How did Darwin's science reshape ideas, and how was it twisted into Social Darwinism?
Topic 7.4 Darwinism and Social Darwinism: Darwin's theory of evolution by natural selection and how it was applied, as Social Darwinism, to justify competition, inequality, racism, and imperialism.
A focused answer to AP European History Topic 7.4, on Darwinism and Social Darwinism: Darwin's theory of evolution by natural selection, its impact on science and religion, and how Social Darwinists misapplied survival of the fittest to society to justify economic inequality, racism, nationalism, and imperialism.
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What this topic is asking
Topic 7.4 asks you to explain Darwinism and Social Darwinism: Darwin's scientific theory of evolution by natural selection and how it was misapplied to human society to justify competition, inequality, racism, and imperialism. The College Board wants you to distinguish the science from its social distortion.
Darwin's science
The leap to Social Darwinism
What Social Darwinism justified
Social Darwinism was less a science than a weapon.
Why it mattered
Darwinism and Social Darwinism show how a scientific idea could be twisted to serve political ends. The science itself reshaped biology and the science-versus-faith debate of the Age of Progress (Topic 7.5). The distortion, Social Darwinism, supplied a pseudo-scientific justification for the New Imperialism (Topics 7.6 to 7.7), for aggressive nationalism (Topic 7.2), and for the racial thinking that would feed the catastrophes of the 20th century. This is a clear example of the kind of intellectual development the AP exam wants you to be able to explain and evaluate.
Try this
Q1. State Darwin's theory of natural selection in one sentence. [Recall]
- Cue. Living things evolve over time as those better adapted to their environment are more likely to survive and reproduce, so species gradually change.
Q2. Explain how Social Darwinism was used to justify imperialism. [Short explanation]
- Cue. By stretching survival of the fittest from nature to society, Social Darwinists claimed some races and nations were naturally superior, so the conquest and rule of supposedly inferior peoples could be framed as the natural order and even a duty.
Exam-style practice questions
Practice questions written in the style of College Board exam questions on this dot point, with worked answer explainers. The year tag is the paper they imitate, not the source.
AP 2019 (style)3 marksBriefly describe Darwin's theory of natural selection. Briefly explain ONE way Social Darwinism misapplied it. Briefly explain ONE consequence of Social Darwinism.Show worked answer →
A Short Answer Question (SAQ), 3 points, one per task.
A. Describe: living things evolve over time through natural selection, as those better adapted to their environment survive and reproduce.
B. How Social Darwinism misapplied it: it extended survival of the fittest from nature to human society, claiming some races, nations, and classes were naturally superior.
C. Consequence: it was used to justify economic inequality, racism, aggressive nationalism, and imperialism as the natural order.
Markers want Darwin's theory, the misapplication, and a consequence.
AP 2021 (style)6 marksEvaluate the extent to which scientific ideas were used to justify political and social aims in 19th-century Europe.Show worked answer →
A Long Essay Question (LEQ), scored on the 6-point argumentation rubric.
Thesis (1): "Scientific ideas, above all Darwin's, were widely used to justify political and social aims, as Social Darwinists turned natural selection into a defense of inequality, racism, and imperialism, though this was a distortion of the science itself."
Contextualization (1): the age of progress, nationalism, and imperialism.
Evidence (2): Darwin's theory; Social Darwinist arguments for laissez-faire, racial hierarchy, and empire; the link to aggressive nationalism.
Analysis (2): argue that science was bent to serve ideology, then add complexity by distinguishing Darwin's biology from its social misuse.
Related dot points
- Topic 7.5 The Age of Progress and Modernity: the later 19th-century faith in science, reason, and progress, the advances that fed it, and the new ideas (from germ theory to Freud) that confirmed and then challenged it.
A focused answer to AP European History Topic 7.5, on the Age of Progress and modernity: the later 19th-century confidence in science, reason, and improvement, the medical and scientific advances (germ theory, evolution) that supported it, and the unsettling new ideas (relativity, Freud, irrationalism) that began to challenge it.
- Topic 7.2 Nationalism: the idea of the nation, its romantic and liberal roots, and how it became the dominant political force of the 19th century, uniting some peoples and dividing others.
A focused answer to AP European History Topic 7.2, on 19th-century nationalism: the idea that peoples sharing a language, culture, and history should form their own nation-state, its romantic and liberal roots, and how it both unified peoples (Italy, Germany) and threatened the multinational empires.
- Topic 7.6 New Imperialism: Motivations and Methods: the economic, political, and ideological motives for the late 19th-century scramble for empire, and the technologies and methods that made rapid conquest possible.
A focused answer to AP European History Topic 7.6, on the New Imperialism: the economic, political, nationalist, and ideological motives that drove the late 19th-century scramble for Africa and Asia, and the technologies and methods (steamships, the Maxim gun, quinine, the Berlin Conference) that made rapid European conquest possible.
- Topic 7.7 Imperialism's Global Effects: the effects of European imperialism on colonized peoples (exploitation, resistance, and disruption) and on Europe itself (rivalry, wealth, and new tensions).
A focused answer to AP European History Topic 7.7, on the global effects of imperialism: the exploitation, disruption, and resistance experienced by colonized peoples in Africa and Asia, the responses ranging from rebellion to nationalism, and the effects on Europe, including economic gain, great-power rivalry, and rising tensions.
- Topic 7.8 19th-Century Culture and Arts: the movement from Romanticism through Realism to Impressionism and early Modernism, and what these styles reveal about a changing European outlook.
A focused answer to AP European History Topic 7.8, on 19th-century culture and the arts: the shift from Romanticism to Realism, the rise of Impressionism and early Modernism, and how these artistic movements reflected industrial society, the faith in progress, and the growing turn toward subjectivity.
Sources & how we know this
- AP European History Course and Exam Description — College Board (2020)