populism

Examples of populism in the following topics:

• Disease in the New World

  • Rampant epidemic disease, to which the natives had no prior exposure or resistance, was one of the main causes of the massive population decline of the indigenous populations of the Americas.
  • Disease killed off a sizable portion of the populations before European observations and written records were made.
  • The most vulnerable groups were those with a relatively small population and little built-up immunity.
  • While disease swept swiftly through the densely populated empires of Mesoamerica, the more scattered populations of North America saw a slower spread.
  • In Peru, the indigenous pre-contact population of approximately 6.5 million declined to 1 million by the early 17th century.

• The Rise of the City

  • The industrialization of America led to incredible population growth in urban centers; by 1900, 40 percent of Americans lived in cities.
  • In 1870, there were only two American cities with a population of more than 500,000, but by 1900, there were six.
  • These large city populations caused crime rates to rise, and disease to spread rapidly.
  • Not only did urbanization cause cities to grow in population, but it also caused buildings to grow higher and larger.

• A Growing Population and Expanding Economy in British North America

  • Philadelphia became the center of the colonies with the largest population, which was very diverse, by the end of the colonial period.
  • Georgia was established as a colony populated with debtors who would otherwise have been imprisoned according to standard British practice.
  • In the British Colonies, by 1776, about 85% of the white population was of English, Irish, Scottish, or Welsh descent, with 9% of German origin and 4% Dutch.
  • These populations continued to grow at a rapid rate throughout the 18th century, primarily because of high birth rates and relatively low death rates .

• The Demographics of the Middle Colonies

  • They were erroneously labeled the Pennsylvania Dutch and comprised one-third of the population by the time of the American Revolution.
  • By 1780, about 17% of the population in New York were descendants of Dutch settlers; the rest were mostly English with a wide mixture of other Europeans and about 6% Africans.
  • New Jersey and Delaware had a majority British population as well, with 7–11% German-descended colonists, about a 6% African population, and a small contingent of Swedish descendants.
  • Estimated population in the Colonies as of the year 1700.
  • The Middle Colonies held a population of about 65,000, compared to New England's 120,000 and the Southern Colonies' 77,000.

• A Diverse Population

  • These populations continued to grow at a rapid rate throughout the 18th century primarily because of high birth rates and relatively low death rates.
  • Unlike New England, the mid-Atlantic region gained much of its population from new immigration.
  • By 1775, Germans constituted about one-third of the population of the state.
  • However, with extremely cheap land prices, many Protestants moved to Maryland and soon became a majority of the population.
  • Current and former indentured servants made up as much as 80% of the population in Virginia in the 17th century.

• The Virginia and New Jersey Plans

  • The New Jersey plan was created in response to the Virginia Plan, which called for two houses of Congress both elected with apportionment according to population.
  • The less populous states were adamantly opposed to giving most of the control of the national government to the more populous states and so proposed an alternative plan that would have kept the one-vote-per-state representation from the Articles of Confederation under one legislative body.
  • One contentious issue facing the convention was the manner in which large and small states would be represented in the legislature, whether by equal representation for each state, regardless of its size and population, or proportionate to population, with larger states having more votes than less-populous states.
  • Each of the states would be represented in proportion to their population.
  • States with a large population, like Virginia, would thus have more representatives than smaller states.

• Demographic Shifts

  • By the 1990s, the United States had experienced a population explosion, with the population doubling since 1932.
  • The U.S. population grew to over 250 million by 1990.
  • Population had nearly quadrupled in a century, and it was more than double the population during the first election of Franklin Roosevelt in 1932.
  • Hispanic population grew five times as fast as the rest of the population and began to emerge as a stronger political force.

• Conclusion: Populism Resurgent

  • The shift from Presidents Bush to Obama and the upcoming 2016 elections have seen a resurgence of populism in United States politics.
  • Populism is a political doctrine or philosophy that proposes that the rights and powers of ordinary people are exploited by a privileged elite, and supports their struggle to overcome this inequity.
  • Populism has a long and complicated history in the United States; indeed, it was populist sentiment among the white Euro-American colonists against the entrenched British royal government that fueled the American Revolution.
  • Modern U.S. politics has seen a rise in populism in recent years in both the Democratic and Republican parties, as well as other political parties.
  • Their movements coincide with a similar trend of populism in Europe.

• The Great Migration and the "Promised Land"

  • By the end of the Second Great Migration, usually considered to have occurred between 1940 and 1970, African Americans had become an urbanized population.
  • In 1910, the African American population of Detroit was 6,000.
  • By the start of the Great Depression in 1929, the city's African American population had increased to 120,000.
  • Louis, Philadelphia, Pittsburgh, Boston, Kansas City, Columbus, and New York City also saw dramatic increases in their African American populations.
  • The more established city populations tended to move to newer housing as it was developing in the outskirts.

• Native Americans in the 1490's

  • As the population expanded, a complex chiefdom level of social complexity was established.
  • Production of surplus corn and the attractions of regional chiefdoms led to rapid population concentrations in major mound-building centers.
  • The Late Mississippian period is characterized by increasing warfare, political turmoil, and population movement.
  • The population of Cahokia dispersed early in this period (1,350–1,400 C.E.), perhaps migrating to other rising political centers.
  • Scholars have theorized that drought and the collapse of maize agriculture, together with possible deforestation and overhunting by the concentrated populations, forced them to move away from major sites.