Why did Darwin, rather earlier scientists, come up with the theory of evolution?
Several thinkers did come up with the idea first, not least his own grandfather, Erasmus Darwin. But Darwin’s fame is as much to do with when and how he published it as to with the theory itself. Darwin’s ideas were shaped by Victorian imperialism and industrialisation; the workings of steam-powered capitalism provided him with the key metaphor that underpins his theory, enabling him to think about the process of history and the nature of change. Darwin and his generation believed that competition was a beneficial and inevitable aspect of society. Nations, businesses and individuals had to adapt and change in a competing world, otherwise they perished. Darwin effectively described nature as a perfectly efficient free market, which led to improved products, better organisms. One reason so many Victorians were willing to accept Darwin’s views about evolution was that he talked about the triumph of ‘superior races’ at a time when Britain ruled the world. It was absolutely the right time f
