Publisher's Synopsis
Focusing on Charles Darwin, this book is part of a series which looks at explorers whose discoveries helped to change the world, and which together chart 1000 years of seafaring, exploration and discovery. Each book describes the background to these amazing journeys, focusing on the economic pressures and technological advances which combined to make them possible. The books also examine the native societies that the explorers encountered, and assess the long-term impact of their discoveries at home and abroad.;One morning in 1831, Charles Darwin found a letter awaiting him that was to change his life. The letter offered him a place as a naturalist aboard the survey ship "HMS Beagle" on its round-the-world voyage. Five years later, loaded with the specimens that Darwin had collected, the "Beagle" returned to England. For the next 20 years Darwin struggled in secret as he developed a theory of evolution. When it was finally published in his book "The Origin of Species", it caused a storm of controversy. However, Darwin's theory was soon to transform the way that people saw themselves, and all life on earth.
