The reasons for the occurrence of mass violence and terror that persisted in Europe during World War I and after will never be justified. The reasoning behind these horrific acts resulted in millions of deceased. It makes a horribly tragic historical occurrence an act being played out on a stage, while these reasons, also called intellectual trends and developments, are the lights illuminating the stage. The lights that shine on the stage of war in Europe emits from the blending of popular sovereignty with nationalists ideologies, colonial imperialism, militarization, and eugenics. The blending of popular sovereignty with nationalist ideologies is one of the initial reasons that is to blame for the violence that occurred during WWI and …show more content…
Using force in these other countries to colonize the indigenous peoples, often caused a resentment of the host nation. It can be justified that through this forceful colonization some countries have a better developed infrastructure today. However, it does not excuse the blunt force imposed on the country to become a colony of the host country. The better developed infrastructure within the colonized country was not put there to directly benefit the people of that country, but to benefit the host country. Looking at how colonial imperialism came to be a major trend in the time before and during WWI, it is important to think of the tension occurring as land was being claimed by opposing European powers. As one European country in power claimed new territory, other countries rushed to find a territory to start their own colonies in. A race ensued between European powers as to who could possess the most colonies and territory first. This colonial imperialism influenced tension occurring in the pre-war era and should be accounted for as a specific action adopted by European countries that lead to war in later …show more content…
Looking back in this paper, previously mentioned was an explanation of blending between nationalist ideologies and popular sovereignty, the outcome of that blending being minorities. Minorities existing before WWI, were seen as stressful to the powerful European countries, as these countries wanted a solid national identity, or a common identity of people living within one country. This feeling of “minorities don’t belong in our country” started to change the way people thought, evolving further into eugenics, also called the science of race. Eugenics took people’s ideas that “these minorities don’t belong in my country”, and gave that way of thinking “facts”, or a reasoning why they shouldn't really live in a superior country. Deemed “unfit” in society as minorities didn’t have desirable traits for a superior society, eugenics continued to inspire laws that were eventually carried out in Germany under the Nazi regime.
Eugenics should be noted as one of the most influential intellectual trends, if not the most influential. Before WWI it directly attributed to casting aside members of society who were not the same as a mirror reflection of what was seen as superior. Eugenics created a terror of inferiorness in society during the time before and during the world wars. This terror not only silenced minorities outcries for basic human rights, it confined those seen as possessing positive eugenics to not speaking out for minorities
Lack of scientific knowledge about genetic biology was the primary reason why eugenics movement died out towards the latter half of the 20th century. It was concluded that there was actually no significant way to identify “fit” families. The eugenics movement unjustly called people unfit without reason. The primary downside to the eugenics movement in the United States is that scientist paid too much attention to the genetic correlations between class and genes, but rarely looked at the environmental factors that affected the class. Essentially what the eugenics movement did was called families that were alcoholics and thieves due to your genes. An argument could have been very easily made that these families were
Imperialism being one of the underlying causes for world war 1 was one of the ways that made it world wide. Imperialism highlighted the benefits the alliances got from their own colonies when it came to the amount
Imperialism is an underlying cause of WW1 because conflict occurred when countries take other countries’
Eugenics is the pseudoscience of obtaining desired traits in a population through controlled repopulation, specifically by preventing those deemed “unfit” by “Nordic stereotypes” from breeding. Most modern day Americans do not realize the origins of eugenics, which was planted by Charles Darwin and Sir Francis Galton and bloomed in America, and what effect it had on the attempt to create a master race in Nazi Germany. America played a very influential role in German eugenics by collaboration between scientists and funding from American corporations. The negative connotation associated with this science is usually directed towards the scientists of the Holocaust under Adolf Hitler, and not towards American scientists who also partook in horrific experiments and performed inhumane acts as well. This is absurd when you consider that the United States was the backbone of the eugenics movement internationally and only developed a negative perspective of the research when it became affiliated with the holocaust and the troubling actions of Nazi Germany.
It is almost impossible to think that there was a time in American history where eugenics was something that a large mass of the public thought was actually a great idea. But, when it comes time to face reality, one must realize that this was not just a fabled tale of time of the past and that it actually happened. When researching historical events or movements, nothing is more beneficial to find evidence than through popular literature of the specific time period. The novel that sums up what this entire movement is about the best would be Erskine Caldwell’s Tobacco Road.
The Oxford University Press defines eugenics as “the science of improving a human population by controlled breeding to increase the occurrence of desirable heritable characteristics” with a further—and rather illuminating—explanation which states, “Developed largely by Francis Galton as a method of improving the human race, it fell into disfavor only after the perversion of its doctrines by the Nazis”.
Future eugenicists can extort their knowledge and use it to their advantage. Eugenics is an interesting subject that is co-dependent on society; the future holds great possibilities for acknowledgment in this field of science.
