slave trade, painting non-whites as inferior and in need of 'civilizing' by Europeans, thus perpetuating domination and dehumanization of Indigenous peoples under the guise of the 'White man's burden.'
Step-by-step explanation:
During European colonialism, ethnocentrism was used to classify whites as normal and non-whites as abnormal and inferior, which helped to justify colonial rule and its associated practices such as the development of the slave trade and the plantation system. Europeans deemed the non-European 'other' as backward and needing the 'civilizing' influence of European governance. This deeply ingrained bias underpinned the exploitative and extractive ventures associated with colonialism, perpetuating a social structure designed to dehumanize and dominate Indigenous peoples.
Colonial powers extracted raw materials using low-paid Indigenous labor, transforming these materials into goods in Europe which were then sold back to the colonies at high profits for Europeans. Indigenous cultures were severely damaged or eradicated, and social structures were manipulated to ensure lasting European influence and control. This exploitation was often veiled under the rhetoric of the 'White man's burden' to civilize, an idea famously encapsulated in Rudyard Kipling's pro-imperialist poem, and was rationalized through a distorted interpretation of evolutionary theory to justify European supremacy and dominance over other 'races'.