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Sep 19, 1215
Magna Carta
The first document forced onto a king of England by his subjects, also known as feudal barons. The attempt was to limit his powers by laww and protect what little privelages they had.
This was imporatnt because it led to the rule of Constitutional Law in the English speaking world. Also was used in America to create a local system. -
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Jamestown settled
first settlement of the Virginia Colony, founded in 1607, and served as the capital of Virginia until 1699, when the seat of government was moved to Williamsburg. This article covers the history of the fort and town at Jamestown, as well as colony-wide trends resulting from and affecting the town during the time period in which it was capital. -
Mayflower Compact
The very first governing document of Plymouth Colony fleeing from religious persecution by King James of Great Britain. It was a legal instrument that bound the Pilgrims together when they arrived in New England. -
Petition of Rights
A statement of civil liberties sent by the English Parliament to Charles I. Refusal by parliament to finance the king's unpopular foreign policy had caused his government to exact forced loans and to quarter troops in subjects' houses as an economy measure -
English Bill of Rights
A restatement in stationary form of the Declaration of Rights presented by the Convention Parliament to William and Mary, inviting them to become joint sovereigns of England -
Albany Plan of Union
The Albany Plan of Union was a plan to place the British North American colonies under a more centralized government. The plan was adopted by representatives from seven of the British North American colonies. Although never carried out, it was the first important plan to conceive of the colonies as a collective whole united under one government. -
Stamp Act
Passed by the British Parliament, the new tax was imposed on all American colonists and required them to pay a tax on every piece of printed paper they used. Ship's papers, legal documents, licenses, newspapers, other publications, and even playing cards were taxed. The money collected was to be used to help pay the costs of defending and protecting the American frontier -
Boston Massacre
Bristish Soldiers killed 5 civilians and 6 other men were injured due to atempt enforcement on unpopular parlimentary legislation. -
Boston Tea Party
in Boston Massachusetes there was a political protest by the sons of libetry against the tax policy of the British Government and the East India company that controlled all the tea imported into the colonies. -
Intolerable Acts
a series of punitive laws passed by the british parliment relating to Massachusettes after the Boston Tea Party which stripped it of self-governement and historic rights. -
First Continental Congress
The first Continental Congress met in Carpenter's Hall in Philadelphia. All of the colonies except Georgia sent delegates. These were elected by the people, by the colonial legislatures. The colonies presented there were united in a determination to show a combined authority to Great Britain. -
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American Revolution Begins *BANG BANG*
also known as the American Revolutionary War and the U.S. War of Independence. The conflict arose from growing tensions between residents of Great Britain's 13 North American colonies and the colonial government, which represented the British crown. For more than a decade before the outbreak of the American Revolution in 1775, tensions had been building between colonists and the British authorities. Attempts by the British government to raise revenue by taxing the colonies. -
Second Continental Congress
The Second Continental Congress was one of the most important government meetings in the history of the United States of America. It decided some of the most important ideas that the colonists fought for in the Revolutionary War, because, at that meeting, members of the Second Continental Congress wrote and signed The Declaration of Independence. -
Declaration of Independence
A statement adopted by the Continental Congress which announced that the 13 American colonies, then at war with Great Britain, regarded themselves as independent states, and no longer a part of the British Empire. Instead they formed a union that would become a new nation known as the United States. -
Articles of Confederation
The 13 representatives agreed to make and create a confederacy called the United States. This is important because it helped draft the Constitution and helped states reach concessions and agreement. The 13 colonies became legal and identified, -
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Shay's Rebellion
The farmers in western Massachusetts organized their resistance in ways similar to the American Revolutionary struggle. They called special meetings of the people to protest conditions and agree on a coordinated protest. This led the rebels to close courts by force in the fall of 1786 and to liberate imprisoned debtors from jail.Farmers from western Massachusetts followed petitions for economic relief with insurgency in the fall of 1786. A group of protestors, led by Revolutionary War veteran Da -
Connecticut Compromise
an agreement that large and small states reached that in part defined the legislative structure and representation that each state would have under the United States Constitution. It retained the bicameral legislature along with proportional representation in the lower house, but required the upper house to be weighted equally between the states. Each state would have two representatives in the upper house. -
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Philadelphia Convention
To address problems in governing the United States of America, which had been operating under the Articles of Confederation following independence from Great Britain. Although the Convention was intended to revise the Articles of Confederation, the intention from the outset of many of its proponents was to create a new government rather than fix the existing one. -
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Constitution Convection
This was to address the problems of the weak central government that existed under the Articles of Confederation. The United States Constitution that emerged from the convention established a federal government with more specific powers, including those related to conducting relations with foreign governments.
