Effects Of Social Darwinism On American Imperialism

In the late 19th and early 20th centuries, European nations were colonizing lesser known areas of the world such as Tasmania, Namibia, Australia and the west coast of America. White Europeans encountered people they had never seen before; their way of life was ‘primitive’ and ‘savage’ in the eyes of the Europeans; who at the time were experiencing the industrial revolution. They saw these people as lesser than themselves as they did not have the technology the Europeans did, as a result this led to them being discriminated against. Herbert Spencer’s adaptation of Darwinism for humans (Social Darwinism) placed the Africans at the bottom of the scale proving their ‘inferiority’ to the white race. This led to the mistreatment of non-white races and in some cases, genocide. Their ‘inferiority’ was used as an excuse for the Europeans to colonize as they believed they had a right to do so as they were more technologically advanced. However the atrocities committed against
Before Social Darwinism was even a theory, European people had discriminated against groups of people for centuries. Europeans mistreated Africans for 300 years of slavery. The Spanish Conquistadors discriminated against and almost completely wiped out the Aztec and Inca people before Social Darwinism became a theory. In addition to this Scientific Racism was a theory from the late 1700s which attempted to show the biological superiorities of the white race, Crania Americana, Published in 1839 by Samuel George Morton attempted to prove that the Caucasian race was superior to other contemporary races through the fact that their skulls could carry a larger brain and therefore they were a more intelligent race. These all are evidence that even if Social Darwinism had not existed, most of the events that occurred due to racial discrimination would most likely have taken place