Collapse of the British Empire

British Empire

c. 1493/1600- 1997

Monarch | King [[Henry VII (1493-1509)
Elizabeth II (1952-1997)]]

Population | 412,000,000 (1913)

In its article How big was the British Empire and why did it collapse? the website The Week indicates about the collapse of the British Empire:

“  |  From India, further expansion was undertaken through Asia, and by 1913 the British Empire was the largest to have ever existed.

It covered around 25% of the world's land surface, including large swathes of North America, Australia, Africa and Asia, while other areas - especially in South America - were closely linked to the empire by trade, according to the National Archives.

As a result of its size, it became known as “the empire on which the sun never sets”.

It also oversaw around 412 million inhabitants, or around 23% of the world’s population at the time, writes the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development...

The campaigns it waged in Europe, Asia and Africa virtually bankrupted the UK and the subsequent debt it acquired severely comprised its economic independence; the foundation of the imperial system.

The Empire was overstretched and - combined with growing unrest in various colonies - this led to the swift and decisive fall of many of Britain’s key assets, some diplomatically, some violently.

In 1947 India became independent following a nonviolent civil-disobedience campaign spearheaded by Mahatma Gandhi. Britain had lost the jewel in its crown, and this kickstarted a domino effect across the Empire.

“Less than a year later, communist guerrillas launched a violent campaign aimed at forcing Britain from Malaya,” the Imperial War Museum writes.

“In the Middle East, Britain hurriedly abandoned Palestine in 1948. Ghana became Britain's first African colony to reach independence in 1957. By 1967 more than 20 British territories were independent.”

Little remains of British rule today across the globe, and it is mostly restricted to small island territories such as Bermuda and the Falkland Islands. However, a number of countries still have Queen Elizabeth as their head of state including New Zealand, Australia and Canada - a hangover of the Empire.[1]

|  ”

|
|

## Contents

* 1 Darwinism/evolutionism as one of the causes of the collapse of the British Empire
* 1.1 WWI and Darwinism and evolutionism
* 1.2 WWII and Darwinism/evolutionism
* 1.2.1 Adolf Hitler and evolutionary, racist genocide
* 2 See also
* 3 References

## Darwinism/evolutionism as one of the causes of the collapse of the British Empire[edit]

See also: Darwinism as one of the causes of the collapse of the British Empire and Evolutionary racism

Charles Darwin in 1880 at the age of 71.

Britain is the fountainhead of modern Darwinism/evolutionism. Charles Darwin (12 February 1809 – 19 April 1882) was a famous naturalist born in England. He is best known for popularizing the idea of evolution by natural selection presented in his book On the Origin of Species by Means of Natural Selection, or the Preservation of Favoured Races in the Struggle for Life (commonly referred to simply as The Origin of Species).

World War I and World War II greatly weakened the British Empire and after WWII the British Empire collapsed.

According to the Encyclopedia Britannica:

“  |  After World War I ended the dominions signed the peace treaties for themselves and joined the newly formed League of Nations as independent states. When World War II broke out in 1939 the dominions made their own declarations of war, separately from Britain. Many parts of the empire contributed troops and resources to the war effort and took a growing independent view. Both wars left Britain weakened and less interested in its empire. Although Great Britain emerged as one of the victors of World War II, it had been economically devastated by the conflict. The British Empire gradually gave way to the Commonwealth.[2] |  ”

|
|

### WWI and Darwinism and evolutionism[edit]

World War I saw the first use of poison gas, large artillery, armored tanks, and airplanes. It was a "total war" because the governments involved took control over the economy and factories, giving first priority to the goods needed for war. Wage and price controls were imposed, there was rationing of goods for civilians, and free speech was limited. The governments put out propaganda to maximize support for the war and dislike of the enemy. Many of the techniques of population manipulation and central government control which we see today were first pioneered by European powers during World War I.

Historian Jacques Barzun observed how Darwinism caused the horrendous brutality of the wars leading up to this one: "Since in every European country between 1870 and 1914 there was a war party demanding armaments, an individualist party demanding ruthless competition, an imperialist party demanding a free hand over backward peoples, a socialist party demanding the conquest of power and a racialist party demanding internal purges against aliens — all of them, when appeals to greed and glory failed, invoked Spencer and Darwin, which was to say science incarnate."[3] For more information, please see: World War I and Darwinism

### WWII and Darwinism/evolutionism[edit]

Adolf Hitler's rise to power was greatly aided by censoring his critics.[4][5][6][7]

Evolutionary racism refers to a racist philosophy based on Charles Darwin's evolutionary theory. It assumes that men have continually evolved, and thus some races are more evolved than others. It replaces Christian morality with the atheistic "survival of the fittest."

