Page 608 - Atlas of Creation Volume 3

and conflict are evils that bear a heavy responsibility in the sight of God. In the Qur'an, God has revealed

that He does not love corruption or harm being inflicted on people:
When he leaves you, he goes about the Earth corrupting it, destroying crops and animals. God does not love

corruption. (Surat al-Baqara, 205)

Ruthless Practices in the Colonies

The Social Darwinist views that dominated the colonial elites revealed themselves in policies adopted
towards the native peoples. These administrations did not regard these peoples of the countries they ruled
as human, but as primitive, intermediate life forms, and usually inflicted suffering, destruction and un-

happiness. Social Darwinism was one major factor in these countries' ruthless policies. As already seen, the
aggressive measures adopted by some nations, that in their arrogance regarded other nations as inferior,
acquired false legitimization through Social Darwinism. These countries regarded themselves as perfectly
justified in adopting such policies, which only increased their greed and aggression.

The Opium Wars are an interesting example. Great Britain began selling opium to China in the early
1800s, even though at the time the production, sale and consumption of opium were forbidden in Britain
itself. The English governing class, who scrupulously protected their own people against this scourge, soon
made the Chinese people dependent on opium. After his son died of excessive opium consumption, the

emperor decided to put a stop to the British importing the drug into his country. A government official, Lin
Zexu (Lin Tse-Hsü), was sent to Canton—the East India Company's largest port—about putting an end to
the trade. Since the British merchants did not favor cooperation, Zexu had the opium warehouses closed.
The British immediately followed this with military intervention. The Chinese were routed and forced to

accept a humiliating treaty, under which the opium trade in China was regarded as legal. Lin Zexu lost his
post in the government and was sent into exile.
The Portuguese, for their part, exercised their "superiority" by effectively making slaves of the natives.
They kidnapped natives from their colony of Angola and sent them far across the sea as "contracted" work-

ers for five years. But very few of them survived long enough to make the return trip. 70 In the great ma-
jority of occupied countries, colonizing powers took for themselves such territories and resources as they
considered appropriate and gave them to settlers or companies from their own countries. They took no in-
terest in the people who had lost their lands, and totally exploited their workforces, goods and mineral re-

sources.
From their colonies, the British sent raw materials like cotton, tea and minerals to Britain, and later sent
products made from them back to the colonies, to be sold at high prices. Cotton from India was processed
in Britain, and the sale of Indian cotton was prohibited in India. In other words, they could use only cot-

ton sold by the British. The Indians were also able to buy only salt produced by the British.
Another practice of the new imperialism was their belittling and behaving disrespectfully towards
rulers of the countries they colonized. But in earlier times, from the era of Elizabeth I up until Napoleon,
administrators had treated foreign leaders equally. The deviant idea of regarding oneself as superior

gained increasing strength in 19th-century Europe, bringing with it insolence and rudeness.
Darwinist imperialists portrayed their colonization of other nations as the result of their races being
"inferior" and "backward." According to such claims, the order of the superior race had to spread across the
entire world, and if the world were to progress, the inferior had to be improved. Put another way, the colo-

nialist powers alleged that they were bringing "civilization" to the lands they conquered. Yet their practices
and policies in no way reflected their claims to be "well intentioned." Along with their Social Darwinist
ideas, the 19th- and 20th-century colonialist powers brought with them chaos, conflict, fear and humilia-
tion, rather than well-being, happiness, culture and civilization. Even if one accepts that the colonialists

did provide some benefits for their colonies, still the harm they wreaked was many times greater.
Karl Pearson's words cited below, devoid of any humanity or compassion, summarize these
Darwinism-based views:

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