Abstract
The idea of civilization seems so self-evident that we forget that it emerged only recently, in the second half of the 18th century. For a long time, the antonym of "barbarian" was "policed", and what we consider "cultural areas" were simply designated by their geographical definition (India, China, etc.)
Although the word civilization first appeared with the Marquis de Mirabeau, it came into common usage in the 1790s, replacing the idea of "regeneration". It then evoked progress in science and the arts. From the Egyptian Expedition of 1798 onwards, it became a central concept in Napoleon's discourse, always in the sense of a process of progress and pacification. The German notion of culture, based on the irreducible genius of each people, was a reaction to this.
In the second third of the 19thcentury , with the triumph of Orientalism, the focus shifted from civilization as a process to the state of civilization, and then from civilization as a cultural area. The colonizing world was divided into "civilizations" that "civilization", i.e. Europe, was in the process of conquering. The colonial experience can thus be defined as "civilization" versus "civilizations", with the unresolved problem of defining what is universal and what is particular.
