By the late 19th and early 20th centuries, it was posited that the Indo-Europeans (who were generally referred to as Aryans) made up the highest branch of humanity because their civilization was its most technologically advanced. This reasoning was simultaneously intertwined with Nordicism which proclaimed that the "Nordic race" was the "purest" form of the said Aryan race. Today, this view is regarded as a form of scientific racism and contradicts the belief in racial equality by positing the view that one race is superior to all other races.