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Twenty First Annual Darwin College Lecture Series 2006

SURVIVAL

Lecture 1   :   20 January

SURVIVAL OF EMPIRES

Paul Kennedy

Yale University

Biography  |   Abstract   |   Printable Version   |   Podcast Preview

Abstract

This lecture will begin by discussing the appropriateness of the connections between Darwin, survival, and Empire. It was of course the vulgarised versions of Darwinian thought about "the survival of the fittest" that proved so compelling to politicians and publicists in the late-19th/early-20th age of imperialism. Struggle was natural, and everywhere. Countries were either rising or falling. There was no standing still in the era of the Scramble for Africa, the Spanish-American War [1898], the Russo-Japanese War [1904-05], and the unprecedentedly bloody First World War. Slightly later, Darwinian struggle moved to fresh heights [or do we mean depths?] in the age of Fascism and Nazism.

But how, then, were Empires to survive? The overwhelming answer seemed to be, through ORGANIZATION - through the harnessing of all of the resources of metropolitan society, and not just its military, naval, colonial, technological and financial resources, but much else besides. Empire was an organism, and if one part of the body was weak, the rest would suffer too. So the spotlight of the Imperialists shone fiercely upon education, culture, national health, youth, food supply, the imbuement of patriotic values, the protection of the language. If one failed to take the necessary and proactive measures which they urged, then the Empire's days were numbered, because there were always newer, rising Powers (Germany, America), some of which might organize themselves better than you did. In consequence, Darwin's discussions of natural selection, or of randomness and even accident, were rarely if ever considered.

The theme of organizing Empires for survival in this first Darwin Lecture may prove useful to at least some of authors of the later lectures in the series. To the imperial propagandists, a number of whom founded the "National Efficiency Movement" around a century ago [see G. R. Searle's book of that title], protecting culture, language, health, were component parts of the grand struggle for survival in the world at large.

Many of the examples employed in this lecture will relate to the policies for survival employed by the British Empire from Darwin's time to the end of the Second World War, but it will also include remarks upon other Empires (Rome, Spain, the USA today).

The lectures are given at 5.30 p.m. in The Lady Mitchell Hall, Sidgwick Avenue, with an adjacent overflow theatre with live TV coverage. Each lecture is typically attended by 600 people so you must arrive early to ensure a place.