Imperialism in Western Civilization
Imperialism
Near the end of the nineteenth century, there was a sharp increase in the need for people of Western civilization to expand their way of life across the globe. Colonization had begun in the 1600s as a method of economic gain for European countries. The reasons for expansion in the late nineteenth century, however, had deviated from only economical prosperity. The notion that evolution as well as the belief in their racial and cultural superiority caused many white Europeans and Americans to assume that they, as a people, had the right and were destined to dominate the world and thus served as one of the central justifications for imperialism in the late nineteenth and early twentieth century. In 1859, Charles Darwin, a scientist from England, formulated the theory of evolution. His theory was composed of two ideas: variation and natural selection. Variation was explained to be certain biological characteristics that a creature possessed in order to survive. Certain creatures who had the positive, favorable traits equipped them better for survival as opposed to the individuals lacking them. Natural selection was the process in which a species that adapted better to the environment because of preferable physical or mental characteristics continued to evolve and what caused the weakest of the species who were lacking in these to perish. Many Europeans and Americans embraced the theory of evolution because it appealed to their firm belief in competition. People who subscribed to the theory of natural selection as a means of social progress were known as social Darwinists. One of the most famous of the social Darwinists was a British man named Herbert Spencer. His view was that “human societies evolve like plant and animal species and only the fittest, those able to adapt to changing conditions, survive” (Levack 490.) In one of Herbert Spencer’s writings, Social Statics: Liberalism and Social Darwinism, he states that “by destruction of all
Near the end of the nineteenth century, there was a sharp increase in the need for people of Western civilization to expand their way of life across the globe. Colonization had begun in the 1600s as a method of economic gain for European countries. The reasons for expansion in the late nineteenth century, however, had deviated from only economical prosperity. The notion that evolution as well as the belief in their racial and cultural superiority caused many white Europeans and Americans to assume that they, as a people, had the right and were destined to dominate the world and thus served as one of the central justifications for imperialism in the late nineteenth and early twentieth century. In 1859, Charles Darwin, a scientist from England, formulated the theory of evolution. His theory was composed of two ideas: variation and natural selection. Variation was explained to be certain biological characteristics that a creature possessed in order to survive. Certain creatures who had the positive, favorable traits equipped them better for survival as opposed to the individuals lacking them. Natural selection was the process in which a species that adapted better to the environment because of preferable physical or mental characteristics continued to evolve and what caused the weakest of the species who were lacking in these to perish. Many Europeans and Americans embraced the theory of evolution because it appealed to their firm belief in competition. People who subscribed to the theory of natural selection as a means of social progress were known as social Darwinists. One of the most famous of the social Darwinists was a British man named Herbert Spencer. His view was that “human societies evolve like plant and animal species and only the fittest, those able to adapt to changing conditions, survive” (Levack 490.) In one of Herbert Spencer’s writings, Social Statics: Liberalism and Social Darwinism, he states that “by destruction of all
Cited: Herbert Spencer, “Social Statics: Liberalism and Social Darwinism” (1891), in Dennis Sherman, ed., Western Civilization: Sources, Images, and Interpretations, 6th ed., 2 vols. (Boston: McGraw Hill, 2004) Houston Stewart Chamberlain, “Foundations of the Nineteenth Century: Racism” (1900), in Dennis Sherman, ed., Western Civilization: Sources, Images, and Interpretations, 6th ed., 2 vols. (Boston: McGraw Hill, 2004) Strong, Josiah Western Heritage, 2 vols.(New York: John Wiley and Sons, 1967), 2:317-20. Beveridge, Albert eds., A More Perfect Union: Documents in U.S. History, 2 vols. (Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 1992). Joseph Chamberlain, “The True Conception of Empire” (1897), in Lim and Smith, eds., The West in the Wider World: Sources and Perspectives, 2 vols York: Bedford/St. Martins, 2003). Joseph Rudyard Kipling, “The White Man’s Burden” (1899) in Katherine J. Lualdi, ed., Sources of The Making of the West, 2nd ed., 2 vols Brian Levack et al., The West: Encounters & Transformations. Vol. 2, Concise edition, (NewYork: Pearson-Longman 2007) 490-491