The Nazis and Adolf Hitler consider the German race the "master race".

According to the Holocaust Encyclopedia website:

“  |  The concept of Lebensraum—or “living space”—served as a critical component in the Nazi worldview that drove both its military conquests and racial policy.

Renowned German geographer Friedrich Ratzel coined the term in 1901. He and many others at the turn of the century believed that a nation had to be self-sufficient in terms of resources and territory (a concept known as autarky) to protect itself from external threats.

Ratzel and others were also deeply influenced by the new work of Charles Darwin and his theory of natural selection[8]

|  ”

|
|

#### Adolf Hitler and evolutionary, racist genocide[edit]

For more information please see: Social effects of the theory of evolution

Darwin's evolutionary racism would have enormous impact in early 20th century, eventually leading to eugenics programs (first devised by Darwin's cousin Francis Galton) in American and Europe, and also influencing Adolf Hitler.

The staunch evolutionist Stephen Gould admitted the following:

“  |  [Ernst] Haeckel was the chief apostle of evolution in Germany.... His evolutionary racism; his call to the German people for racial purity and unflinching devotion to a "just" state; his belief that harsh, inexorable laws of evolution ruled human civilization and nature alike, conferring upon favored races the right to dominate others; the irrational mysticism that had always stood in strange communion with his brave words about objective science - all contributed to the rise of Nazism. - Stephen J. Gould, "Ontogeny and Phylogeny," Belknap Press: Cambridge MA, 1977, pp.77-78).[9] |  ”

|
|

Adolf Hitler

Robert E.D. Clark in his work Darwin: Before and After wrote concerning Hitler's evolutionary racism: "The Germans were the higher race, destined for a glorious evolutionary future. For this reason it was essential that the Jews should be segregated, otherwise mixed marriages would take place. Were this to happen, all nature’s efforts 'to establish an evolutionary higher stage of being may thus be rendered futile' (Mein Kampf)".[10]

Adolf Hitler wrote in Mein Kampf: "The stronger must dominate and not blend with the weaker, thus sacrificing his own greatness. Only the born weakling can view this as cruel, but he, after all, is only a weak and limited man; for if this law did not prevail, any conceivable higher development (Hoherentwicklung) of organic living beings would be unthinkable."[11]

Dr. Robert E.D. Clark wrote in his work Darwin, Before and After the following regarding Hitler and the theory of evolution: “Adolf Hitler’s mind was captivated by evolutionary teaching — probably since the time he was a boy. Evolutionary ideas — quite undisguised — lie at the basis of all that is worst in Mein Kampf — and in his public speeches”.[12]

Richard Hickman in his work Biocreation concurs and wrote the following:

“  |  It is perhaps no coincidence that Adolf Hitler was a firm believer in and preacher of evolutionism. Whatever the deeper, profound, complexities of his psychosis, it is certain that [the concept of struggle was important for]. . . his book, Mein Kampf clearly set forth a number of evolutionary ideas, particularly those emphasizing struggle, survival of the fittest and extermination of the weak to produce a better society.[13] |  ”

|
|

Noted evolutionary anthropologist Sir Arthur Keith conceded the following in regards to Hitler: “The German Fuhrer, as I have consistently maintained, is an evolutionist; he has consciously sought to make the practices of Germany conform to the theory of evolution”.[12]

For more information, please see: Darwinism and the Nazi race Holocaust

Richard Dawkins is a prominent evolutionist. Richard Dawkins stated in an interview: “What’s to prevent us from saying Hitler wasn’t right? I mean, that is a genuinely difficult question."[14]

## See also[edit]

* Decline of Europe

## References[edit]

1. ↑ How big was the British Empire and why did it collapse?, The Week
2. ↑ Decline of the British Empire, Encyclopedia Britannica
3. ↑ http://www.creators.com/conservative/pat-buchanan/making-a-monkey-out-of-darwin.html
4. ↑ http://www.historylearningsite.co.uk/censorship_in_nazi_germany.htm Censorship in Nazi Germany
5. ↑ US Holocaust Museum
6. ↑ Censorship of media and the fine arts
7. ↑ Essay on Bookburning
8. ↑ LEBENSRAUM, Holocaust Encyclopedia website
9. ↑ http://members.iinet.net.au/~sejones/social.html
10. ↑ http://www.creationontheweb.com/content/view/1675
11. ↑ https://www.icr.org/index.php?module=articles&action=view&ID=268
12. ↑ 12.0 12.1 http://www.christiancourier.com/articles/read/the_holocaust_why_did_it_happen
13. ↑ http://www.creationism.org/csshs/v08n3p24.htm
14. ↑ http://byfaithonline.com/page/in-the-world/richard-dawkins-the-atheist-evangelist