Cultural and ideological motives

Social Darwinism

The most influential ideological justification for imperialism. Social Darwinism applied (or rather misapplied) Charles Darwin's biological theory of natural selection to human societies. The argument was that nations and races were locked in evolutionary competition, that the "fittest" (most technologically advanced, most militarily powerful) had the right and even the duty to dominate the "unfit," and that domination was the natural and progressive course of history.

Social Darwinism provided pseudo-scientific cover for racism. European thinkers ranked the races in hierarchies, placing white Europeans at the top. These rankings were used to justify discrimination, exploitation, and conquest, even though they had no actual scientific basis. Maria should recognize that Social Darwinism was bad biology being used to rationalize political domination.