Plea to Mix Different Ethnic Groups

In the 18th chapter of the “National System”, Friedrich List comments on the mixing of different ethnic groups, “it is an old observation that man, like the animal, ennobles himself spiritually and physically through the crossing of races. If a few families continually intermarry, this gradually leads to degeneration. This law of nature may also be attributed to the fact that among some people in Africa and Asia, men choose their wives from foreign tribes. Likewise, the experience that oligarchies of small city republics, which traditionally intermarry, gradually die out or at least show visible signs of degeneration, seems to point to such a law of nature. It is undeniable that the mixing of two different ethnic groups almost invariably produces strong and beautiful offspring. This observation extends to the intermingling of whites and blacks in the third and fourth generations. More than anything else, this observation seems to confirm that those peoples who have emerged from a nationwide intermixture surpass other nations in strength and energy of mind and character, intelligence, physical strength and outward beauty”.