A quote I found sums this question up, but it'd be better to do some side research. - "<span>the theory that individuals, groups, and peoples are subject to the same Darwinian laws of natural selection as plants and animals. Now largely discredited, social Darwinism was advocated by Herbert Spencer and others in the late 19th and early 20th centuries and was used to justify political conservatism, imperialism, and racism and to discourage intervention and reform."</span>
There was a snag in the system, Europe owed money to the U.S for WWI, in order to pay it back they needed to export more than they import. "Such was his weakness that he tolerated people and conditions that subjected the republic to its worst disgrace since the days of Grants
