Europeans, also known as Whites, are the indigenous inhabitants of the European continent. Whether you live in Denmark or Australia, if your ancestors were European, then this is your racial heritage. Europeans are a unique group, and have always been a small part of the world’s population. In 1950, Europeans world-wide amounted to 28% of the world’s population, which dropped to about 15% by 2002 due to large population increases among other races (our numbers continue to shrink each year). In earlier times, Europeans’ share of the world’s population was much smaller, as Europe represents less than 7% of the total land area of the earth and much of that continent is cold and cloudy with short growing seasons.

One difference between Europeans and other races is of course our naturally lighter skin, eye and hair color. This gives Europeans a particular beauty that makes us who we are, and is unique to our ethnic group. Europeans are also known for their strength, and they dominate in weightlifting and strongman competitions, as well as other sports such as swimming. Much of this has to do with the way nature designed us; we are simply built differently than Asians, Africans and Hispanics, both in our bodies, our skulls and our facial structure.

As Thucydides has written, it is fitting to pay tribute to those whose genes we share and whose deeds contributed toward the creation and defense of our Western Civilization. As one of European descent, you have a proud, ancient and noble lineage, going back through the eons of time for at least 75,000 years. Originally, our ancestors lived in small tribes throughout Europe during the great Ice Ages. These tall, brave, tough, light-skinned hunter-warriors used sophisticated stone-age weapons to take down mighty game such as various breeds of deer, the mammoth and the mighty mastodon.

Now extinct, the mastodon was the largest animal ever to walk the Earth contemporaneous to man. A great hairy beast adapted to the cold temperatures of Europe and Northern Asia, it stood about twice the size of the great African elephant, had huge tusks and was easily strong enough to lift weight equivalent to a small automobile. To hunt such creatures demanded technologically-effective weapons, as well as effective teamwork and planning. These creatures provided meat and fat, thick skins for clothing, shoes and shelter, bone and sinew for weapons and tools, oil for their lamps, organs used for thread and containers.

The exploits of the ancients are immortalized in cave paintings that are over 30,000 years old that depict vivid images of mammoth, bison, horses and of course, women. In extremely harsh conditions, our ancestors thrived, expanding their numbers and continually improving their technology. They left behind artifacts such as flutes, jewelry, blades, tools and ivory figurines that are tens of thousands of years old.

They must have been impressive to look upon, tall of stature, muscular and athletic. David de Laubenfels, a Syracuse University anthropologist, said of them: “All have certain physical characteristics in common; all have well formed chins, high straight foreheads”. It is important to realize that our forebears were much the same as we are today. These artists of the caves were normal men and women, fathers and mothers, sons and daughters. Their lives were lived much the same as other native tribes through the ages, though their environment was a much colder and more unforgiving one.

In this Ice Age environment, Europeans were forced to rely on their intelligence to survive, and had brains that on average were larger that ours. They also possessed a remarkable constellation of new talents: creativity, ingenuity and a restless wanderlust, settling as far eastward as Central Mongolia. This is a group whose descendants would forever alter the course of life on earth.

Agriculture developed in Europe around 10,000 years ago, at about the same time as in the “fertile crescent” in the Middle East. Northern Europeans had developed timber houses, domesticated animals and by 7000 years ago were building Megaliths such as Stonehenge.

Journalist and author Arthur Kemp presents strong evidence that Europeans played an important role in developing the first civilizations. In the present-day Middle East, where the first empires were established, Europeans appear to be part of the ruling class (ruling over darker-skinned peoples). As evidence, the elites of society are often depicted with blue eyes, light skin and European facial features. Other evidence includes the texts of the great lawgiver Hammurabi, who announced that he had come to “rule the black haired people”; he is also referred to as “the White King” and the “White Potent”, obviously in reference to his coloring. The founders of Egypt were also a European people, as rulers such as Ramses II “the Great” were red-haired and fair-skinned. In addition to many light-haired, light-skinned mummies, there are numerous tomb paintings and statues of the ruling class that depict people with European features. Over time, the Egyptians intermarried with neighboring Semitic tribes and black Nubians, and their civilization fell into decay. Although these ancient Whites no longer exist, there are still those to be found with blue eyes and blonde hair in the Middle East, vestiges of a lost era.

By about 4000 years ago, Europeans known as the Tocharians had expanded deeply into Asia. In Western China, archeologists have uncovered over a thousand ancient Tocharian mummies; tall, blonde and red-haired people with distinctive European features. Living next to China, these Europeans had many technologies such as metal-working, weaving and the chariot several centuries before the Chinese did. It is very likely that the Tocharians brought these technologies to China, because the Chinese borrowed the words for all of these things. It is also very possible that the Tocharians gave Chinese civilization its start. Old Chinese books describe historical or legendary figures of great height, with deep-set blue or green eyes, long noses, full beards, and red or blond hair, who founded Chinese kingdoms. Although the Tocharians are no more, there are still those in Asia who have light skin and Caucasian features.

