In order to answer this question, it is necessary to clear up what the main idea of Social Darwinism was and what the peculiarities of the Americans in the 19th century were. Each century creates more and more challenges for people in order to check who is powerful enough to take leading positions, and who is still weak and has to work more to achieve success.
The 19th century was very hard for the United States of America: many Americans faced considerable losses during the Civil War and the Spanish-American War; the process of industrialization made lots of Americans competed with each other; and even sports industry was changed.
This is why it was significant to present a concept in order to encourage people for development, growth, and learning. Social Darwinism appealed to many Americans, especially in the lat 19th century because this nation lost lots of things and people and had to find more powers to revive and become a leading nation in the world.
Social Darwinism is an ideology that underlines the importance of competitions between individuals and nations, which lead to social evolution in society. This concept identifies one nation and humiliates, or at least, decreases the significance of the others; it is a kind of survival policy, in which the participants, all American people, should prove their rights for existence and show their abilities to participate in competitions and promote social development.
The concepts of Social Darwinism were used in order to clear up how American economy was developed to such extend that was able to compete with many other industries. People changed their preferences and moral principles in order to be able to evaluate new economical concepts and be ready to fight in order to take the most appropriate positions.
Social Darwinism appealed to lots of Americans at the end of the 19th century due to several quite strong reasons. First of all, the outcomes of the Civil War were rather disappointing: this war became to known as the deadliest war in the United States, which cost much money and many lives.
The United States had to demonstrate to the rest of the world, that their nation was still powerful, could easily control any situation, and become a worthy adversary to other nations. Taking into consideration that the ideas of Social Darwinism were all about competitions and demonstration of power and proper competitive abilities, many Americans found out Social Darwinism as a good chance to recover and continue economic growth.
The period of industrialization was crucial for the United States. When Americans completely recovered after the Civil War, they chose rather materialist standpoints towards their style of life and their relations with other countries. Social Darwinism was also justified in order to strengthen American political and social assumptions.
People, especially American people, truly believed that economic system could be improved not by the government but by several individuals. These individual made decisions and chose the programs, according to which industrialization could reach its high points. This is why American preference to Social Darwinism was quite clear.
In general, the end of the 19th century made the Americans take considerable steps and choose the idea of Social Darwinism as the major one. The process of industrialization, the outcomes of the Civil War, and the desire to take leading positions only – all those issues encouraged many Americans to believe in power of competitions and be ready to fight and demonstrate the best potential only.