Thomas Malthus was an economist who influenced Darwin's developing theory of evolution. Malthus observed that the birthrate among humans exceeded the death rate. If this trend continued, soon there would not be enough resources to support human population growth. He reasoned that the only things capable of stopping human population growth were famine, disease, and war. Darwin applied this thinking to animals and plants as well, noting that far more offspring were produced than survived to a reproductive age. 2. How did Charles Darwin build on the work of Thomas Malthus to develop the idea of evolution by natural selection

The work of Thomas Malthus help and influence Darwin Thomas to refine his theory of natural selection by explaining that there is a meaningful competition between the individuals of a particular species or population for a specific resource such as food or shelter.

Thomas Malthus predicted that the human population is reproducing faster than its death race and will lead to growing faster than space and food supplies needed to sustain it. Darwin concluded further that If all offspring of almost any species survived for several generations, they would overrun the world and therefore a healthy and meaningful competition is present and to overcome this natural selection takes place as the individual adapt will ultimately survive.