L7 -charles_darwin
- 1. Charles Robert Darwin (12 February 1809 – 19 April 1882) was an English naturalist who showed that all species of life have come from common ancestors, and proposed that this branching pattern called evolution resulted from a process (that he) called natural selection. Natural selection: survival to species that are best adapted to the environment. He published his theory his 1859 book On the Origin of Species. The public did accept that evolution was fact during his lifetime. It was not until after his death that natural selection became the official basis for evolution. The voyage of the Beagle Darwin was away on the Beagle for five years. The ship made many stops along the way including, Brazil where Darwin was delighted by the tropical forest but detested the sight of slavery. In the Galápagos Islands, Darwin found evidence for natural selection, different beak sizes of mockingbirds spread across different islands, even though they were from the same species. Darwin’s opinion Darwin did not share the racism common at that time: Darwin was strongly against slavery, against "ranking the so-called races of man as distinct species", and against ill-treatment of native people. He valued European civilisation and saw colonisation as spreading its benefits, with the sad but inevitable effect of extermination of savage peoples who did not become civilised. Darwin’s life Darwin’s wife was also his cousin Emma Wedgwood. His theory showed that marrying someone so close in his family line might have a terrible effect on any children he had – causing hereditary disease. He scrawled rambling thoughts about career and prospects on two scraps of paper, one with columns headed "Marry" and "Not Marry". Advantages included "constant companion and a friend in old age ... better than a dog anyhow", against points such as "less money for books" and "terrible loss of time." Having decided in favour, he chose to marry his cousin, Emma Wedgwood. Darwin had ten children in total. Two who died in infancy.