I suspect that you are one of those people who just can't believe that those in authority would manipulate 'human nature' for their own selfish and venal ends. Try reading Niall Ferguson's appalling history of the 20th Century, 'The War of the World' (Penguin Books, 2006) - and then try telling me that economics has nothing to do with racism!
Oh yes, 'Beardedbruce', the above book also deals with the Armenian genocide and it is part of Ferguson's thesis that racism and racist wars are always at their worst following the collapse of empires.