It is well known that the society of India is rigidly separated by a caste system with different levels, with the Brahmins at the top of the hierarchy and the “Dalit”, or untouchables, at the bottom.  The Indian word for caste is “Varna”, which means “Color”. The Brahmins usually have lighter skin and eyes than the lower castes do, and are typically among the most gifted members of the population. Although less than 10% of the population, they are over-represented among India’s elites and leaders (most of India’s presidents have all been Brahmins). The Brahmins and other upper-caste members of Indian society are believed to be the mixed-race descendants of a European people known as the Aryans that invaded India about 4000 years ago.

The Aryans documented their exploits in ancient Indian texts, which tell of a ferocious war between light-skinned invaders versus the dark-skinned inhabitants. The Aryans are described as “impetuous in speed like bulls, driving the black skin far away.” Thanks are given to their god for having “protected the Aryan colour” and “scattering the slave bands of black descent”. Gandhi was of the Brahmin caste, and like most others of his day believed in the Aryan incursion.  This invasion of old is also strongly supported by recent genetic research, which shows that the DNA of modern Indians is “consistent with a historical scenario in which invading Caucasoids — primarily males — established the caste system and occupied the highest positions, placing the indigenous population, who were more similar to Asians, in lower caste positions.” The modern light-skinned higher-caste members represent the vestiges of ancient conquerors that profoundly influenced Indian civilization.

Pericles of Athens prophesied 2,500 years ago that “Future ages will wonder at us, as the present age wonders at us now”. Time has shown him to be correct. Millennia ago, our ancient relatives in Greece had reached fantastic heights of civilization. Their work helps guide the world to this day. The ancient Greeks were known as the “Golden People” because of the presence of so many blondes, and Greek literature is full of descriptions of fair-skinned, light-eyed people.

Greek achievements are legendary across a variety of fields; architecture, philosophy, mathematics, literature, theater and beyond. Greeks inventions include the thermometer, locks, coined money, the crane, the syringe, the lighthouse – even an amazing mechanical astronomical clock! The Romans built upon this foundation, establishing a civilization of great cultural splendor. They left behind a tremendous legacy: glorious architecture such as the coliseums and great arches; brilliant literature such as the histories of Tacitus; engineering feats such as the aqueduct and complex road networks; and a host of inventions we still use today like cement, candles and scissors.

After the fall of Rome to barbarian invasions, the Dark Ages descended upon Europe. However, the candle of knowledge still burned in secluded monasteries, and over time the learning of the ancients was rediscovered and expanded upon. This was an era when Christianity expanded throughout Europe, bringing a message of faith, hope and morality for mankind, and the continent became known as Christendom. It was also an era where Europe faced numerous formidable invasion threats, from the terrible Huns, to the fanatical Muslim hordes to the greatest threat of all, the deadly Mongols. Yet every threat to European civilization was defeated by inspired leaders at the head of armies of skilled warriors. The Medieval period saw fearless Viking explorers sailing their extraordinarily well-crafted ships thousands of miles, reaching Africa, Turkey, Greenland and even North America. Over time, Europe also saw the rise of Chivalry and Knighthood and numerous military innovations such as heavy fortifications and cannons. There were many inventions that improved everyday life as well, such as eyeglasses, clocks, and windmills.

Over time, the later middle ages transitioned into a period we know as the Renaissance, which is Italian for “rebirth”, and alludes to the rebirth of the old Roman civilization. By about 400 years ago, Europeans led the world in just about every field of human endeavor. The frontiers of science expanded with discoveries by Galileo, Copernicus and Descartes. Great Explorers such as Vasco de Gama and Columbus sailed to all parts of the world in ships that were at the cutting edge of technology of the time. Trade became widespread with new developments in banking and finance that increased Europe’s wealth and productivity.  The invention of the printing press made books widely available and learning flourished as universities were founded across the continent. Painters such as Leonardo da Vinci and sculptors such as Michelangelo created timeless masterpieces that astound us to this day. Playwrights like William Shakespeare and philosophers such as Sir Francis Bacon created timeless works of literature still enjoyed today.

