Hot answers tagged political-history
20
There was a separation between the noble french and the vulgar Old English.
Or as I wrote in my comment: Who cares about the language of peasants
I found a nice source for this assumption
Middle English (1100-circa 1500 AD): After William the Conqueror, the Duke of Normandy, invaded and conquered England in 1066 AD with his armies and became king, he ...
17
There are two problems with the way the discussion is phrased, which I will try to summarize below.
Terminology problems. Some are unfortunate byproduct of social sciences being an imprecise (to put it politely) field of study, some are byproduct of cultural/historical drifts and differences, and some are a product of deliberate misinformation by "left ...
10
I doubt this is to do with a civil war, but instead to do with the voting system. This is Duverger's law. The USA & the UK use a first past the post system, as opposed to a proportional representation system, and under that, the system tends to 2 parties.
The UK is in Europe, has had a civil war (though is irrelevant now), and has a 2 party system ...
10
It actually happens fairly often. The last was in 2004, where a Minnesota elector (who would not own up to it) voted for Edwards (the VP candidate) instead of John Kerry. The assumption has been that this was done out of incompetence rather than malice.
The cycle before that, the DC elector refused to vote, in protest to DC having no congressional ...
9
The Nazi Party destroyed the political apparatus of the working class, broke the trade union movement, and handed the economy over to German capitalist monopolies. "Socialism" in the mind of the NSDAP involved either the SA's street fighting fantasy of a German nation recast in the image of the right wing worker; or, the NSDAP's central apparatus' ...
9
There may not be enough data to get any meaningful answers, but it's worth remembering that the U.S. has had a two-party system for most of its history, including before the civil war (Federalists vs. Anti-Federalists, Federalists vs. Democratic-Republicans, Democrats vs. Whigs). As for other countries, remember that almost no country has a system as strong ...
8
The Republican Party was always, since its founding, a "pro-business" party.
The party was formed from the remnants of the previous pro-business party, the Whig Party, when that party split over the expansion of slavery into the territories in the early 1850's.
The two platforms are not as disjoint as they may at first appear. Northern business interests ...
8
The most obvious examples would be three members of the Founding Fathers who served in roles for the British government.
George Washington served as both a member of the Virginia House of Burgesses which dealt directly with the royal appointed Governor of Virginia, and as a member of the British army.
John Adams was briefly a member of the Massachusetts ...
7
That's interesting. The argument I tend to hear these days is that the most liberal mainstream Democrat today is actually further to the right than Richard Nixon was. The argument there is that for the last 30 years Republicans have been championing views to the right of center, and Democrats have been trying to move to the center. This creates a new center ...
7
Many 17th century settlers in what is now the United States were indeed indigent or criminals, but not all, and we should understand the "criminality" in question.
Many English farmers lost their livelihood due to enclosure, which had reached new heights during the Tudor years. Some ran themselves into debt and faced debtors' prison (indeed, Georgia Colony ...
7
"Nationalism" as a term in its modern definition
Regularly being referred to as an author of remarkable influence on the terms nationality and nationalism in their modern recipation is Johann Gottfried Herder (1744-1803). In his work Ideas for the Philosophy of History of Humanity (1784–91), he is at least one of the first to claim that human societies ...
7
This is not a complete answer because your question is actually a huge topic with many possible approaches.
Birth is ethnicity
My personal view on this is that, long ago, at a time when the nomadic way of life was the rule, nations did not relate to geographical origin but rather to birth.
The etymology of various IE languages is very clear on this:
...
6
I'm going to do a total long shot here, and provide a comparison that seems to fit all 4 points. However, as a larger picture, it's not necessarily a very good parallel since very little practical advice can be gleaned from it as far as what needs to be done.
USSR in the late 1980s till 1991 fits:
Decentralization forces driven by existence of ...
6
Yes.
The Latin League was founded in 7th century B.C. by a set of Italian states. The capital city was Alba Longa.
Delian League was founded in 5th century BC
Peloponnesian League was formed between 6 and 4th centuries BC
League of Corinth was formed during the winter of 338 BC/337 BC
Achaean League existed between 280 BC and 146 BC
In central, barbarian, ...
6
The reasons are so numerous and overlapping.
There would have been very little to gain from establishing dominance of French culture. People did not form sympathies or loyalties based on language or culture – that development had to wait for another 700 years or so.
