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Jan 1, 1215
Magna Carta
The Magna Carta is a great charter in which King John of England, was forced into signing the Magna Carta which limited the power he held as king. The magna Carta is important to America, Because it has influenced United States Constitution, and the Bill of Rights. -
Mayflower compact Signed
The Mayflower Compact was the first governing document of Plymouth Colony. It was written by the colonists, later together known to history as the Pilgrims, who crossed the Atlantic aboard the Mayflower. Almost half of the colonists were part of a separatist group seeking the freedom to practice Christianity according to their own determination and not the will of the English Church It was signed on May 11, 1620 -
New england Confederation Approved
New England Confederation was anorganization of four American colonies. In 1643 delegates from Massachusetts, Connecticut, New Haven, and Plymouth met to solve trade, boundary, and religious disputes and to form a common defense against the French, Dutch, and Indians. They drew up articles of agreement and established a directorate of eight commissioners. The confederation was weakened by its advisory status and by the 1665 merger of Connecticut and New Haven. -
Parliment Established
The Parliament is the name given to the Long Parliament after Pride's Purge of December 1648 in which those MPs who sought a negotiated settlement with King Charles I were forcibly expelled by the New Model Army. Theparliment regarded itself as the lawful Parliament of the Commonwealth of England but the derisive name first used widely in 1660 became its enduring nickname after the Restoration. -
Thomas Hobbes- Leviathan
To keep society going with peace and confidence, then an artifice a Leviathan must be worked into the social contract. This Leviathan is the State whether in the form of an absolute monarch or a democratic parliament, it does not matter. The important point is that the State will be given a monopoly on violence and absolute authority. In return, the State promises to exercise its absolute power to maintain a state of peace (by punishing deviants, etc.) . -
John Locke- Two Treatises of goverement
Two Treatises is divided into the First Treatise and the Second Treatise. The original title of the Second Treatise appears to have been simply Book 2corresponding to the title of the First Treatise, Book 2 fore publication, however, Locke gave it greater prominence by inserting a separate title page: An Essay Concerning the True Original, Extent and End of Civil Government The First Treatise is focused on the refutation of Sir Robert Filmer, in particular his Patriarch. -
English bill of rights established
The Bill of Rights is an act of the Parliament of England, whose title is An Act Declaring the Rights and Liberties of the Subject and Settling the Succession of the Crown. It is often called the English Bill of Rights. The Bill of Rights was passed by Parliament in December 1689.It was a re-statement in statutory form of the Declaration of Right presented by the Convention Parliament in march 1689. -
Iroquois Confederation
The Iroquois (pronounced /ˈɪrəkwɔɪ/), also known as the Haudenosaunee or the "People of the Longhouse", are an association of several tribes of indigenous people of North America. After the Iroquoian-speaking peoples coalesced as distinct tribes, based mostly in present-day upstate New York, in the 16th century or earlier they came together in an association known today as the Iroquois League, or the "League of Peace and Power". The original Iroquois League was often known as the Five Nations -
Baron De Montesque- on the spirit of law
The Spirit of the Laws (French: L'esprit des lois) is a treatise on political theory first published anonymously by Charles de Secondat, Baron de Montesquieu in 1748 with the help of Claudine Guérin de Tencin. Originally published anonymously partly because Montesquieu's works were subject to censorship, its influence outside of France was aided by its rapid translation into other languages. In 1750 Thomas Nugent published the first English translation. -
Adopted Albany plan of union
The Albany plan is important in several ways. Ben Franklin anticipated many of the problems that would help the government it was created after independence, also helped finance, dealing with the Indian tribes, control of commerce, and defense. In fact, it contains the seeds of true union, and many of these ideas would be revived and adopted in Many U.S documents. -
Colonial Legislature
The American colonies existed independent of Great Britain in many ways. The colonial legislatures had a great deal of power including the ability to muster troops, levy taxes and pass laws. They became accustomed to these perogatives and were unwilling to relinquish these rights when Great Britain decided to return to the scene. The colonial legislature were on the path to being great leaders. -
Written Constitution
A written constitution is a formal document defining the nature of the constitutional settlement, the rules that govern the political system and the rights of citizens and governments in a codified form. Magna Carta was followed by the Bill of Rights 1689, which extended the power of Parliament, and then by the Reform Act 1832, which began the process of democratising British politics -
Jean Jacwue Rousseau - the social contract
