Darwinism & Imperialism

Charles Darwin’s “natural selection” and “survival of the fittest” led the British ruling class to believe that they were superior to the people of weaker countries, and they felt no guilt to exploit them. Because the nature selected them to be the strongest nation so the weak races deserved to be oppressed by them. As a result, they started to colonize weaker countries and made the colonial people their slaves. Therefore, Darwinism created a proper excuse for the British to implement their imperialism.

As time went by, nowadays many people believe that imperialism no longer exists in the world. However, imperialism may never disappear. Imperialism has become a cultural form that continues to exist in our world. For instance, people of developed countries use cultural products to influence the people of third world countries to believe that white people are superior to them. Actually, almost all third world countries are using developed countries as models to develop their politics and economy, and they believe that it is a way to modernize their countries.

Thus, Darwinism may still be an important ideology for governments of developed countries, such as Britain and the United States, and it may be one of the roots of the imperialism.