The cultural achievements of the Renaissance lead Europe to the Age of Enlightenment. Influential writers like John Locke spread new ideas about personal liberty and human rights. European culture achieved unrivalled heights, especially in the field of music. Combining a multitude of ingenious musical instruments, men such as Bach, Beethoven and Mozart crafted timeless melodies and compositions that the world enjoys to this day. Other Europeans such as Isaac Newton and Louis Pasteur expanded the frontiers of mathematics, physics, medicine and other sciences.

One of the greatest political achievements of Europeans is that of Constitutional Democracy. Democratic governments have a long history in Europe, from the ancient Greeks and Romans to Renaissance Italy, Switzerland and world’s oldest democracy, Iceland. Locke and other European scholars developed ideas about rule by the people which were adopted by the colonists in America. Our forefathers were men of unwavering religious faith, led by noble ideals and principles. Thomas Jefferson expressed this well when he said “I sincerely pray that all the members of the human family may, in the time prescribed by the Father of us all, find themselves securely established in the enjoyment of life, liberty, and happiness.”

The signers of the Declaration of Independence were taking a great risk; they knew that if their troops failed, all would be lost. Their families would be dead, everything they owned would be taken, their lives, their fortunes, their sacred honor, everything would be gone. Our founders’ bravery and steadfast leadership through the grim trials of Valley Forge and elsewhere helped to make the dream of democracy a reality that we now enjoy. These are the kind of courageous, principled men that came before us and are illustrative of the glorious heritage we have.

This is a true story from the French and Indian War, where a large British force was ambushed by a French contingent with their indian allies.

The American Indian chief looked scornfully at the soldiers on the field before him. How foolish it was to fight as they did, forming their perfect battle lines out in the open, standing shoulder to shoulder in their bright red uniforms. The British soldiers—trained for European war—did not break rank, even when braves fired at them from under the safe cover of the forest. The slaughter continued for two hours. By then 1,000 of 1,459 British soldiers were killed or wounded, while only 30 of the French and Indian warriors firing at them were injured.

Not only were the soldiers foolish, but their officers were just as bad. Riding on horseback, fully exposed above the men on the ground, they made perfect targets. One by one, the chief’s marksmen shot the mounted British officers until only one remained.

“Quick, let your aim be certain and he dies,” the chief commanded. The warriors leveled their rifles at the last officer on horseback. Round after round was aimed at this one man. Twice the officer’s horse was shot out from under him. Twice he grabbed a horse left idle when a fellow officer had been shot down. Ten, twelve, thirteen rounds were fired by the sharpshooters. Still, the officer remained unhurt.

The native warriors stared at him in disbelief. Their rifles seldom missed their mark. The chief suddenly realized that a mighty power must be shielding this man. “Stop firing!” he commanded. “This one is under the special protection of the Great Spirit.” A brave standing nearby added, “I had seventeen clear shots at him…and after all could not bring him to the ground. This man was not born to be killed by a bullet.”

As the firing slowed, the lieutenant colonel gathered the remaining troops and led the retreat to safety. That evening, as the last of the wounded were being cared for, the officer noticed an odd tear in his coat. It was a bullet hole! He rolled up his sleeve and looked at his arm directly under the hole. There was no mark on his skin. Amazed, he took off his coat and found three more holes where bullets had passed through his coat but stopped before they reached his body.

Nine days after the battle, having heard a rumor of his own death, the young lieutenant colonel wrote his brother to confirm that he was still very much alive.

This battle, part of the French and Indian War, was fought on July 9, 1755, near Fort Duquesne, now the city of Pittsburgh. The twenty-three-year-old officer went on to become the commander in chief of the Continental Army and the first president of the United States. In all the years that followed in his long career, this man, George Washington, was never once wounded in battle.

Fifteen years later, in 1770, years before the Revolution, George Washington returned to the same Pennsylvania woods. A respected Indian chief, having heard that Washington was in the area, traveled a long way to meet with him. He sat down with Washington, and face-to-face over a council fire, the chief told Washington the following:

Washington often recalled this dramatic event that helped shape his character and confirm God’s call on his life. “Though a thousand fall at your side, though ten thousand are dying around you, these evils will not touch you”. – Psalm 91:7.

“I not being so good a woodsman as the rest of my Company striped my self very orderly and went in to the Bed as they call’d it when to my Surprize I found it to be nothing but a Little Straw—Matted together [and] one Thread Bear blanket with double its Weight in Vermin such as Lice and Fleas etc.”

Thus George Washington, at age 16, confided to his diary. The year was 1748. He was largely self-taught, far from home, trying to learn the surveyor’s trade. Eventually the father of his country would sleep in a very great number of beds, so that one of them seems suitable enough as an object at hand. All through the 1750s he traveled the Western wilderness, first as a surveyor, then as a colonial officer. After some years building up Mount Vernon as a farm, in May 1775 he was off to Philadelphia as a delegate to the Continental Congress. He would be back soon, he wrote Martha after he left Mount Vernon, but it was eight and a half years before he got home for good.

