Page 604 - Atlas of Creation Volume 3

The 1946 edition of the Encyclopedia Britannica says that:

This new period of imperialism at the end of the 19th century found its spiritual support in Bismarckism and
social Darwinism, in all the theories glorifying power and success, which had swept over Europe... Racial the-
ories seemed to give to this new attitude, which was in opposition to all traditional [i.e. Christian] values of
morality, a justification by "science" and "nature," the belief in which was almost becoming the dominant faith
of the period. 63

A great many researchers and authors accept that Social Darwinism represents the origin of the 19th

century's new imperialism. For instance, in Darwin and the Darwinian Revolution, Professor of History
Gertrude Himmelfarb says this about the close relationship between Social Darwinist racism and imperi-
alism:

Social Darwinism has often been understood in this sense: as a philosophy exalting competition, power and vi-
olence over convention, ethics, and religion. Thus it has become a portmanteau of nationalism, imperialism,

militarism, and dictatorship, of the cults of the hero, the superman, and the master race. 64
The well-known German historian Hans-Ulrich Wehler describes this aspect of Social Darwinism in

these terms:

... it [Social Darwinism] allowed the emancipatory aspirations of the workers or colonial peoples to be dis-
missed as the futile protestations of inferior subjects in the struggle for existence. Vested with an aura of 'ir-
refutable' scientific knowledge, it was this versatility of application that gave Social Darwinism its power in its

very real connection with the ruling interests. As an ideology it proved virtually ideal for justifying imperial-
ism, [and] was kept alive by a host of popularizers in the industrialised nations. 65

One can see Social Darwinist views in lines written in favor of imperialism in the retired German
General Friedrich von Bernhardi's 1912 book, Britain as Germany's Vassal:

A picture by Adam Willaerts showing a British
ship sailing to East India.

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