Toward the end of the 19th century, the United States entered a period of growth and industrialisation. An abundance of natural recourses, cheap labour supply, and a self-sufficient food supply contributed to the industrialisation of the United States. This time was known as the American Industrial Revolution. Due to the growing prosperity of the United States, the American people, in general, adopted a heavily opportunistic and an excessively materialistic view towards life.

Charles Darwin, a British naturalist, developed a theory of evolution through the process of natural selection. His ideas were presented to the public through several manuscripts that he wrote towards the late 19th century. The Origin of the species was one such manuscript, in which Darwin presented his idea that species evolve from more primitive species through the process of natural selection. When Charles Darwin's The Origin of Species reached the United States following its publication in 1859, the reading public quickly gave it a popular reception. The Americans had observed the disarray over political issues in the period before and during the Civil War, and had experienced many hardships later durin

The interpretation of Darwin's theory of the "survival of the fittest" not only justified views on eugenics, but also on racist and sexist ideas. The American Eugenics Society urged the passing of laws that restricted marriages between different racial groups. The United States was made up of a people long familiar with Indian warfare and southern slavery. These experiences had been grounded in views of racial superiority. In a nation where the whites and blacks were "separate but equal", the Social Darwinists' ideas served to justify their separateness. The ideas demonstrated that because there were physical differences between the blacks and the whites and since the whites were in control of the nation, the whites were the "fittest" of the two races, and were thereby justified in their leadership. Although Darwinism was not the primary source of the racism in the United States, it was used as an instrument in the hands of those who sought to justify a policy of separateness. The blacks were seen as racially inferior and remained separate in their jobs and schools. The American Indians were seen as lesser people than the Americans were because they were not "civilised" by western standards. Their land was exploited and they were treated as a simple annoyance that had to be dealt with during the expansion of the west. Congress passed the Dawes Severalty Act of 1887 in an attempt to protect the American Indians during the time that it took them to "adopt the habits of civilised life" (Dawes Severalty Act of 1887). This act failed of course, because an entire culture grounded in tradition could not be changed by an enactment by Congress. The feeling that the American Indians were lesser people originated from colonial times in America. Social Darwinism gave the American people a means by which to justifying these feelings.

The capitalistic views influenced by Social Darwinism not only affected the handful of rich business owners, but also affected the minds of the working class. Although the working class felt threatened by these large businesses, they also strove harder to become a part of the upper class. The working class was, in a sense, inspired by the capitalistic minds of the wealthy. The government did little to stop the large corporations from growing and devouring one another. A series of weak presidents occupied the White House such as Andrew Johnson, who was nearly thrown out of office due to his failure to compromise with Congress, and Ulysses S. Grant, who did nothing to prevent the scandals that disgraced his administration. There was also an imbalance between the control of the Senate and that of the House of Representatives within Congress. The House of Representatives was inefficient and disorderly and, as a result, they seemed to encounter severe difficulty in accomplishing everyday situations. The Senate, on the other hand, was seen as orderly, intelligent and therefore superior to the House of Representatives. The Senate was also generally comprised of wealthy white men who derived their wealth from capitalistic corporations such as banking. Consequentially, the power of the United States government favoured free trade and the general wealth of the country was left in the hands of a few businessmen. Questions of state and local importance were to determine who controlled the federal government.

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Approximate Word count = 2270
Approximate Pages = 9 (250 words per page double spaced)