Zoologic Darwinism and the Origins of World War One:

A posting form “The Afternoon Map” blog on cartography and history:

Thursday, February 27, 2014

Zoologic Darwinism and the Origins of World War One

The cover of Mussaver Tarif-i Hayvanat, or Illustrated Guide to Animals. M. Emin, Istanbul: Matbaa-i Osmaniye, 1310 (1892)

A great deal of fascinating work has been done on the political implications of Social Darwinism – the misguided but extremely popular 19th century effort to apply Darwin’s theory of natural selection to human society. Historians have highlighted the role of this ideology in justifying everything from imperialism to extreme capitalism to eugenics. Today, this Ottoman Bestiary seems as good a pretext as any to discuss how social Darwinism contributed to the outbreak of the First World War….