In other words, civilizations of Africa and Asia were considered as the stage in development which Europe had experienced in distant past, and those civilizations and people outside Europe were regarded as'primitive' and 'inferior'.
つまりアフリカやアジアの文明は、かつてヨーロッパが遠い過去において経験した発展段階だと考え、ヨーロッパ文明圏以外の人々・地域を「遅れた」「劣った」文明とみなした。