Evolution and the Modern Explorer

Evolution & Civilization

• It is difficult summarize exploration and empire since 1800.
• Two developments shaped the "modern explorer" of the 19th and 20th centuries: evolution and civilization.
• Considers the "persona" of the explorer.
• How empire and exploration and its ethos stay intertwined in culture is worth noting.
• The case studies focus on Britain, but extend to other Western powers of the time.

Evolution's Evolution

• Charles Darwin's theory of evolution played an instrumental role in European ideas of empire and competition regarding 'races' and 'societies'.
• It was impacted by Jean-Baptiste Lamarck's ideas that the world was not static but always changing, with effort bringing permanent change.
• Darwin's On the Origin of Species (1859) came from his imperial voyage to South America from 1831-36 as a companion to Captain Robert Fitzroy on HMS Beagle.
• The Beagle was a surveying ship, and Fitzroy hoped to survey the South American coast and boost trade with the former Spanish colonies Britain wanted to sway.

Savage and Civilized on the Beagle

• During the voyage, Darwin and Fitzroy had ideas of profound differences between British civilization and South American 'savagery.'
• Fitzroy was pro-slavery and brought several Fuegians to London, naming them (“Jeremy Button,” “York Minster,” and “Boat Memory"), showcasing them among London's elite.
• Although Darwin loathed slavery, he viewed the "hideous” Fuegians as inferior.

Social Darwinism

• Darwin's theory did not suggest the superiority of any human races.
• Darwin's theory did transpose British liberal economy values onto Nature; the best-adapted organisms win in what Darwin called the "manufactory of species."
• Karl Marx stated that "Darwin recognizes among beasts and plants his [own] English Society."
• It became easy for people to argue that Nature was in support of their European “civilized” views and to use evolution to defend imperialism.
• Successful, civilized nations can survive over savage societies, so their empire and power over 'inferior' people was seen as inevitable, justified, and even accelerated.
• Josiah Strong, an Illinois missionary believed American growth was part of "the final competition of races" and would move down to Central and South America.

The Challenge Thesis

• Imperial combat led men to innovate in science, tech, and art, therefore it was good.
• The late 19th century had extreme arrogance in 'civilized' nations, who were sure of their superiority and disregarded ‘savage’ societies.
• This mindset appeared in the 'heroic' exploration of the 20th century, specifically the race for the South Pole.

Exploration for Exploration's Sake

• Most of the globe was explored or claimed as an imperial colony by 1900, causing a new Darwinian exploration style done for the sake of challenge and civilization.
• Practical imperial interests got replaced by supposedly universal human qualities of ‘adventure’ and ‘curiosity’ where white, wealthy men took on challenges to show civilization's capabilities.

Of Silly Voyages ("I can top that!")

• Voyages included George-Marie Haardt driving a car across the Himalayas, Sir Ranulph Fiennes reaching both Poles, and Sir Richard Branson traveling across the world in a balloon.

Race to the South Pole

• The South Pole race took place in 1911 between Briton Robert Falcon Scott and Norwegian Roald Amundsen.
• British organizer Sir Clements Markham picked Scott, who lacked experience, because he had "good character," which was defined as winning a boat race.
• The British did not use Inuit survival and polar travel techniques because they were seen as "savage" and "ungentlemanly".
• The British viewed polar exploration as a challenge, whereas the Norwegians copied Inuit techniques and won.
• The British used horses to pull sledges, would not kill the dogs for food, and wore greatcoats with balaclavas instead of Inuit parkas.

Tragic Consequences

• The British froze, their horses fell intoicy water and died, and they were left with no food.
• Oates wrote that “the climate is healthy, but inclined to be cold."
• The Norwegians took in Inuit techniques, and they reached the South Pole on December 14, 1911.
• The British died on their way back, writing in his diary, “we are setting a good example to our countrymen by facing hardship, death like men ... we are showing that Englishmen can still die with a bold spirit, fighting it out to the end."

Britons in Space

• In Europe, space exploration grew out of empire, as the British Space Program shows.
• The British Empire was at its maximum in 1921, at 14 million square miles and ruling 25% of the world's population.
• Most of the empire was gone between World War II and the 1960s; places like India (1947), Jamaica (1962), Kenya (1963), Barbados (1966); the Bahamas (1973).
• The "decolonization" era has resulted in the "post-colonialism” age.
• During World War II in 1942, the British Commonwealth was a federation of former colonies, succeeding the Empire.

References to the Empire

• References to empire are abundant in real and artistic space exploration plans: Verne's 1865 rocket was called Columbiad.
• H. G. Wells' War of the Worlds (1898) satirized British imperialism as Martians invaded Britain.

The British Interplanetary Society

• Since Britain had the wealth, they built plans for outer space.
• The BIS was founded in 1933 to study space travel.
• Arthur C. Clarke (1917-2008) invented the geostationary telecommunications satellite with science fiction writings like 2001: A Space Odyssey, 1968.
• Clarke's paper "Man's Empire of Tomorrow" (1938) described the imperial effects of selling other planets.
• Clarke saw Darwinian progress of civilization through imperial challenge, civilization progressed through the action of struggle and conquest.
• Clarke states "Intellectual progress, which reveals itself in the growth of art and science receives an immense impetus from conquest and empire."
• Clarke's imagined empire was in space: "Man" should undertake the "conquest of space", where Interplanetary travel is "the only form of 'conquest and empire' compatible with civilization".

Tea in Space

• Most British people imagined a future space empire in the 1950s
• The Air Force was seen as the natural way to manage space travel, in the USA and Britain
• However in England the WWII flyer was the model versus the pilot
• Dan Dare: Pilot of the Future' battled Venusian leader Mekon for space power in space where Dan was the quintessential future hero in space.

Operation Backfire

• British art, and science would lead to building empire.
• The British began Operation Backfire to build a space rocket in 1944, with the Black Knight, Blue Streak, and Black Arrow rockets
• Super-budget versions of the Saturn V tested them at Woomera, Australia.
• The post-war UK could not fund a space program in the 1960s, and the project stopped in the early seventies.