[nine_k]

Esperanto is similar to a bunch of Roman languages widespread in Europe. One can see it as an attempt to collect them back into a common "Latin 2.0".

Outside Western Europe, Esperanto makes rather little sense. It's highly regular, which is nice — but, say, Japanese is also highly regular.

[ithkuil]

Yes it's based off european languages; it was designed in a time when removing barriers from neighboring countries in a culturally very fragmented continent was perceived of higher practical value than creating a pan-human language; intercontinental travel wasn't yet as commonplace as now, yet many european countries had different cultures living within the boundaries of the same states and usually members of the majority culture were privileged as a result; there was hope (espero in esperanto) that people could forget about differences among them and see what they have in common.

Today we can be tempted to frame it as european chauvinism, but that's just because of our expanded horizons as a global society. People who believes in esperanto in the early days would likely share the same feeling now