Imperialism And Social Darwinism

Superior Essays
A struggle for existence emerges when more individuals are produced than the earth can sustain. In every case the individual competes with another species, the physical conditions of life, or most significantly, with another member of the same species (Darwin. pg. 63). Charles Darwin and his radical ideas on natural selection sparked immediate controversy in Britain. However, as the upper class began to digest his ideas as an asserted power of science, they applied it to economics, society, and politics, forming social Darwinism. Darwin’s evolutionary theory presented in The Origin of Species was manipulated and applied to human society to justify imperialism and racism. An organism’s struggle for existence explains why some species’ characteristics …show more content…
Spencer and other “Social Darwinists” became strong lobbyers for Laissez-faire economics. They felt that to give Britain the means evolve into an industrial society, businesses needed to be able to operate with little government interference. Spencer was influential in applying Darwin’s ideas to social evolution, relating his theories about competition amongst species to social life, justifying his coined term, “survival of the fittest”. The growing gap between the rich and the poor in Britain was not only justified by social Darwinism and the idea of “the survival of the fittest”, but encouraged. In order to ensure that Britain was composed of only hardworking, motivated, and intelligent people, Spencer and other Social Darwinists fought for the discontinuation of welfare. Redistributing resources from the most fit members to the least fit would violate natural order and allow the prolongation of less fit members, encouraging laziness and rewarding the unskilled. Spencer supported little government inference so that the “unfit” would receive no welfare, in order to not prevent them from dying out. He uses very harsh language in attempt to justify the abet death of orphans, widows, minorities, and the sick in Social Statistics. In accordance to Spencer, his words only “seem hard”, but when …show more content…
Overlooking the impoverished and spiteful natives, Britain saw India as a perfect opportunity for self-liquidation and imperialism. In the midst of a horrific famine in India, Britain stepped in with efforts to “civilize” the country. Aside from the lasses-faire economic policy imposed on India, missionaries sought to also change India culturally. Their goal was to turn Indians into “Brown Englishmen”, ultimately giving them all the skills needed to attain freedom and sustain their country alone (Wasson 190). Not only did Britain strive to reproduce the same economic and social situations as in Britain, but they sought to spread English culture and religion. However, India did not want nor ask for help from Britain, thus creating tensions that eventually broke out into protests and a brutal war for independence. Social Darwinism engrained an impression of empirical dominance and superiority into the minds of the British, leading them to feel obliged to interfere in India and other struggling countries. Looking back, it seems that Britain only brought more tragedy to India as they watched as millions of Indians perished from starvation in the 19th century. There was little to no aid provided by Britain to help the impoverished, starving Indians, for laissez-faire economics and social Darwinism ideals prohibited it. The British

Related Documents

  • Improved Essays

    Even though the British provided the Indians with advanced technology and education, Imperialism within India was mostly negative because of famine, the Sepoy Mutiny, and their bad regimen or bad treatment towards them. First and Foremost in India there was famine due to imperialism. The more cotton that was being grown, the more famine deaths there were. For example, in document 3 according to the chart it shows that between 1876-1879 there were between 6.1 million- 10 million famine deaths.…

    • 605 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    The Homestead lockout and strike of 1892 had a big impact on the labor movement of the late 19th century. The misapplication of Darwinian thought is used to explain the misuse of free market techniques. Based on the lecture given in class, Social Darwinism was developed by British philosopher Herbert Spencer who applied Charles Darwin’s theory of biological evolution to society. It is described as a process that came as a result of competition where the strong succeeded and the weak died. Social Darwinism insisted that neither government nor human intervention should be used in order to help the poor.…

    • 798 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    But not only that but the British also ended female infanticide, which basically meant that you could kill your child if it was a girl and not get in trouble. The British also helped the people of India by increasing everyone’s life expectancy with medicines that fought off smallpox and malaria. Document 2 attempts to rebuttal this by bringing up famines which killed millions. However famines are almost unavoidable, they happen to everyone in sometime in history.…

    • 802 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    The power of the British empire was able to put down rebellion with minimal struggle, overcome the expense, and reap the numerous benefits that dictating India brought. The chapter of Imperialism in British history was an important one, as it shaped British policy for over a century. Britain’s triumph over India benefitted Britain through gleaning them resources and an ally during the world wars. With minimal resources used during the conquest, the reward highly exceeded the cost.…

    • 1209 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Spencer was known for his sociological theories, which were linked with Charles Darwin’s theory of natural selection to create the Social Darwinism theory. Upper class people often used the Social Darwinism theory to justify American imperialism, because it allowed them to explain and justify the gap between the poor and rich social classes. The theory argued that groups of people compete with one another to get to the top – whether it be the top of economical, political, or social hierarchies – much like groups of animals and plants do. So, those that reach the top naturally deserve the spot they earned because they proved themselves to be the best adapted, and they will most likely pass the beneficial adaptations to their children. Spencer, considered the chief supporter of Social Darwinism, also invented the term “survival of the fittest”.…