Instead, he had to go straight to Cambridge, Massachusetts, as Commander in Chief of the new Continental Army in what was fast becoming the American Revolution. Thereafter he was on the move, fighting and retreating hither and yon, skillfully keeping his ragtag army in being. “If I were to wish the bitterest curse to an enemy,” Washington wrote his cousin, “I should put him in my stead.” As the plight of the colonies seemed more and more hopeless, Washington was offered dictatorial powers. He declined to use them. He threatened to resign his impossible task; he and the feckless Congress faced the fact that there was no one else to take up such a burden.

Washington was critical to the success of the Revolution. In one of the pivotal moments of the war, on January 3, 1777 when the cause of the patriots hung by a thread at the town of Princeton, New Jersey, General George Washington proved once more to be the savior of the cause. Despite the remarkable victory at Trenton days before , the American army was engaged in a desperate game of cat and mouse with superior British forces in hot pursuit.

Encountering a British brigade outside of Princeton, the patriot vanguard was forced back by the Royalists. At the height of the fighting Washington with his staff galloped onto the field and rallied the retreating Colonial brigades. An American officer wrote “I shall never forget what I felt at Princeton on his account, when I saw him brave all the dangers of the field and the importance of his life hanging as it were by a single hair with a thousand deaths flying about him…” The British advance was crushed, their forces routed, and the bedraggled patriot army lived to fight another day.

In our own debunking age, a considerable part of the effort to humanize Washington emphasizes the flesh and blood farmer, acquirer or real estate and owner of slaves. We learn that he loved children but never had any of his own. That he practiced soil chemistry and crop rotation, giving up tobacco in favor of wheat. He also bred mules, was one of the finest horsemen of the age, liked to dance and play cards and –though he ate and drank sparingly-distilled and sold whiskey out of Mount Vernon. He was a faithful husband to his wife Martha, and a doting father to his stepchildren. And, of course, there are those sets of false teeth, not wooden but made from hippo tusks and other materials.

Bringing Washington to life these days is a hard row to hoe, because he really was a monument, too. The stoic Roman virtues that he practiced are almost entirely alien to our febrile times. He was a leader and a patriot, not a politician; the authority figure of all authority figures. Like the Romans he saw ambition not as a matter of individual ego but as a public duty. Infinitely scrupulous, infinitely patient, endlessly devoted to the vision of political union, a democratic republic strong enough and just enough and sensible enough to prosper, he became quite literally the father of a new country. But “father knows best” does not play well today when bumpers are plastered with “Question Authority” stickers, while assorted cultural influences simply presuppose that fathers are hopeless boobs, that patriotic exhortation is mostly phony, and that the restraint, discipline and order that Washington brought to everyday life are hypocritical.

It is hard to understand what the country owed him, if you believe, as people today tend to, that everything had to happen the way it did happen. We can hardly imagine the new republic, its birth perilous, its destiny decidedly not manifest, a tiny shaky experiment, torn with dissension, deeply in debt, a prey to internal anarchy and the external ambitions of Europe. All similar experiments had ended in mob rule or oligarchy or dictatorship.

As Robert Frost observed, “George Washington was one of the few men in all of human history who was not carried away with power.” Certainly, George Washington deserves his reputation as a man of great character, who performed the remarkable task of keeping the cause of freedom alive through eight long years of the Revolutionary War, eight long years during which he returned to Mount Vernon only once. George Washington committed the unprecedented act of surrendering his sword to the Continental Congress after the victory. Thrice he was offered kingship or dictatorship or the Presidency for life; thrice he refused. We literally owe our democracy and our nation, as we know it to him.

Washington was a practical man, a thinker and problem solver, and an original self-help American. He spent his life studying and figuring out what was the right thing to do, then gave it his best shot. He had the latest books on how to be an expert farmer. On how to become your own architect. Books on government and philosophy. The works of Seneca. As general, he figured out how to fight the British starting with no army at all. As President, Washington managed to get the best out of men as opposed as Alexander Hamilton and Thomas Jefferson. Above all, he managed to figure out how to bring the union safely into being.

As President he also stayed as much as possible apart from partisan politic, something we can hardly imagine now. Early on the job, when everything he did set a precedent, he visited the Senate, listened to a good deal of wordy bickering, then left, reportedly saying, “I’m damned if I go there again.” And he never did.

