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Jan 1, 1215
Magna Carta
LinkMagna Carta also called Magna Carta Libertatum or The Great Charter of the Liberties of England. Magna Carta was the first document forced onto a King of England by a group of his subjects, the feudal barons, in an attempt to limit his powers by law and protect their privileges. Barons of King John of England signed the Magna Carta and it was signed in a meadow at Runnymede in Egham, Surrey, South England ( between Windsor and Staines). -
Mayflower Compact
The Mayflower Compact was the first governing document of Plymouth Colony. It was written by the Separatists, also known as the "Saints", fleeing from religious persecution by King James of Great Britain. The purpose of this document is to proclaim allegiance to the king. -
Petition of Rights
The Petition of Right is a major English constitutional document that sets out specific liberties of the subject that the king is prohibited from infringing. No person should be forced to provide a gift, loan or tax without an Act of Parliament, that no free individual should be imprisoned or detained unless a cause has been shown, and that soldiers or members of the Royal Navy should not be billeted in private houses without the free consent of the owner. Charles I signed the document. -
English Bill of Rights
LinkThe Bill of Rights is an Act of the Parliament of England. The King and Queen William and Mary signed the Bill of Rights. The rights that were given to the people are, no royal interference with the law, no taxation by Royal Prerogative, freedom to petition the monarch without fear of retribution, no standing army may be maintained during a time of peace without the consent of parliament. -
Albany Plan of Union
VideoThe Plan represented an early attempt to form a union of the colonies "under one government as far as might be necessary for defense and other general important purposes."This plan was suggested by Benjamin Franklin. No it never happened. Join or Die. -
French and Indian War
The war was fought primarily between the colonies of British America and New France, with both sides supported by military units from their parent countries of Great Britain and France. Some major battles are Battle of Fort Necessity, Battle of River Monongahela, Battle of lake George. The damages left from the war caused Britain to heavily tax the colonies, which caused tension. Now they began to enforce their mercantilist policies, which led to animosity between the English and their colonies. -
King George III Takes Power
After the French and Indian War, King George III saw the colonies as a way to pay for the war and used stamp acts and tarrifs to get large amounts of money to pay for the war, but this made the colonies outraged and made King George III look like a tyrant. -
Stamp Act
The Stamp Act imposed a direct tax by the British Parliament specifically on the colonies of British America, and it required that many printed materials in the colonies be produced on stamped paper produced in London, carrying an embossed revenue stamp. Ship's papers, legal documents, licenses, newspapers, other publications, and even playing cards were taxed. The colonial leaders rose in armed rebellion against the British. -
Boston Massacre
The Boston Massacre, known as the Incident on King Street by the British, was an incident on March 5, 1770, in which British Army soldiers killed five civilian men and injured six others. The Townshend Acts and Acts of Taxation. -
Boston Tea Party
The Boston Tea Party (initially referred to by John Adams as simply "the Destruction of the Tea in Boston"[2]) was a political protest by the Sons of Liberty in Boston, a city in the British colony of Massachusetts, against the tax policy of the British government and the East India Company that controlled all the tea imported into the colonies. They destroyed the tea by throwing it into the Boston Harbor. -
Intolerable Acts
To reverse the trend of colonial resistance to parliamentary authority that had begun with the 1765 Stamp Act. The British closed all of Boston's Ports until the colonist's payed for the tea they destroyed during the Boston Tea Party. British restricted colonist to have government/committees/town meetings. British allowed them selves to house troops where ever, when ever, in the colonist's homes. -
First Continental Congress
The Stamp Act Congress and Second Continental Congress. A declaration that stated the rights of the colonists and halt the trade with Britain. It took place at Carpenters' Hall in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. -
Second Continental Congress
The Second Continental Congress was a convention of delegates from the thirteen colonies that started meeting in the summer of 1775, in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, soon after warfare in the American Revolutionary War had begun.Declaring America's independence from Britain. George Washington, Thomas Jefferson,John Adams, and Benjamin Franklin. -
Lexington and Concord
The Battles of Lexington and Concord were the first military engagements of the American Revolutionary War. The British won. Colonel Smith, Major Pitcairne, Lord Percy, Paul Revere, William Dawes, Barrett, Buttrick, and Robinson. Paul Revere and other riders sounded the alarm, and colonial militiamen began mobilizing to intercept the Redcoat column. -
Declaration of Independence
The Declaration of Independence is a statement adopted by the Continental Congress on July 4, 1776, 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—the United States of America. -
Articles of Confederation
The Articles of Confederation, formally the Articles of Confederation and Perpetual Union, was an agreement among the 13 founding states that established the United States of America as a confederation of sovereign states and served as its first constitution. John Hanson would be the first president under the Articles of Confederation. -
Start of Constitutional Convention
The Constitutional Convention took place from May 25 to September 17, 1787, in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, to address problems in governing the United States of America, which had been operating under the Articles of Confederation following independence from Great Britain.
