Racism is one of the most controversial and damaging issues in the modern world. While it has a long history, the 19th and 20th centuries stand out for the severity of the problem. Why did so many racially motivated crimes occur during this time? The answer may be surprising, as Darwin’s widely accepted theory of evolution is rarely linked to racist ideology, but the connection is clear.
Racial discrimination in the past
Racial discrimination has existed for centuries. In ancient societies, slaves were often foreigners with distinct physical features. For example, the slave trade in ancient Egypt included Nubians from what is now Sudan. During the medieval and early modern periods, Southern Europe was targeted by Muslim Barbary pirates, while Eastern Europe faced raids by Crimean Tatars.
Meanwhile, Arabs and Europeans were actively involved in the African slave trade. European traders transported Africans to the Americas, where they took the place of enslaved Native Americans, who were dying from diseases brought over from Europe.
The sources of modern racism
Racial theories, in the true sense, only emerged in the 19th century. Their development was heavily influenced by Charles Darwin.1 His 1859 monograph, On the Origin of Species, is well known, but few are aware of its full original title: On the Origin of Species by Means of Natural Selection, or the Preservation of Favoured Races in the Struggle for Life, which was only shortened in 1872. The title speaks for itself.
In his work The Descent of Man, Darwin wrote the following: ‘At some future period, not very distant as measured by centuries, the civilized races of man will almost certainly exterminate and replace the savage races throughout the world. At the same time, the anthropomorphous apes […] will no doubt be exterminated. The break between man and his nearest allies will then be wider, for it will intervene between man in a more civilized state, as we may hope, even than the Caucasian, and some ape as low as a baboon, instead of as now between the negro or Australian [i.e., Aboriginal – author’s note] and the gorilla.’2
Darwin was not the first to hold such views, but he brought them to widespread attention. While the language of the passage does not explicitly call for the extermination of lower races, it reads like a prediction set to unfold over time.
Racism in practice
This ‘prophecy’ had already begun to unfold before Darwin’s works were published. Between the 1820s and 1832, the Black War took place, with the Tasmanians as its primary victims. Due to genocide by British colonists, only a few survived from a population that once numbered in the thousands.3
Evolutionists at the time doubted their humanity.4 Charles Darwin himself, in one of his letters, requested Tasmanian skulls in an attempt to identify the supposed missing link between apes and humans.5 For many years, other Australian Aborigines faced a similar fate, suffering regular massacres at the hands of British colonists.6
The apex of madness
Racial theories reached their height in Nazi Germany.7 The Nazis adopted Nietzsche’s reinterpretation of Darwinism and turned their ideas into pseudoscience. Their belief in spiritually superior and inferior races, with the Nordic race seen as the ‘master race’, led to the mass genocide of Jews. Similar policies of extermination were also carried out against Slavs, including Poles.
In recent history, some countries have continued to struggle with racial discrimination. In South Africa, apartheid policies remained in place until 1991. The United States has faced similar issues, with racial tensions contributing to the Civil War in the 19th century and leaving lasting effects, as seen in the riots of 2020.
Conclusion
Would the crimes described above have occurred without Charles Darwin’s theory of evolution? It is difficult to say, especially since he was not the one who introduced such ideas. However, his work contributed to the widespread acceptance of racial hierarchy, the concept of survival of the fittest—both among individuals and nations—and the idea of racial superiority. These ideas led some to commit mass murder against those they saw as inferior, whether due to nationality or physical traits. This casts the theory of evolution in a highly controversial light.
By the way, we recommend reading the articles:
- Giants in the Bible and Other Writings
- Earth – the Only Planet with Fire
- Did Dinosaurs Coexist with Humans?
- Primitive Religion – Animism or Monotheism?
- The Whale Pelvis: More Than Just a Vestige
Footnotes
- Hall, R., 2005. Darwin’s Impact – the Bloodstained Legacy of Evolution. Creation, 27(2), pp. 46–47. Available at: https://answersingenesis.org/charles-darwin/racism/darwins-impact-the-bloodstained-legacy-of-evolution/.
- Darwin, K., 1959. O pochodzeniu człowieka. In: Dzieła wybrane, vol. IV. Translated by S. Panek. Warsaw: Państwowe Wydawnictwo Naukowe, pp. 155–156. Cited in: Wiker, B., 2019. “O pochodzeniu człowieka”, czyli nieprzyjemna prawda o darwinizmie. Teologia Polityczna Co Tydzień, 6(150). Available at: https://teologiapolityczna.pl/benjamin-wiker-nieprzyjemna-prawda-o-o-pochodzeniu-czlowieka.
- Ham, K. & Ware, A.C., 2019. One Race One Blood (Revised & Updated). Master Books, p. 21. Available at: https://answersingenesis.org/charles-darwin/racism/darwins-garden/.
- Lubenow, M., 2016. Neanderthals: Our Worthy Ancestors – chapter 9 in Searching for Adam. Master Books. Available at: https://answersingenesis.org/human-evolution/neanderthal/our-worthy-ancestors/.
- Ham, K. & Ware, A.C., op. cit.
- Nunn, W., 2014. Missing link between Darwin and racism, 12 October. Available at: https://creation.com/missing-the-link-between-darwin-and-racism.
- Bergman, J., 1999. Darwinism and the Nazi Race Holocaust. Journal of Creation, 13(2), pp. 101–111. Available at: https://answersingenesis.org/charles-darwin/racism/darwinism-and-the-nazi-race-holocaust/.
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