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Jun 15, 1215
Magna Carta is drafted.
Made by 13th century barons to protect their rights and property against the King. It also listed that everyone should have free trials. No one should be impriosned or outlawed except by jugdment of his peers. -
Petition of Right
A major English constitutional document that sets out specific liberties of the subject that the king is prohibited from infringing. Petition contains restrictions on non-Parliamentary taxation. It also includes forced billeting of soldiers, imprisonment without cause, and restricts the use of martial law. -
English Bill of Rights
It lays down limits on the powers of sovereign and sets out the rights of Parliament and rules for freedom of speech in Parliament. the requirement to regular elections to Parliament and the right to petition the monarch without fear of retribution. It reestablished the liberty of Protestants to have arms for their defence within the rule of law. -
Stamp act
An act for granting and applying certain stamp duties, and other duties, in the British colonies and plantations in America. expences of defending, protecting, and securing the same; and for amending such parts of the several acts of parliament relating to the trade and revenues of the said colonies and plantations. -
Townshend Duties
The Townshend duties applied taxes to paper, paint, lead, glass, and tea imported by the colonies. Charles Townshend promised that he would tax the Americans to make up the difference. The first of the Townshend Act was the Revenue Act of 1767. Colonist hated this. The opposition to the Townshend Revenue Act was powerful and effective. -
Boston Massacre
The killing of five colonists by British regulars. It was the growing tension in the American colonies that had been growing since Royal troops first appeared in Massachusetts in October 1768 to enforce the heavy tax burden imposed by the Townshend Acts. -
Tea Act
An act to allow a drawback of the duties of customs on the exportation of tea to any of the Kings colonies or plantations in America. To increase the deposit on bohea tea to be sold at the East India Company's sales and to empower the commissioners of the treasury to grant licenses to the East India Company to export tea duty-free -
1st Continental Congress
Convention of delegates from 12 British North American colonies. Met in Carpenters' Hall in Philedelphia in the early American Revolution. Attended by 56 members appointed by legislatures of 12 colonies. Met briefly to consider options including econmic boycott of British trade; rights and grievances; and Kings George's grievances. -
2nd Continental Congress
It succeeded the First Continental Congress. Many of the same 56 delegates who attended the first meeting were in attendance at the second. It managed the colonial war effort, and moved towards independence, adopting the United States Declaration of Independence. By making bigger armies, better strategy, appointing diplomats, and making formal treaties, the Congress acted as the de facto national government of what became the United States. -
Common Sense was published
A pamphlet written by Thomas Paine. First was printed anonymously on January 10, 1776. Common Sense told the American colonists with an argument for freedom from British rule at a time when gaining independence was still undecided. He wrote the pamphlet in a style were common people were able to understand. Also relied on on bible refrences to make his case. -
Declaration of Independence
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 to be Independent states. Meaning no longer being apart of the British empire. This document was published during the American Revolution.