Charles Darwin, Social Darwinism, and Imperialism Essay

England went through dramatic changes in the 19th century. English culture, socio-economic structure and politics where largely influenced by the principles of science. Many social expressions occurred due to these changes. Transformations which categorized this time period could be observed in social institutions; for instance: the switch from popular Evangelicalism to atheism, emergence of feminism and the creation of new political ideologies (Liberalism, Conservatism and Radicalism). These are just a few of the changes that took place. All of this social alteration can be attributed to the importance of science. The English people began to trust more in empiricism and logical thought than in faith and glory of the empire .†¦show more content†¦. . the grade of civilisation seems to be a most important element in success in competing nations.quot;(Darwin, Decent of Man, p. 297). In this observation, Darwin connotated superiority to civilized nations. In this same work, he referred to the indigenous people as quot;savages, barbarians and tribal menquot;. This immediately transfers a condescending attitude toward the quot;uncivilised peoplequot;. Darwin classified them as tribes while the English and other Aryan cultures were a race. These claims of basic inequality gave the English the quot;jurisdictionquot; philosophically, to exploit the colonies to a greater level than previously attained. The drive to quot;Christianizequot; the colonies was abandoned, politically. The view shifted from quot;owing the primitive worldquot; education and Christianity, to a more self-interested quot;we English are naturally betterquot;. Therefore, the we should be exploiting you, because, that is why you are here. Charles Darwin had a tremendous amount of influence on the scientific community and the English population. It can be seen that Darwinism played a large part in justifying the imperial behavior of England. Darwins studies on nature and the behavior of animals had unlocked quot;Pandoras Boxquot; in a manner of speaking. He studies reveal how close to nature humanity really is. The English empire quickly saw themselves as a dominant predatorial species ofShow MoreRelatedCharles Darwin, The Most Influential Nineteenth Century Evolutionary Thinker1176 Words   |  5 PagesIn the 19th century, scientific research progressed rapidly outside the world of industry and technology (McKay 744). British scientist, Charles Darwin, was the most influential nineteenth-century evolutionary thinker. Darwin spent his early career, amassing enormous amounts of biological and geological data from his voyage to South America (Fiero 3). 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