Nothing symbolizes the modern age’s difficulty in understanding Washington’s life and time more than the easy moral outrage that encourages the present to simplify the past in order to condemn it. Especially the matter of slavery. Washington was deeply troubled by slavery. After the Revolution, he did not, with one exception, sell Mount Vernon’s slaves away from their families, and he studied ways in which they might be equipped for freedom, including an arrangement by which they could work for one of his tenants and get paid for it. In his will he stipulated that his slaves should be freed upon his wife’s death, and specifically left money that was still supporting them at least 30 years after his death.

In the end, what did away with slavery was the decline of state sovereignty and the growing power of the union that the constitution made possible. That and the rise of commerce, set in motion by Washington and Hamilton and opposed by states’ rights advocates like Jefferson and others, who championed agriculture even though in the South it was largely based on slavery. Washington understood that the end of slavery would be possible only when the federal government was strong and more people made their living in trade, in manufacturing and other nonagrarian pursuits. Jefferson bitterly disagreed.

It would take a long and bloody civil war to prove that Washington had been right. Yet Jefferson’s final assessment of the first President is worth remembering. “His integrity was most pure, his justice the most inflexible I have ever known and no motives of interest or consanguinity, of friendship or hatred, being able to bias his decision. He was, indeed, in every sense of the word, a wise, a good and a great man.”

George Washington died at age 67 in the big family bed on the second floor of Mount Vernon, on December 14, 1799. He was exhausted; a sudden inflammation of the throat stopped his breathing. At Mount Vernon, you can see the room as it was, complete with blood-letting implements and bloody rags. “Tis well,” he whispered as he died, perhaps thinking of a lifetime of effort, perhaps merely that the hours of pain were over. Martha died just two years later. She never slept in that bed again.

Washington was indeed the “Father of his Country”, who gave more and did more for the establishment of this great nation than any other. As a former slaveholder, Washington suffers from a historical “political correctness”, and has been relegated to a position of obscurity, especially in comparison to other “politically correct” figures such as Martin Luther King.

When my father was a child, there was a picture of George Washington in every school. Every morning they prayed to our Creator and pledged allegiance to the flag of our country. They were taught the history of this great nation, including the character of Washington and the great deeds, accomplishments, and suffering that were so instrumental in the founding of our country. As such, President Washington deserves to be distinguished from the other Presidents. President James Buchanan once said, “When the birthday of Washington shall be forgotten, liberty will have perished from the Earth.” We believe we should return George Washington to the proper and so richly deserved position of honor and respect that he once held.

The settlement of North America goes back to 1607, when Jamestown was founded. Over time, other colonies were built, carved out of the wilderness mainly by small groups of European settlers equipped with little more than axes and plows. The vast majority of immigrants arrived from Europe, and most earned their livelihoods as farmers or tradesmen. Eventually, vast tracts of territory were obtained in the West, opening up new lands for settlement. Pioneers moving in columns of covered wagons blazing trails Westward, turning wilderness into farmland and founding towns and cities by the sweat of their brow. This was accomplished almost entirely by humble, hardworking, resolute White families who carried a bible in one hand and a rifle in the other.

The Age of Enlightenment also saw great explorers such as Captain Cook in the Pacific Ocean and Lewis and Clark in North America. As the 19th century dawned, Europeans found themselves enjoying a much higher standard of living than the rest of the world. Europeans were stunned at the stone-age existence of most Africans and primitive tribal societies of South America. Even formerly great Asian nations such as China and Japan had seen little progress in many centuries. Chinese culture had almost stagnated at the medieval level Marco Polo had written about during his journey 600 years earlier. When Admiral Perry arrived in Tokyo harbor in 1853, the Japanese marveled at the fearsome power of his ships and weaponry, which had the power to level their capital. Although the Japanese were successful in imitating and adopting Western technology in subsequent years, their autocratic form of government did not change, leaving most in Japan without the benefits of liberty.

After the foundation of the United States, Europeans have helped to spread the idea of democratic government to other parts of the world. They have explored every continent, including Antarctica. European explorers were the first to reach the North Pole, the very bottom of the sea, and even the Moon. Their technological marvels have improved every nation’s quality of life and level of prosperity.

As a European American, it is likely that your roots extend to different nationalities such as those of the Scots, English, Scandinavians and Germans. Each of these has its own unique language, customs, dress and history, making a vibrant and colorful quilt of ethnic cultures. And as a member of the European family, you can be rightly proud of your heritage, just as every other ethnic group celebrates theirs. And you have every right to have pride in your ancestors, because they are literally part of you; you carry their genetic code. Although they lived before us, we are not so much different from them; our forefathers are in our very blood.