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Kenn e dy 1 Survival of Empir e s By Paul Kenn edy [Being th e op enin g lectur e of th e Darwin Lectur e series on Survival, an d deliver ed at Cambri dge, Janu ary 20th , 2006, at th e invit ation of th e Master an d Fellow s of Darwin College.] The th em e ch osen for thi s year ’s Darwin Lectur e series, not to say th e top ic s of th e in dividu al lectu r e s, reflect th e sh eer ran ge an d inter di scip lin ar ity of Darwin him self an d, p erh ap s even m or e so, th e multit u d e of way s in which Darwinian th ou gh t an d Darwinian expr e s sion s h ave been u sed, an d mi s - u sed , over th e p ast 150 year s. Since it is (th an k fu lly) n ot th e task of th e fir st sp eak er to reflect up on th at m assiv e corp u s of kn ow ledge, th er e is n o call in this ch ap t er to pr ovide intr odu ct or y rem ar k s ab ou t th e seven top ics an d lectu r e s which follow . Nor is th er e a place her e to discu ss n atu r al selection , mu t at i on , ch an ce, geogr ap h ical isolation or ecology ; th ey deserv e th eir own att en t i on , along with th e m any oth er varian t s of th e ter m “surviv al” th at are exam in e d in lat er ch ap t er s in this collection . The rem it will be “ Survival of Empir e s”. The inten t ion of thi s p ap er is to look at th e p olitical an d ideological mov em en t s th at exist ed in Darwin ’s tim e s, th at wer e th em selv e s evolving becau se of dem ogr ap h ic,