Explain what a Caucasian is

Caucasians

Caucasians are a race extended from the Latin race. Most currently live in western Europe, Central Asia, North Africa, and the Indian subcontinent. Considered an ideal representative by the people of the Caucasus region of Eastern Europe.

The Caucasian race has somewhat different meanings that are acquired in different contexts. It is commonly used in North America to describe people of northern, eastern and western European descent, usually with the exception of southern Europe (often called "Latin") and people of Asian, African, or Mediterranean origin. In North America, caucasian is also used in the broader meaning of "white" especially in government and census forms; see Caucasian type. Others, especially in Eastern Europe, use the term to refer to the various ethnic groups living in the Caucasus; see people of the Caucasus.

The concept of "Caucasian race" or Varietas Caucasia (sic) was first proposed by those names by the German scientist Johann Friedrich Blumenbach (1752-1840). His research was based on the classification of the main skull features of the Caucasian race, which Blumenbach was asked to optimize by the Georgians, the people who lived in the South Caucasus. Populations, formerly known as "breeds," are no longer distinguished by Latin names, according to the International Code of Zoological Nomenclature.

Later archaeologists such as Carleton Raccoon have further expanded the classification of Caucasian races proposed by Blumenbach, and subdivided the groups into Nordic, Alpine, Mediterranean, and often Dinaric and Baltic subdivisions point.

The concept of the white race and its stated or implicit superiority over other races was often exploited as a moral excuse for colonialism by Western European countries in the 19th and 20th centuries. It was taken seriously by the Nazis (and quite a lot of them in most Western countries) in the decade before World War II, and was used to justify the eugenics project and the persecution and extermination of the so-called "inferior" races then living in Europe , such as the Jews and the Romans; see Aryan race. It was (and still is) used to justify social discrimination around the world, such as against native Americans of descent, African slaves, and immigrants in many other places in the Americas and South Africa, against Aboriginals in Australia, and many others.