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Darwinism is simply Charles Darwin's theory of how organisms evolved to be in their present state. Charles Darwin collected a massive amount of evidence and used these to prove Darwinism in his book The Origin of Species.
Darwin was already aware of the presence of fossil evidence though he was unsure of the ages of these fossils. However, Lord Kelvin demonstrated that the Earth and the sun were younger than what Darwinism propounded, hence not leaving enough time for Evolution to take place though Kelvin's theory proved erroneous because he assumed that the sun delivered heat by combustion (rather than nuclear fusion).
Darwin proved by Evolution things which Creation could only assume happened. For example, the presence of local races could easily be explained by Evolution, which however, the Creation theory could only explain by numerous assumptions that the "foci of Creation" is dotted around the Earth's surface.
One important element of Evolution is the theory of Natural Selection, which they proposed to be the reason behind the random survival of hereditary characteristics of the organisms. This theory suggests that organisms pick up beneficial characteristics throughout their lifetime.
You can find Charles Darwin's autobiography at http://hjem.get2net.dk/Paleontology/text/dautobio.html.