1859–1866 · Europe · Science
Darwin’s account of natural selection and Mendel’s experiments on inheritance supplied new frameworks for explaining change, diversity and traits in living organisms.
Atlas dossier · Industrial & Imperial AgeFree device narration · synchronized English captions · transcript available
Why it matters
Darwin’s account of natural selection and Mendel’s experiments on inheritance supplied new frameworks for explaining change, diversity and traits in living organisms.
Charles Darwin · Alfred Russel Wallace · Gregor Mendel · breeders · naturalists
Evolutionary and genetic ideas transformed biology while also being misused to justify racism, eugenics and social hierarchy.
Interpretation note
This dossier distinguishes the event’s basic chronology from later arguments about meaning, responsibility and legacy. When comparing religious, national, Indigenous or scholarly interpretations, consult the primary and institutional sources above alongside peer-reviewed historical work.
Elsewhere in the world
1860–1913 · GlobalInternal combustion, automobiles and mass mobilityImproved internal-combustion engines and the automobile industry turned liquid fuel into personal and freight mobility on a vast scale, especially through twentieth-century mass production.
1861–1865 · AmericasAmerican Civil War and emancipationEleven slaveholding states attempted secession; Union victory preserved the United States and destroyed legal chattel slavery through wartime emancipation and the Thirteenth Amendment.
1864–1938 · GlobalLabour and trade-union movementsWorkers built unions, parties and international organizations to contest dangerous conditions, low wages and political exclusion.