The Social Contract, Or Principles of Political Right (Du contrat social ou Principes du droit politique) (1762) by Jean-Jacques Rousseau, is the book in which Rousseau theorized about the best way in which to set up a political community in the face of the problems of commercial society which he had already identified in his Discourse on Inequality (1754). -
Sir John Blackstone- Commentaries on the law of England
The common law of England has relied on precedent more than statute and codifications and has been far less amenable than the civil law, developed from the Roman law, to the needs of a treatise. The Commentaries were influential largely because they were in fact readable, and because they met a need. The work is as much an apologia for the legal system of the time as it is an explanation; even when the law was obscure, Blackstone sought to make it seem rational and the way things used to be, -
First continental Congress Meets
The First Continental Congress was a convention of delegates from twelve of the thirteen North American colonies that met on September 1, 1774, at Carpenters' Hall in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, early in the American Revolution. Called in response to the passage of the Coercive Acts (also known as Intolerable Acts by the Colonial Americans) by the British Parliament. -
Second Continental Congress meets
The Second Continental Congress was a convention of delegates from the Thirteen Colonies that met beginning on May 10, 1775, in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, soon after warfare in the American Revolutionary War had begun. It succeeded the First Continental Congress, which met briefly during 1774, also in Philadelphia. The second Congress managed the colonial war effort, and moved fast towards independence, adopting the United States Declaration of Independence on July 4th, 1776. -
Declaration of Independence signed
The Declaration of Independence is a statement adopted by the Continental Congress on July 4, 1776, which announced that the thirteen American colonies then at war with Great Britain were now independent states, and thus no longer a part of the British Empire. Written by Thomas Jefferson, the Declaration is a formal explanation of why Congress had voted on July 2 to declare independence from Great Britain, more than a year after the outbreak of the American Revolutionary war. -
Common Law
Common law, also known as case law, is law developed by judges through decisions of courts and similar tribunals rather than through legislative statutes or executive branch action. A "common law system" is a legal system that gives great precedential weight to common law, on the principle that it is unfair to treat similar facts differently on different occasions. The body of precedent is called "common law" and it binds future decisions. In cases where the parties disagree on what the la -
Enlightenment
The Age of Enlightenment is the era in Western philosophy and intellectual, scientific, and cultural life, centered upon the 18th century, in which reason was advocated as the primary source for legitimacy and authority. Developing simultaneously in France, Great Britain, Germany, the Netherlands, Italy, Spain, the American colonies, and Portugal, the movement was buoyed by Atlantic Revolutions, especially the success of the American Revolution, in breaking free of the British Empire. -
Articles of the confederation
The representatives of the thirteen states agree to create a confederacy called the United States of America, in which each state maintains its own sovereignty and all rights to govern, except those rights specifically granted to Congress. -
Constitutional Convention Meets
Twelve of the thirteen colonies appointed delegates to the convention.The Convention, however, got off to a slow start. Several days after the Convention was scheduled to begin, a sufficient number to form a meeting was finally assembled on May 25, 1787. On that day, twenty-nine delegates from nine states were present at Independence Hall in Philadelphia. At various points throughout the Convention, fifty-five of the more than seventy appointed delegates attended the convention. -
ratification of the constitution
The ratification, of the Constitution took place between September of 1787 and July of 1788. The Federal Convention, which had drafted the Constitution between May and September 1787, had no authority to impose it on the American people. Article VII of the Constitution and resolutions adopted by the convention on September 17, 1787, detailed a four-stage ratification process: submission of the Constitution to the Confederation Congress. -
Seperation of powers
Separation of powers is the political doctrine according to which the legislative, executive, and judicial branches of government are kept distinct in order to prevent abuse of power. This U.S. form of separation of powers is associated with a system of checks and balances.During the Age of Enlightenment, philosophers such as James Harrington advocated the principle in their writings, whereas others, such as Thomas Hobbes, strongly opposed it. Montesquieu was one of the foremost supporters. -
Bill of rights
During the debates on the adoption of the Constitution, its opponents repeatedly charged that the Constitution as drafted would open the way to tyranny by the central government. Fresh in their minds was the memory of the British violation of civil rights before and during the Revolution. They demanded a "bill of rights" that would spell out the immunities of individual citizens.
