White People: Racial classification and skin color specifier

Most white people are of European origin. In American English, the term "Caucasian" is used to mean "white people." Outside of North American, it refers to people or things from the Caucasus Mountains.

Before the modern age, Europeans did not think of themselves as "white". They defined their race, ancestry or ethnicity in terms of their nationality: Greek, Roman, etc. The Ancient Greek civilisation was based on the Mediterranean. The Romans spread their empire from northern Europe to northern Africa.

The idea of a single white race came into use starting in the 17th century. The term white was invented during American slavery to distinguish European Americans from African American slaves. The people who were the strongest supporters of the white race being supreme in 20th century Europe were fascist Italy and Nazi Germany. They felt that some European peoples such as Slavs as a different race even though they were white. This was just for political purposes.

• Black people
• White Americans
• White Mexicans
• White Hispanic and Latino Americans
• Mixed race
• Caucasian race