Charles Darwin

Introduction & Top Questions
Early life and education
The Beagle voyage
Evolution by natural selection: the London years, 1836–42
The squire naturalist in Downe
On the Origin of Species
The patriarch in his home laboratory
The private man and the public debate

References & Edit History Quick Facts & Related Topics

Images & Videos

How Charles Darwin developed the theory of evolution

Map tracing the global route of the HMS Beagle during Charles Darwin's voyage from 1831 to 1836. The red line shows the ship's journey from Plymouth, England, across the Atlantic to South America, around Cape Horn, through the Pacific including the Galapagos Islands, across the Indian Ocean, around Australia, and back to England via the South Atlantic, with key stops and dates labeled along the route.

Map of southern South America showing Charles Darwin's journeys from February 1832 to September 1835, with red lines marking his routes over land and over water. The map traces his travels along the Atlantic and Pacific coasts, through the Pampas, Patagonia, Tierra del Fuego, and visits to the Falkland Islands and various coastal cities such as Buenos Aires, Montevideo, Valparaiso, and Rio de Janeiro.

Visit Santiago Island, in the Galapagos Islands, where Charles Darwin spent weeks experimenting, observing, and collecting specimens of the unique Galapagos wildlife

Know how the Galapagos finches from Charles Darwin's specimen collection helped him in the formulation of his theory of evolution, particularly the woodpecker finch

At a Glance

Portrait of Charles Darwin wearing a dark cloak and hat, with a long white beard, standing beside a wall with climbing vines.

Charles Darwin summary

Quizzes

Who Did That? A Historical Bio Quiz

Michael Faraday (L) English physicist and chemist (electromagnetism) and John Frederic Daniell (R) British chemist and meteorologist who invented the Daniell cell.

Faces of Science

Cross section of Earth showing the core, mantle, and crust

Everything Earth

greylag. Flock of Greylag geese during their winter migration at Bosque del Apache National Refugee, New Mexico. greylag goose (Anser anser)

Biology Bonanza

Buzz Aldrin. Apollo 11. Apollo 11 astronaut Edwin Aldrin, photographed July 20, 1969, during the first manned mission to the Moon's surface. Reflected in Aldrin's faceplate is the Lunar Module and astronaut Neil Armstrong, who took the picture.

Exploration and Discovery

Related Questions

How can natural selection lead to the formation of new species?
How did Charles Darwin explain sexual selection in animals?
How did Charles Darwin explain the formation of coral reefs?
How did Charles Darwin’s ideas differ from Jean-Baptiste Lamarck’s theory?
How did Charles Lyell’s Principles of Geology influence Charles Darwin?
How did Gregor Mendel’s work later help explain inheritance in evolution?
How did John Stevens Henslow help Charles Darwin join the HMS Beagle voyage?
How did fossils of giant extinct mammals influence Charles Darwin’s thinking?
How did selective breeding of pigeons help Charles Darwin explain natural selection?
How does natural selection cause helpful inherited traits to become more common?
How were Charles Darwin’s ideas misused in social Darwinism and eugenics?
What did Charles Darwin observe about earthquakes and rising land in Chile?
What did Charles Darwin observe in the Cape Verde Islands?
What differences did Charles Darwin notice among Galapagos mockingbirds?
What evidence from fossils did Charles Darwin use to support evolution?
What fossils did Charles Darwin find in Argentina?
What role did Charles Darwin have on HMS Beagle?
What scientific subjects did Charles Darwin study at the University of Edinburgh?
What was Charles Darwin’s life like at Down House in Kent?
When and where was Charles Darwin born?
When did HMS Beagle begin its voyage with Charles Darwin aboard?
When was On the Origin of Species published?
Which Cambridge professors influenced Charles Darwin’s interest in natural history?
Which Galapagos animals did Charles Darwin study during his visit?
Which earlier ideas about evolution were proposed by Erasmus Darwin?
Which places did Charles Darwin visit during the voyage of HMS Beagle?
Who was Robert Edmond Grant and how did he influence Charles Darwin?
Who were Charles Darwin’s parents?
Why did Charles Darwin begin thinking about Earth’s deep history?
Why did Charles Darwin enroll at Christ’s College, Cambridge?
Why did Charles Darwin leave medical school at the University of Edinburgh?
Why did Charles Darwin oppose slavery after visiting Brazil?
Why did Charles Darwin spend much of the Beagle voyage exploring on land?
Why was Charles Darwin buried in Westminster Abbey?
Why was Charles Darwin nicknamed “Gas” at Shrewsbury School?
Why were Charles Darwin’s and Alfred Russel Wallace’s papers presented together in 1858?
What is Charles Darwin famous for?
What is evolution, as Charles Darwin understood it?
What was Charles Darwin’s educational background?
What was Charles Darwin’s family life like?
What were the social impacts of Charles Darwin’s work?
Who was André Michaux?
What were some of André Michaux’s contributions to botany?
What happened to André Michaux during the French Revolution?
What was Alfred Russel Wallace’s early life like?
How was Alfred Russel Wallace influential?

Science Biology Biologists

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External Websites

The Victorian Web - Charles Darwin
Internet Encyclopedia of Philosophy - Charles Darwin
Australian Dictionary of Biography - Biography of Charles Robert Darwin
Pew Research Center - Darwin and His Theory of Evolution
BBC - In Our Time - Darwin: In Our Time - Darwin: On the Origins of Charles Darwin
Gresham College - DarwinÂ‘s Troubled Legacy
Verywell Mind - Charles Darwin: Biography, Theories, Contributions
Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy - Darwinism
ABC listen - Overnights - Charles Darwin
Royal Museums Greenwich - Charles Darwin: one of Britain's most celebrated naturalists
National Center for Biotechnology Information - PubMed Central - Charles Darwin and the Origin of Life

Britannica Websites

Articles from Britannica Encyclopedias for elementary and high school students.

Charles Darwin - Children's Encyclopedia (Ages 8-11)
Charles Darwin - Student Encyclopedia (Ages 11 and up)

Charles Darwin

British naturalist

Also known as: Charles Robert Darwin

Written by

Adrian J. Desmond

Honorary Research Fellow, Department of Biology, University College London. Author of Huxley: From Devil's Disciple to Evolution's High Priest and co-author of Darwin: The Life of a Tormented...

Adrian J. Desmond

Fact-checked by

Britannica Editors

Encyclopaedia Britannica's editors oversee subject areas in which they have extensive knowledge, whether from years of experience gained by working on that content or via study for an advanced degree....

Britannica Editors

Last updated

Oct. 26, 2026 •History

Charles Darwin (born February 12, 1809, Shrewsbury, Shropshire, England—died April 19, 1882, Downe, Kent) was an English naturalist whose scientific theory of evolution by natural selection became the foundation of modern evolutionary studies. An affable country gentleman, Darwin at first shocked religious Victorian society by suggesting that animals and humans shared a common ancestry. However, his nonreligious biology appealed to the rising class of professional scientists, and by the time of his death evolutionary imagery...

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