It would have been completely impossible to enforce such a ban. There were no such ...
6
The prototypical example I was thinking of when I wrote this was the Weimar Republic. (Decidedely not a developing country, but a very well-studied example of the principle). They got kind of a double-whammy at the end of WWI. The previous government under Kaiser Wilhelm had financed most of the war, acting on the assumption that reparations from the losers ...
6
You essentially have it correct. The Constitution says:
No person except a natural born Citizen, or a Citizen of the United
States, at the time of the Adoption of this Constitution, shall be
eligible to the Office of President; neither shall any Person be
eligible to that Office who shall not have attained to the Age of
thirty-five Years, and ...
6
I think the legislatures in many countries have the same structure. A quite distant example is the Supreme Council of the USSR which also had two chambers, the Council of the Union and the Council of the Nationalities. The former was elected by the population at rate of 1 deputy per 300000 people while the later represented the constituent republics.
I ...
5
The earliest political body designed to harness the power of multiple independent sovereign states for trade and military purposes we have a historical record for appears to be the Awussa League.
The Assuwa League was an alliance of city-states and kingdoms formed to oppose Hittite influence in Anatolia, dating to just before the 14th century BCE.
5
If you'll allow me to be a little crass here, I think the meat of your question boils down to, "This looks racial. Is it?" I'm gonna say, No.
I think it would be more comprehensive (and perhaps accurate) to say the more successful former colonies are mostly populated by direct descendents of the colonizers, rather than the indigenous population at the time ...
4
The "Nazi" Party STARTED OUT as the National Socialist German Workers Party, with a left-leaning, socialist bent.
That is, until it enrolled "Member Number 7," aka Adolf Hitler, who had other ideas.
A World War I veteran, Hitler figured out the the "Dolchstoss" legend, the idea that Germany had been winning World War I until it was "stabbed in the back" by ...
4
The same reason the "Democratic People's Republic of (North) Korea" is a democratic republic... It wasn't. There was a time when socialism really seemed like the way forward, tempering free enterprise with thoughtful regulation and investing workers in the means of production. So non-socialists like the Nazis and Communists called themselves socialist to ...
4
You are confusing money supply with inflation. Increasing the money supply can sometimes (but not always) increase prices right along with it - this is called inflation. Inflation devalues the currency, and if it devalues too much, smaller denominations, like the penny in the US, becomes an impractical medium of exchange.
Increasing the money supply is a ...
4
You are referring to the 1999 Seattle WTO Ministerial Conference Protests.
It is historically notable for breaking ground in two respects:
1) The way it was organized by the Direct Action Network (pdf) - their organization techniques allowed very different political allies to effectively communicate and collaborate with each other. This was more in-person ...
4
By January 1964, public opinion had started to change - 68% now supported a meaningful civil rights act. President Johnson signed the 1964 Civil Rights Act in July of that year.
I'm not quite sure how to answer your first question; the syntax is very difficult, and I have no idea how to measure how many people did not oppose a measure. What I can ...
3
In most of the European middle ages the rulers/aristocracy were completely detached from the peasants.
They were really just like a set of management consultants brought in to run a company. The Normans had no real interest in dominating the English—so long as rents got paid and nobody revolted, who cared what language the peasants spoke.
In many European ...
3
Inflation is perceived as good for the debtor; the value/denomination of the debt remains constant while the value of the currency in which the debt is repaid is diminished. Since there is more money in circulation, there is more money with which to repay the debt.
What are the advantages? Inflation can ease the debt load. Rhode Island chose this as a ...
3
From my understanding of Soviet history, it is unlikely that his role in Stalinist purges played any role in his removal. Few of the individuals who ran afoul of the Great Purges in the 1930's returned to political power (or an active social life/living life). At least not those who were implicated enough so as to hold a grudge. Additionally given the ...
3
Jefferson and Adams' policy debates over Revolutionary War debts and relations with France and Great Britain became very public and personal throughout Washington's presidency and into the Presidential election of 1796. Their surrogates circulated vicious personal attacks during Adams' Presidency, while Jefferson served as Vice President. Their followings ...
3
Most recently the borders were mandated by the United Nations after WWII. A two state solution was proposed and essentially forced on the Israelis and Palestinians. Since then there has been near constant fighting and the borders have moved as a result of successful military campaigns by Israel most notably the Six-Day War.
The area has been in a near ...
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