Eugenics came from an era where Social Darwinism was used to explain many social inequalities. Social Darwinism was created by Herbert Spencer and was based off of the work by Charles Darwin. Darwinism contains the ideas of survival of the fittest and the capability of an individual to survive in an environment. Spencer took Darwin’s idea and applied it to society, and explained that social inequalities came from the fact that the wealthy are genetically wired to be better off. Eugenicists noticed that government money was being funded towards the poor and degenerates. They didn’t understand this and they believed it was a waste of money because those people were destined to be impoverished. Eugenicists believed sterilization was the solution. Eugenicists believed anyone with the traits of poverty, feeble-mindedness-including manic depression, schizophrenia, alcoholism, rebelliousness, criminality, nomadness, and prostitution in their lives should be sterilized. Before WWII, eugenics was very popular in the United States. People such as Theodore Roosevelt and Winston Churchill were in support of eugenics. They both supported the sterilization of the feeble minded and insane, but did not support the killing of these people. Once Hitler’s atrocities had been discovered, the eugenics movement had a large decrease in popularity
There are many things that have happened behind closed doors in our great nation. In fact, even today with all the technology and possibilities to learn, the people of this nation still fall ignorant. We don’t know the evils that occur in our nation, not to mention the ideas and blueprints that caused them to come to action. There are many great sins that have been committed, and currently in the process of committing, of these I believe Eugenics to be one of the most abominable. How did eugenics start, where does it come from and who authored and supported it? I hope to delve into this during this essay.
Just think about a human race free of genetic disease where everyone is intelligent and where society and technology advance at staggering rates. This is the future that is envisioned by those who advocate eugenics. Eugenics is the study of methods to improve the human race by selection of parents based on their inherited characteristics (Hartl). The idea was first discussed by Sir Francis Galton in the 1880’s, but was widely unaccepted by people at first due to fear that it would take away their basic human rights and be misused (Hartl). In the early 20th century, eugenics was a very popular and widespread idea in the United States and there were laws created to encourage certain people to have children, while discouraging others from procreating (Morris 66). The main reason eugenics has fell into such disfavor is because the Nazis cited it as the reason for the Holocaust (Morris 66). The use of eugenics by the Nazis can be compared to the use Islam by ISIS, or the use of Christianity by the Westboro Baptist Church. It is a concept that can be misused based on interpretation and extremism. Eugenics itself is just an idea to improve the human race by selective breeding, not by killing millions. Forms of eugenics should be implemented in society because they eliminate genetic diseases and problems, spread favorable traits and attributes, create a more intelligent and less flawed society, and help advance the human race as a whole.
There is much bias and confusion surrounding the topic of eugenics. Many times the reason for this is the lack of understanding of what the term means, where it states “In 1883, Sir Francis Galton, a respected British scholar, and cousin of Charles Darwin, first used the term eugenics, meaning ‘well-born.’ (Genetics Generation, 2015).” This term has evolved to encompass more than just “well-born” as can be seen in the encyclopedia. “The eleventh edition of The Encyclopedia Britannica defines eugenics as ‘the organic betterment of the race through wise application of the laws of heredity.’ (Court, 2004).” The meaning of the word eugenics, due to the way it has been used, confuses many people.
Many nationalists viewed foreigners and members of minority groups as inferior. Such beliefs helped nations justify their conquest of other lands and the poor treatment of minorities within their borders. Nationalism was a chief cause of World War I, and it grew even stronger after that war.
What is the New Imperialism and what were the cause and effects in the World Wars in order to understand what is the “New Imperialism”, we must first learn and define Imperialism: a policy or practice by which a country increases its power by gaining control over other areas of the world: the effect that a powerful country or group of countries has in changing or influencing the way people live in other, poorer countries. The New Imperialism takes on effects in the late 19th century this is when there is an interest or wanting to gain a imperial territory, Imperialism is also consider to be when there is a desire to control a trading routes and resources in a nation. A perfect example of the New Imperialism is called the "Scramble for Africa", this is when Europe tries to takes control over Africa. In the late 19th century Europe struggle to destabilize and to balance the power that they once had before Italy and Germany became unify.
The roots of eugenics can be traced back to Britain in the early 1880’s when Sir Francis Galton generated the term from the Greek word for “well-born”. He defined eugenics as the science of improving stock, whether human or animal. According to the American Eugenics Movement, today’s study of eugenics has many similarities to studies done in the early 20th century. Back then, “Eugenics was, quite literally, an effort to breed better human beings – by encouraging the reproduction of people with "good" genes and discouraging those with "bad" genes.” (www.eugenicsarchive.org) According to Merriam-Webster, the modern day definition of eugenics is, a science that deals with the improvement (as by control of human mating) of
Due to Darwin’s survival of the fittest theory, a prejudiced distinctive form of Social Darwinism developed known as eugenics which is the study that all inferior social groups should be sterilized to prevent the increase in inferior population. Eugenics is the belief that people who are unfit continue to reproduce more unfit offsprings, creating a unfit population, therefore needs to be sterilized. Eugenicists believe that the masses of people who were deficient in intelligence are a real “danger to the human gene pool and should be institutionalized, serialized, or both” (Ruggiero 21). Panicked and alert by this eugenics study psychologist and eugenicist Henry Goddard wrote: “we need to hunt them down in every possible place and take care of them, and see to it that they do not propagate and make the problem worse, and that those who are alive today do not entail loss of life and property and moral contagion in the community by the things they do because they are weak-minded” (Ruggiero 21). In result of President Theodore Roosevelt promoted that America should have “good breeders as well as good fighters” he supported the “Rigid System of Selection” which was the sterilization of “an ever widening circle of social discards, beginning always with the criminal, the diseased and the insane and extending gradually to types which may be called weaklings rather than defectives and perhaps ultimately to worthless racial types” (Ruggiero 21). Based on Darwin 's theory the