Social Darwinism and European History
The theory of Social Darwinism shaped a significant percentage of European History in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. Since the times of the Roman Empire, religion was most commonly used to justify somewhat unethical territorial expansion activities (Merriman, 2019). Most of the strategies applied for that purpose worked at the expense of the foreign people. Events such as the anti-Islam campaigns and the process of unifying Germany showed that the use of religion on political matters was meant to cover some hidden agenda (Merriman, 2019). The increased literacy in most parts of Europe led to the rise of brave critics who questioned the use of religion to cover imperialism. The emergence of many religious denominations in the 18th and 19 centuries also reduced people’s willingness to participate in political events out of a sense of religious commitment. By the late 19th and early 20t centuries, Charles Darwin’s evolution theories seemed to be the most appropriate to justify various forms of exploitation (Merriman, 2019). Through a process of natural selection, living organisms evolve into different species. Darwin based his theories on plants and animals but also stated that humans are also subject to similar changes. This paper covers some of the historical events that happened in Europe in the early 20th century, which were influenced by Social Darwinism at least to some extent.
Karl Pearson and Herbert Spencer tried to use Charles Darwin’s theories to justify some human characteristics. Most of Darwin’s arguments were based on an organism’s genetic and molecular aspects, but Karl Pearson and Herbert Spencer believed that the same applied to non-genetic traits as well (Losurdo, 2019). They tried o develop Darwinist theories that could explain factors such as class and racial differences. The two researchers believed that the existence of rich and low-income families was a result of natural selection. The same factor was thought to have contributed to inhabitants of some civilizations living in poor structure and others in tall buildings. Such ideas could only be proven by experimentation. However, some government officials took the ideas seriously and applied them to justify, racism, imperialism, and conservative socio-economic policies in various parts of the world (Losurdo, 2019). Some influential individuals and groups in society believed that the way plants and animals compete for survival is similar to the human competition for limited resources. They used the same theory to explain the fact that some people occupy the top positions in the political, social, and economic sectors while others struggle to achieve meaningful success (Losurdo, 2019). Charles Darwin’s theory stated that at last, the strongest prevail and control the available resources.
Social Darwinism in Nazi Germany
Social Darwinism was applied in many parts of Europe in the early 20th century but was more evident in Nazi Germany. Adolf Hitler’s rise to power was followed by many inhumane events, among them the Darwinist genocidal policies (Weikart, 2016). The Nazi Government believed that Germany and other parts of the world were made of people of different strengths and weakness who are always competing for limited resources. They also thought that the strongest would prevail in the end. In that case, Germans were among the strongest of the human species (Weikart, 2016). The Nazi regime created some propagandist films which showed various species of organisms competing for resources and the most advantaged prevailing over the weaker. The most significant showed beetles fighting for a common factor and the strong ones defeating the more vulnerable.
In Mein Kampf, Adolf Hitler says that life is a constant struggle. One has to fight to remain alive. He believed that whoever is not ready to fight for survival does not deserve life (Obladen, 2016). For that reason, the Nazi Government used the idea of Social Darwinism to attack the Soviet Union in a bid to gain land and eliminate the communistic system of life inspired by the Jews. In 1941, the German forces entered Russia for that reason. Walther von Brauchitsch, one of the military leaders, reminded the army that the war was between races and not between countries as one would think (Obladen, 2016). For that reason, the purpose of the struggle was survival, something that required all the parties involved to move with the necessary harshness in a bid to prevail.
The Nazi Government also used Social Darwinism to justify the Holocaust. Adolf Hitler believed that the Aryan race was superior to the Jews. That idea attracted the support of thousands of Germans in a bid to eliminate the weaker human species for the stronger to prevail (Obladen, 2016). For that reason, it seems that Social Darwinism and Nazism were socially intertwined.
Conclusion
Social Darwinism appears to have been used mainly to justify negative factors such as racism, imperialism, and conservative socio-economic policies. The use of the idea in the early 20th century was more significant in the Nazi Germany, where the government tried to convince its people and the world that its territorial expansion and the Holocaust followed the natural order of survival. In conclusion, Social Darwinism appears to have been the most appropriate for governments at a time when many people believed science-based decisions compared to the religious.
References
Losurdo, D. (2019). Social Darwinism, Eugenics and Colonial Massacres. In Nietzsche, the Aristocratic Rebel (pp. 692-705). Brill.
Merriman, J. (2019). A History of Modern Europe: Volume 2. WW Norton & Company.
Obladen, M. (2016). Despising the weak: long shadows of infant murder in Nazi Germany. Archives of Disease in Childhood-Fetal and Neonatal Edition, 101(3), F190-F194.
Weikart, R. (2016). From Darwin to Hitler: evolutionary ethics, eugenics and racism in Germany. Springer.