Folks these days are vaguely aware of the teaching of Charles Darwin. As he was propounding the origins of species through the forces of "natural selection", it did not take long before his colleagues began to make applications and draw inferences from the "development" of the various species (races) of mankind.
One implication was that human beings were not equal. Some races were more superior than others, having developed through evolutionary processes. Other races were well down the pecking order--that is, were primitive, backward, ignorant, and ape-like. Some human races were doomed to extinction. Such an outcome would be a reasonable extrapolation of the theory of evolution.
Here is Darwin'a actual prognostication on the subject:
At some future period, not very distant as measured by centuries, the civilised races of man will almost certainly exterminate, and replace, the savage races throughout the world.
