How Britain gained an empire - religion and ideasBelief in British superiority and Social Darwinism

Expansion and empire

During the 19th century there was new confidence amongst British people who believed Britain was in a powerful position with respect to her interactions with the rest of the world. It was widely accepted in Britain that Protestant Christianity was the superior religion and that British culture and government were the superior forms of life and rule. These ideas were important in directing the policies of British businesses, churches and the government in pushing forward the expansion of the British Empire in Asia and Africa especially.

By the middle of the 19th century the missionary and explorer, David Livingstone, was explaining Britain’s ideas in terms of 3 Cs:

• Christianity: Many Christians in Britain had campaigned against the slave trade at the start of the 19th century, and they continued their moral crusade against slavery on the continent itself. They also wanted to bring Christianity to the African people.
• Commerce: Many merchants saw the chance to develop trade links with African rulers and peoples. Africans were not always given a fair deal in trade with Britain.
• Civilisation: The British developed a strong sense of their superiority over other races. This was greatly helped by the development of Charles Darwin’s misunderstood 'Theory of Evolution'. Other writers took Darwin’s ideas and then turned them into something he had never intended: ‘Social Darwinism’.

Social Darwinism

Charles Darwin developed his Theory of Evolution during the mid-19th century as a way of understanding how different species changed over vast timespans. Other people, like Francis Galton, then applied the idea that species survived by adaptation to human beings. This ‘Social Darwinism’ was to be the basis for ideas of racial domination and to justify the inferiority of the non-white peoples of the globe to Europeans.

The white man's burden

The superiority of white Europeans was seen to bestow a responsibility on European nations to bring civilisation to the rest of the world. As a result colonial ambition was considered a 'duty' for European powers.