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a document that King John of England agreed to in 1215 under pressure from his barons. -
Christopher Columbus was an Italian explorer and navigator who completed four Spanish-based voyages across the Atlantic Ocean sponsored by the Catholic Monarchs, opening the way for the widespread European exploration and colonization of the Americas. -
Jamestown was the first permanent English settlement in North America, established on May 14, 1607, by the Virginia Company -
A document signed by 41 male passengers on the Mayflower, establishing a "civil body politic" for the Plymouth Colony in 1620. -
Issued by King George III, was a British policy that prohibited colonists from settling west of the Appalachian Mountains. -
The Sugar Act was a British law passed in 1764 to raise revenue from the American colonies following the Seven Years' War. It lowered the tax on foreign molasses but enforced the tax more strictly, while also increasing duties on other goods like coffee and wine, and imposing new enforcement measures like vice-admiralty courts. -
The Stamp Act was a 1765 British law that required a tax on all paper documents in the American colonies, including legal documents, newspapers, and playing cards. -
The American Revolution was an epic political and military struggle waged between 1765 and 1783 when 13 of Britain's North American colonies rejected its imperial rule. -
The Townshend Acts were a series of laws passed by the British Parliament in 1767 that imposed duties on goods like glass, lead, paint, paper, and tea imported into the American colonies. -
The 1773 Tea Act was a British law that gave the East India Company a monopoly on tea sales in the American colonies, allowing it to sell tea at a lower price by removing some taxes. -
The "Intolerable Acts," or Coercive Acts, were a series of British laws passed in 1774 to punish Massachusetts for the Boston Tea Party. -
The First Continental Congress was a meeting of delegates from 12 of the 13 American colonies in Philadelphia from September 5 to October 26, 1774, to respond to Britain's Intolerable Acts. -
The Second Continental Congress was a convention of delegates from the Thirteen Colonies that convened in Philadelphia in May 1775 to govern the colonies during the American Revolutionary War. -
Document written by Thomas Jefferson that declared colonies freedom from Great Britain -
The Articles of Confederation was the first constitution of the United States, serving as the nation's frame of government from 1781 to 1789. It established a weak central government with powers limited to those expressly granted by the states -
The Annapolis Convention, formally titled as a Meeting of Commissioners to Remedy Defects of the Federal Government, was a national political convention. -
Shays's Rebellion was an armed uprising in Western Massachusetts and Worcester in response to a debt crisis among the citizenry and in opposition to the state government's increased efforts to collect taxes on both individuals and their trades. -
The Constitutional Congress was a 1787 meeting where delegates replaced the weak Articles of Confederation with a new United States Constitution, establishing a federal government with three branches. -
The U.S. Constitution establishes a federal government with three branches—legislative, executive, and judicial—and includes a system of checks and balances to limit each branch's power. -
George Washington was elected unanimously as the first U.S. President in 1789 and re-elected unanimously in 1792, winning every electoral vote in both elections. There were no campaigns in the modern sense, as voters were uncertain and Washington himself was reluctant to serve but accepted out of a sense of duty. -
Freedom from unreasonable searches and seizures -
No cruel or unusual punishments -
Freedom of speech, religion, press, assembly, petition -
Rights in criminal cases (due process, double jeopardy, self-incrimination) -
Unenumerated rights retained by the people -
Right to bear arms -
Right to a fair and speedy trial -
Powers not given to the federal government are reserved to the states or people -
No quartering of soldiers -
Right to trial by jury in civil cases -
Limits lawsuits against states -
Revises presidential election procedures (President and VP run together) -
Abolition of slavery -
Citizenship, due process, and equal protection -
Right to vote cannot be denied by race -
Federal income tax authorized -
Direct election of Senators -
Prohibition of alcohol (Repealed by 21st) -
Women's right to vote -
Dual federalism is a political system where the federal and state governments are considered co-equal, each sovereign within its own distinct sphere of power. -
Terms of President and Congress; "Lame Duck" amendment -
Repeal of Prohibition (18th Amendment) -
Two-term limit for Presidents -
Electoral votes for Washington D.C. -
Abolition of poll taxes -
Presidential succession and disability procedures -
Voting age lowered to 18 -
Limits on Congressional pay increases (Originally proposed in 1789, but took over 200 years to be ratified.)