As we learned from the last thread on this topic, everyone has a different definition of what being chareidi is.
Back to the OP- if by chareidi the person meant a strong adherence to halacha, keeping mitzvos without compromise, emphasis on learning Torah and emunas chachamim, then those things have always defined frum people from Sinai and had nothing to do with the haskala.
If he was referring to some aspects of chareidi lifestyle, like isolationism, type of dress, keeping out secular influences, whether in education or other forms, then he may be correct. These aspects did develop as a response to changing times- afterall, pre- enlightenment times it was not necessary for such policies to be made when frum Jews lived in isolated shtetels, when the general goyish population was ignorant and illiterate and their lifestyle not particularly enticing, and those who went “OTD” shmaded themselves and left the community altogether.