Social Darwinism most heavily affected the US government's relationship to big business during the late 1800s, coined by Mark Twain as "the Gilded Age." The theory affected this relationship by convincing (or allowing politicians to convince themselves) that only the strongest will survive and thus the government operated under a <em>laissez-faire </em>system (French for "hands off"). The government felt it should not regulate or weigh in on business issues and instead let businesses conduct affairs amongst themselves; however, this led to the creation of large monopolies, the formation of a moneyed elite still with us today, and the creation of the now huge wealth gap between the richest and poorest Americans.
Federalism is a system of government in which entities such as states or provinces share power with a national government.
The Carbonari (charcoal burners) were groups of secret revolutionary societies founded in early 19th-century Italy. The Italian Carbonari may have further influenced other revolutionary groups in Spain, France, Portugal and possibly Russia
The creation of the Federalist Party, that favored business, a strong government and a lax interpretation of the Constitution, and the Democratic-Republican Party, that wanted a society based on small farms and a weaker core government; changed the nature of politics in the US as they proposed a dichotomy when voting, since the Constitution had been silent about political parties.
