Novels in Europe originated at a time when European countries were colonising various parts of the world.
This attitude began to be reflected in the works of the authors.
Infact the early novels contributed to colonialism by making the readers feel that they were a part of a superior community of fellow colonialists.
For example, the hero of Daniel Defoe’s Robinson Crusoe (1719) a slave trader, treated the coloured people as primitive and not as human beings equal to him.