Nature’s empire: the Darwinian idiom in late Victorian international thought

Thesis

This thesis explores the impact of Charles Darwin’s theory of evolution by natural selection on the international thought of late Victorian Britain. As the Darwinian revolution transformed Europe, so too did it prove generative of a new evolutionary idiom to theorise international relations. Yet the holistic nature of this Darwinian naturalism—implying as it did a basic unity of humanity under the laws of nature—did not sit easily with the prevailing bifurcating Victorian civilisational language so well-known in International Relations (IR). I thus track the contention and combination of these two modes of thought within Britain between 1851-c.1902 by excavating a Darwinian idiom of international relations which was prominent in this period, but so far under-studied.

In the first chapter I offer my novel methodological approach: a ‘concentric idiomatic history’, which shapes the thesis’ three-tiered structure. First is an exegesis of Darwin’s own writings, recast as a corpus of international theory, within which we find the foundational concepts of the Darwinian idiom. Thereafter, I track Darwin’s influence on a range of neglected political theorists of the period, exploring Darwinism’s transformation of three themes: savagery, war, and empire. Finally, I undertake an analysis of journalism and colonial administration to explore the percolation of such Darwinian notions into quotidian British imperial discourse and practice.

Genealogically, I argue that Darwinism’s radically flat worldview challenges IR’s interpretation of nineteenth-century international order as sharply bifurcated and governed by a ‘standard of civilisation’. Rather, in Darwinism, we find a ‘standard of nature’ which cut across European and extra- European demarcations far before the typically assumed endpoint of the dual order in 1945. In an ecological spirit, I thus close by calling for a new research emphasis on ‘nature’ in international thought, widening the aperture of historical inquiry beyond the well-trodden terrain of manufactured ‘civilisations’.

Authors: Butcher, CE

• DOI: 10.5287/ora-6rax5vdzy
• Type of award: MPhil
• Level of award: Masters
• Awarding institution: University of Oxford
• Language: English
• Keywords: English School; Darwinism; Intellectual history; International thought
• Subjects: Intellectual history; International relations