Since the late 18th century, European powers tightened their military, political and economic grip of the East – from Egypt to India. Europe has established its superiority over "The Orient" through the representation of this diverse territory as backward, fanatical and religious. But simultaneously, the East was an object of admiration and desire. European travelers, scholars and intellectuals, especially Germans, have adopted an imagined Oriental identity in order to criticize the modern European world. The drive to the East has spawned a wide range of cultural, religious and political movements in the modern era, among them the myth of the Aryan race; Christian settlements in the Middle East; journeys to the East for the sake of spiritual and sexual self-discovery; and finally the Zionist movement