    • 1502 Words
    • 7 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    This shows that India created positive standards of living under British rule and it also highlights the key idea of ethnocentrism. The British judged India on their lifestyles, so they decided to improve it for the benefit of the people. In addition, in Document 6, the British made many improvements such as ending slavery, establishing a court system, educating officials how to administer their country, and also creating an education system (Document6). This also shows that the British positively influenced the Africans’ lives. However, they also did many negative and harsh things.…

    • 809 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    From 1880 to 1914, there was an increasing trend of European nations dominating African colonies. Belgium, France, Britain, Germany, Italy, and Portugal were all overtaking and claiming lands in Africa during the late 1800’s and throughout the early 1900’s. The European acquisition of African colonies was influenced by strong feelings of nationalism and Social Darwinism. Althoughter, political and economic incentives and racial attitudes are what drove the European accessions of African colonies. Social Darwinism had a massive effect on the attitudes of Europeans during European imperialism in the late 1880’s.…

    • 810 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Superior Essays

    The blatant ignorance due to the assumed cultural superiority on the part of the British towards Hindu rituals shows how important tolerance towards different belief systems is and how evidently lacking it was in this situation. The acceptance of self-immolation by widows in Indian society is one that makes a great deal of sense considering the belief system that is Hinduism. Different religions and cultural backgrounds lead to different beliefs as to what is moral and what is not, when the British encounter different morals then their own there was no attempt at understanding, despite the very good cultural and religious reasons behind the morals of Indian…

    • 1862 Words
    • 8 Pages
    Superior Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Social Darwinism originated during the late nineteenth century, a time commonly referred to as the Gilded Age, which was a time of industrialization and immigration. This concept stems off of Charles Darwin’s theory of evolution and natural selection. Following his hypothesis, a man named Herbert Spencer extrapolated this idea to the human race. Believing that some people were born to succeed and reproduce, while some solely existed to suffer and die off, is the summary of his mindset. Eventually, he thought, the human race would consist of only the rich and powerful, because the poor and weak would not be able to reproduce and carry on their supposedly tainted genes.…

    • 756 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Ch17. The Rise of Industrial America, 1865-1900 ~ By 1900, U.S. leading industrial power by a combination of factors : * Natural Resources (coal, iron ore, copper, lead..) * Labor Supplies (immigrants)…

    • 2908 Words
    • 12 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Natural Selection Dbq

    • 679 Words
    • 3 Pages

    Social Darwinism was simply natural selection applied to the human species. Many people believed that the superior men were subject to the strength that allowed them to overcome challenges that the inferior men failed to. Walter Bagehot, a journalist and economist, states, “those nations which are strongest tend to prevail over the others…” (Doc. 3). Given that he is a journalist, he would be open to new ideas and thoughts.…

    • 679 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Over the years scholars have misinterpreted the belief of Social Darwinism as a dramatic social change in history but Social Darwinism is more then that. We can take a look in why society today and how history has been in the past by understanding the concept of “survival of the fittest”. We have to understand the connection that is being made with racism and imperialism to better understand the concept of social darwinism. This connection is brought up with the belief that a certain group may be stronger than the other or that they're just simply better than anyone. Here is where the roots of social darwinism crept from.…

    • 674 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Great Essays

    Britain 's rule over India is often referred to as the Raj, where roughly about 20,000 or so British officials and troopers ruled over 300 million Indian people. The British almost had complete cooperation from the local Indian princes and Indian troops, making it extremely easy to control the country. Their control over India was solidified even more by the fact that India was not a unified country. The British made treaties with the independent states in India, which created a deeper divide in the country and ensured that India could never unite against them. The caste system only helped the Brits maintain their control.…

    • 2140 Words
    • 9 Pages
    Great Essays
  • Superior Essays

    During the late 1800s, Western European nations like Great Britain began to use the term imperialism, to justify using their powers over weaker countries around the world. Two countries who were impacted by imperialism were Nigeria and India. Imperialism was very beneficial for the European and American powers, but had a negative impact on the countries who faced this which would lead to issues. One example that gives insight to how India was impacted by Britain’s imperialism, is Dadabhai Naoroji’s speech, “The Pros and Cons of British Rule.” Naoroji, a man born into a prosperous family, left his math career so he can fight for better conditions for India.…

    • 1588 Words
    • 7 Pages
    Superior Essays
  • Improved Essays

    To begin with, Britain opened schools that taught English so the Indians could communicate; English became many Indians’ second language, and today, India is the second largest English speaking country. On top of that, the British changed their social practices significantly; before, the Indians believed in female infanticide, sati, and polygamy, but when the British expressed their beliefs, they introduced the ideas of liberty, equality, freedom and human rights; women started having better educations and more public employment. It is said that, at one point, Indians began feeling embarrassed of their own ancestors and became strong believers of colonization. As you can see, Britain really changed the ways Indians thought and how they went about in their daily…

    • 729 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Improved Essays